Luke 7 is the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It tells the records of two great miracles performed by Jesus, his reply to John the Baptist's question, and the anointing by a sinful woman. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this Gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles.
relates that a Roman centurion in Capernaum sent the Jewish elders to ask Jesus for help because his servant was ill. The elders testified to the centurion's worthiness but the centurion did not consider himself worthy to have Jesus come into his home to perform the healing, suggesting instead that Jesus perform the healing at a distance. Jesus concurred, and the servant was found to have been healed when the centurion returned home. A similar event is recounted in but this may refer to another event as it concerns the son of a court official.
Widow of Nain's Son Raised
This account of a miracle by Jesus is only recorded in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus arrived at the village of Nain during the burial ceremony of the son of a widow, and raised the young man from the dead. The location is the village of Nain in Galilee, two miles south of Mount Tabor. This is the first of three miracles of Jesus in the canonical gospels in which he raises the dead, the other two being the raising of Jairus' daughter and of Lazarus. Following the healing, Jesus fame spread "throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region". In the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, commentator F. W. Farrar explains that "the notion that St Luke therefore supposed Nain to be in Judaea is quite groundless. He means that the story of the incident at Nain spread even into Judaea".
When John the Baptist was in prison and heard of the works performed by Jesus, John sent two of his disciples as messengers to ask a question of Jesus: Following this episode, Jesus begins to speak to the crowds about John the Baptist, describing him as the 'messenger' foretold in prophecy.
Parable of the Two Debtors
A Pharisee named Simon invites Jesus to eat in his house but fails to show him the usual marks of hospitality offered to visitors - a greeting kiss, water to wash his feet, or oil for his head. A "sinful woman" comes into his house during the meal and anoints Jesus' feet with perfume, wiping them dry with her hair. Simon is inwardly critical of Jesus, who, if he were a prophet, "would know what kind of sinful life she lives". Jesus then uses the story of two debtors to explain that a woman loves him more than his host, because she has been forgiven of greater sins.
Verse 38
"Stood at his feet behind him": Jesus, as other guests, 'reclined on couches with their feet turned outwards', a common posture in that period of time also for Persians, Greeks, Romans. This arrangement is called triclinia, by which the guest reposed on his elbow at the table, with his unsandaled feet outstretched on the couch.
"Ointment": or "fragrant oil" in NKJV, is translated from the Greek word μύρον which was applied 'for any kind of sweet-smelling vegetable essence, especially that of the myrtle'.
Verses 47-48
Eric Franklin observes that the woman is demonstrating her love and asks whether this is "because she has already been forgiven, which is what the parable would imply?" Verse 47, "on a first reading at any rate, does not appear to support this, but rather suggests that she has been forgiven because of her love". The Revised Standard Version and the New King James Version can be read in this way. Franklin notes that "more recent translations, assuming a consistency in the story as a whole, take the Greek ὅτι to mean, not "because" but "with the result that", for example the Revised English Bible translates, "Her great love proves that her many sins have been forgiven". Verse 48 then proclaims her forgiveness, which this translation assumes has already been pronounced to her.
