Luke 7:36

τις … τῶν φαρισαίων. This exquisite narrative is peculiar to St Luke, and well illustrates that conception of the universality and free gift of grace which predominates in his Gospel as in St Paul. To identify this Simon with Simon the Leper in Mark 14:3 is quite arbitrary. Simon was one of the commonest Jewish names. There were two Simons among the Twelve, and there are nine Simons mentioned in the New Testament alone, and twenty in Josephus. There must therefore have been thousands of Simons in Palestine, where names were few. The incident itself was one which might have happened frequently, being in close accordance with the customs of the time and country. With the uncritical attempt to identify Simon the Pharisee with Simon the Leper, there also falls to the ground the utterly improbable identification of the woman who was a sinner with Mary of Bethany. The time, the place, the circumstances, the character, the words uttered, and the results of the incident recorded in Matthew 26:7; Mark 14:3; John 12:3 are all entirely different.

ἵνα φάγῃ μετ' αὐτοῦ. Comp. Luke 16:27, ἐρωτῶ … ἵνα πέμψῃς. In Modern Greek νὰ (= ἵννα) with the subjunctive has almost displaced the infinitive. The invitation was clearly due to a patronising curiosity, if not to a worse and hostile motive. The whole manner of the Pharisee to Jesus was like his invitation, ungracious. But it was part of our Lord’s mission freely to accept the proffered hospitality of all, that He might reach every class.

κατεκλίθη. ‘Reclined at table.’ This 1st aor. pass. was used in a middle sense even by classic writers. See Veitch p. 327. The old method of the Jews had been that of the East in general, to sit at table (ἀναπίπτειν, Luke 11:37; ἀνακεῖσθαι, Luke 7:37; ἀνακλίνεσθαι, Luke 12:37) generally cross-legged on the floor, or on divans (Genesis 27:19; 1 Samuel 20:5; 1 Samuel 20:18; Psalms 128:3; Song of Solomon 1:12, &c.). They had borrowed the custom of reclining on couches (triclinia, comp. ἀρχιτρίκλινος, John 2:8) from the Persians (Esther 1:6; Esther 7:8), the Greeks and Romans, after the Exile (Tob 2:1; 1Es 4:10; Jdt 12:15). The influence of the Greeks had been felt in the nation for three hundred years, and that of the Romans for nearly a hundred years, since the conquest of Jerusalem by Pompey, B.C. 63.