The words imply that she had heard of Him-perhaps had listened to Him. His reticence-possibly their reticence-as to the name was, under the circumstances, at once natural and considerate. Luke only, it is probable enough that the “woman which was a sinner” became known to the company of devout women named in Luke 8:1-3, and that the Evangelist derived his knowledge of the facts from them. John himself records ( John 12:3), is almost fantastic in its arbitrariness and it will seem to most minds inconceivable that such a one as the sister of Lazarus, who appears in Luke 10:42 as “having chosen the good part,” could so shortly before have been leading the life of a harlot of the streets. John speaks of Mary of Bethany as “that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment,” must refer to the previous anointing which St. (2) The belief adopted by some interpreters, and more or less generally received in the Church of Rome, that the woman was none other than Mary the sister of Lazarus, who, on this hypothesis, is identified also with Mary Magdalene, is even more baseless. Was it before she came with the ointment, or when our Lord spake the words, “Thy sins are forgiven thee?” It is obvious that the conduct of the woman in the Pharisee’s house was very different from the wild frenzy of a demoniac. We may note further ( a) that if the popular belief were true we should have expected some hint of it on the occurrence of the name of Mary Magdalene in Luke 8:3 ( b) that the description given of that Mary, as one out of whom had been cast “seven devils,” though not incompatible with a life of impurity, does not naturally suggest it (c) that, on the assumption of identity, it is difficult to say when the “devils” had been cast out. The omission of that feast from the calendar of the Prayer Book of 1552 shows that the English Reformers at least hesitated, if they did not decide against it. Mary Magdalene stamped it as with the sanction of the Western Church. The choice of this narrative in the Gospel for the Feast of St. It first gained general acceptance through the authority of Gregory the Great. Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine are doubtful. The earliest Fathers of the Church are silent. Nor can there be said to be anything like even a tradition in its favour. (1) The widespread belief that she was Mary Magdalene-shown in the popular application of the term “Magdalen” to a penitent of this class-has absolutely not a single jot or tittle of evidence in Scripture. The question who she was must be left unanswered. The woman was known in the city as plying there her sinful and hateful calling. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(37) A woman in the city, which was a sinner.-The word is clearly used as pointing to the special sin of unchastity.
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