Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Luke 7:47

οὗ χάριν, wherefore, introducing Christ's theory of the woman's extraordinary behaviour as opposed to Simon's ungenerous suspicions. λέγω σοι, I tell you, with emphasis; what Jesus firmly believes and what Simon very much needs to be told. ἀφέωνται (Doric perf. pas.) αἱ ἁμαρτίαι αὐτῆς, forgiven are her sins; i.e., it is a case, not of a courtesan acting in character, as you have been thinking, but of a penitent who has come through me to the knowledge that even such as she can be forgiven. That is the meaning of this extraordinary demonstration of passionate affection. αἱ πολλαί, the many, a sort of afterthought: many sins, a great sinner, you think, and so I also can see from her behaviour in this chamber, which manifests intense love, whence I infer that she is conscious of much forgiveness and of much need to be forgiven. ὅτι ἠγάπησεν πολύ : ὅτι introduces the ground of the assertion implied in πολλαί; many sins inferred from much love; the underlying principle: much forgiven, much love, which is here applied backwards, because Simon, while believing in the woman's great sin, did not believe in her penitence. The foregoing interpretation is now adopted by most commentators. The old dispute between Protestants and Catholics, based on this text, as to the ground of pardon is now pretty much out of date. ᾧ δὲ ὀλίγον, etc.: this is the other side of the truth, as it applied to Simon: little (conscious) sin, little love. The doctrine here enunciated is another very original element in this story. It and the words in Luke 5:31 and Luke 15:7 form together a complete apology for Christ's relations with the sinful.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Luke 7:47

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