Luke 7:37

Luke 7:37. A woman who was in the city, a sinner, i.e., an unchaste person. The words ‘in the city' show that she led this life of sin in the place where the Pharisee lived. What place it was we do not know. Certainly not Jerusalem, but some place in Galilee. Those who identify the woman with Mary Magdalene must, to be consistent, think it was Magdala. It might have been Nain, but if Matthew 11:20-30 immediately precedes, then Capernaum is the more probable place.

And when she knew, etc. ‘Since I came in' (Luke 7:45) suggests that she came in about the same time with our Lord. Our Lord was constantly followed by a crowd, and the crowd undoubtedly thronged the houses into which He entered. The woman must have heard our Lord, and the first penitent step was her coming thus. The previous discourse, probably the one which influenced her, was that touching one (Matthew 11:28-30): ‘Come unto me all ye,' etc. Had this been Mary Magdalene, we must suppose either that she had been healed of her bodily disease, but not of her spiritual one, or that ‘seven demons' does not refer to a literal possession. Neither alternative is probable. See on chap. Luke 8:2.

An alabaster box of ointment. A vase or cruse; see on Matthew 26:7. Alford: ‘The ointment here has a peculiar interest, as being the offering by a penitent of that which had been an accessory in her unhallowed work of sin.'