Luke 7

Luke 7:3

[a] sent unto him] A seeming difference there is in the setting down this relation of the centurion here from what we find Matt. viii. 5. There the centurion is said to come unto him, beseeching him, and saying, ver. 6; and answering, ver. 8. Here he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, and they besought him; and when Jesus was not far from his house, ver. 6, he sent friends to him, saying; and part of his speech is unreconcilable with his having come unto him himself—Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee, ver. 7—rendering a reason why he had not come in person to him. This seeming difficulty may be answered by proportion with that known saying of Aristotle, ‘Ἀ διὰ τῶν φίλων δυνατὰ ἡμῖν δυνατά ἐστι,’ Those things that are possible by our friends are possible to us;" which supposes, that those things which we do by others, we are ourselves thought to do; and so what the centurion did

ε Ap. Stobæ. p. 523. h Hær. 10. v. 30. cont. Ebion. versus finem.

Luke 7:5

For, said they, he is, though a Roman commander, a great lover of the nation and religion of the Jews, and hath expressed that by an act of special piety and favour to us, he hath built— b but instead of thy trouble of coming, give but thy command by word of mouth, and I make no doubt but that will cure my servant.

Luke 7:16

And they were all astonished at this sight of a wonderful work of God, and as it struck them with aw and dread at his presence, so did they acknowledge with thanksgiving to God, that a great— all Galilee: see note [e] on Matt. iv. the Messias expected? (see note [a] on Matt. xi.) or look we— See note [b] on Matt. xi.

Luke 7:23

See note [c] on Matt. xi. circumambient region, & wipixy.

Luke 7:27

Malachi iii. 1.

ᵇ any disciple of mine, the meanest or least of them, Matt. xi. 11, is designed to a more honourable office than he.

Luke 7:29

And when this John preached, none but the meaner people and publicans and the like received God’s message by him, or expressed their thankfulness to God, (for this mercy, proclaimed by him as a forerunner of Christ, viz., pardon upon repentance,) and they came in cheerfully to his baptism: see Matt. xi. 12.

Luke 7:30

But the Pharisees and doctors of the law, the great and the learned men, they would not repent or make themselves capable of that mercy, but rejected him, (and now reject me,) and that proffer of mercy tendered to them.

Luke 7:31

Whereupon Christ delivered this parable unto them, thereby to express most lively the Jews of that age.

³ scandalized about, or offended at me, σκανδαλισθῇ ἐν ἐμοί. ⁴ towards, cis.

Luke 7:32

Matt. xi. 16. ¹ in a strict austere course of abstinence, and your censure of him is, that he is an hypochondriac, frantic fellow.

Luke 7:34

And I on the other side observe no such abstinences, eat meats indifferently, and converse with men indifferently, and ye censure me as sharply, saying, Behold—

Luke 7:35

See note [h] on Matt. xi. ᵐ an heathen, or one that had lived in a sinful course.

Luke 7:37

[b] a sinner] Ἦτις ἦν ἁμαρτωλός, which was a sinner, here applied to the woman, may be taken in the notion wherein we find ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἐξ ἐθνῶν, Gal. ii. 15, sinners of the Gentiles, and to signify no more than a Gentile woman. Thus the word seemed to signify, ch. vi. 32 and 34, where it is said, that sinners love those that love them, that is, aliens from the law of God or Christ. (Amicos diligere omnium est, saith Tertullian, “It is common to all men to love friends,”) for which St. Matthew sets publicans, ch. v. 46, who we know are oft joined with sinners, and for their conversation with the heathen (from the necessity of their office) are looked upon as a kind of heathens, whether they were such or no, and were most of them Gentiles, as it is probable, their office being an employment under the Romans, to bring in taxes to them. But it is also true that publicans and harlots are put together, Matt. xxi. 31, and that seems to refer to the baseness and unworthiness of those two infamous callings; and then ἁμαρτωλός, sinner, as it is of affinity of signification with these, may perhaps signify one that had been a whore; and that is very reconcilable with the former conjecture, that vice or trade of prostitute whores being among the Gentiles so ordinary; and so this woman, if she were a whore, was either a Gentile also, or, because guilty of that Gentile sin, called by this common name of Gentiles, ἁμαρτωλός, a sinner. That this woman, whosoever she was, was not Mary Magdalene, is probable, first, by the no-argument on that side, but only the mention of the name of Mary in St. John, ch. xii. 3, which presently shall appear to be Martha’s and Lazarus’s sister, and that another story. Secondly, by the words in the chapter here following, ch. viii. 2, where, when it is said that Mary Magdalene was with Christ, she is described by another character, taken from that remarkable mercy wrought on her by Christ, that she had seven devils cast out of her, the very mark which is again given her, Mark xvi. 9, when it is said that Christ first appeared to her; and no other mention is made of her in any of the Gospels but only of her watching where Christ was laid after his

Luke 7:38

And as he lay along, his feet being behind him that lay next to him, she standing behind him, let fall drops of tears upon his feet, effects of sorrow and love, and stooping down wiped his feet (after that new kind of washing them) with no other towel than that of her own hair, then fell down and kissed his feet, and poured the ointment upon them, (a festival ceremony, and an expression in her of great kindness.) ¹ walled, ἰκλαύσατε. ᵃ a cruise: see note [h] on Matt. xxvi.

[h] running over] It being acknowledged that ἐκχύνομαι signifies being poured out, it will follow, that ὑπερεκχύνομαι must, by analogy with other words, signify abundantly poured out. So we may measure it by ὑπερικῶ and ὑπερπερισσεύω and ὑπεραυξάνω, and many more in the New Testament; and generally the word ὑπὲρ in composition is an αὐξητικόν, to increase and augment the signification, and so must be understood in this place; to pour out being a note of plenty, and this of being more than poured out, of very great abundance.

Luke 7:40

And Jesus knowing the thoughts of his heart resolved to take notice of them, and addressing his speech either to the Pharisee, whose name perhaps was Simon, (see note [b]) or else to Simon Peter, said, I will answer that objection of the Pharisee by a parable which will render the reason of this woman’s extraordinary expression of love, and an account why I should be far from rejecting of her. “the one of a very great, the other of a much less (but the tithe of the former) sum. ’thou bestowedst no festival expression of the ordinariest sort upon me: but she hath—

[i] perfect] What is the full meaning and grammatical construction of κατηρτισμένος ἵσται ὡς —, hath been intimated, note [c] 2 Cor. xiii. To it I here add the consentient judgment of h Epiphanius: “A disciple,” saith he, “is not above his master,” ἦτω δὲ κατηρτισμένος κατὰ πάντα ὡς ὁ μαθητὴς, ὁ διδάσκαλος αὐτοῦ, τοῦτ’ ἵστιν ἕτοιμος εἰς διωγμὸν καὶ κακολογίαν, “but let him be made perfect as his own Master was,” (of whom the apostle tells us, Heb. xi. 10, that he was to be made perfect by sufferings,) “that is, ready for persecution and evil speaking.”

Luke 7:44

[c] water for my feet] That it was the fashion of those countries in their entertainments to wash their guests’ feet before meals, is frequently mentioned in the Old Testament. And the same was of custom also among the Grecians in their more splendid extraordinary feasts, as we find in Athenæus, l. 14: Συνελθόντων εἰς τὸ δείπνον, &c., “When they come together to dinner,” τοῖς εἰσιούσι προσεφέροντο ποδόνιπτρα οἶνον δι’ ἀρωμάτων, “they bring out to the guests baths for their feet of wine and spices.”

Luke 7:45

Thou didst not entertain me at my first entering into thy house with a kiss, which is the ordinary salutation and expression of kindness: but this—

Luke 7:47

[d] for] That ὅτι signifies therefore, and not for in this place, is apparent, not only by the clear importance of the parable precedent, where he that had the greater debt forgiven is supposed to have greater love and kindness to the creditor, and not therefore forgiven because he had that love and kindness, but also by the signification of the Hebrew [2,] which is promiscuously taken for ὅτι, or διότι, for, or therefore; and so (by an observation before mentioned, note [f] Mark xiv,) according to the practice of these writers, one of these Greek words may be taken for the other, ὅτι, for, used when the sense bears διότι, therefore. And so Mark iv. 28, the same ὅτι clearly signifies διὰ τί, for what

) See Psalm cxvi. 10. 2 Cor. iv. 13. Eccles. viii. 6.