Luke 7

When Jesus had finished saying all of this to the people who were listening, he went into Capernaum.

1Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.

Note"In the audience of the people" means in the hearing of the people. In 1611 "audience" still meant the act of listening rather than the crowd doing it. Capernaum was a fishing town on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee that served as Jesus' base in the region.

2A centurion there, an officer in charge of about a hundred Roman soldiers, had a servant he valued highly. The servant was sick and about to die.

2And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.

NoteA centurion was a Roman army officer commanding a unit of roughly eighty to a hundred men, the backbone of the occupying force. He would have been a Gentile, a non-Jew. The word translated "servant" is the ordinary word for a slave, legally a piece of the household's property; "dear unto him" renders a word meaning precious or highly valued, so the point is that this was not a slave he could simply replace.

3When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his servant.

3And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.

NoteThe "elders of the Jews" were the leading men of the local Jewish community who handled the town's affairs and oversaw its synagogue. They were not priests, and they were not officials of the Roman army.

4They came to Jesus and begged him earnestly, saying, "This man deserves to have you do this for him,

4And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this:

Note"They besought him instantly" does not mean they asked him immediately. In 1611 "instantly" meant urgently and insistently, pressing the request hard.

5because he loves our nation, and he is the one who built our synagogue, the place where we meet to worship."

5For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.

NoteA synagogue was the local assembly building where Jews gathered for prayer and the reading of the law. Paying for one out of his own pocket marked the officer as a foreigner who supported the Jewish community rather than despising it, the kind of sympathetic outsider Jews called a God-fearer.

6So Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the officer sent friends out to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself. I am not good enough to have you come under my roof.

6Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:

NoteThe objection is not only modesty. Under the purity customs of the day a Jew who entered a Gentile's house contracted ritual uncleanness, so the officer's message spares Jesus a step that would have caused him trouble with his own people.

7That is why I did not think I was fit to come to you myself. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

7Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.

Note"Say in a word" means give the order verbally, from where you stand. The officer is asking for a command issued at a distance rather than a visit.

8I myself am a man who takes orders from others, and I have soldiers under me. I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

8For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

9When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at the man. He turned around and said to the crowd following him, "I tell you, I have not found faith this great even in Israel."

9When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

Note"Israel" here means the Jewish people as a whole, the nation in which such trust would be expected as a matter of course. The comparison is with a foreign soldier of the occupying army.

10The men who had been sent went back to the house and found the servant well again.

10And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.

11The next day Jesus went to a town called Nain. Many of his disciples went with him, and so did a large crowd.

11And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.

NoteNain was a small village in Galilee, roughly a day's walk south of Capernaum and a few miles from Nazareth.

12As he came near the town gate, a dead man was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the town was with her.

12Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.

NoteBurial grounds lay outside a town, so a funeral procession went out through the gate; bodies were buried the same day in that climate. The detail that she was a widow with an only son is not only pathos: a woman with no husband and no son had no one legally obliged to support her and no standing in property, so she was left destitute as well as bereaved.

13When the Lord saw her, he felt deep pity for her and said to her, "Do not cry."

13And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.

Note"He had compassion on her" translates a strong physical verb, something like being wrenched in the gut. It describes a felt reaction, not a considered attitude.

14He went up and touched the frame the body was lying on, and the men carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I tell you, get up."

14And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.

NoteA "bier" was the open plank or stretcher on which the wrapped body was carried; there was no closed coffin. Touching a corpse, or the bier carrying one, made a person ritually unclean for seven days under the law of Moses, which is why the bearers stopping dead is part of the picture.

15The man who had been dead sat up and began to talk. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.

15And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.

16Fear came over everyone there, and they praised God. They said, "A great prophet has appeared among us," and, "God has come to help his people." A prophet is someone who speaks for God.

16And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.

NoteThe "fear" is awe and dread at something uncanny rather than fright at a danger. "God hath visited his people" uses "visit" in its older biblical sense: God stepping in to act on behalf of his people, the way a king visits a province to set things right.

17This news about him spread through all of Judea and through the whole region around it.

17And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about.

Note"Rumour" in 1611 meant simply a report or the news going around. It carried none of the modern suggestion that the story was unreliable.

18John the Baptist's disciples told him about all these things.

18And the disciples of John shewed him of all these things.

NoteThis is John the Baptist, who by this point in Luke's account has been arrested and imprisoned by Herod (Luke 3:19 to 20). He is sending messengers out from confinement.

19So John called two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for someone else?"

19And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?

Note"He that should come" translates a set phrase, "the Coming One," used as a title for the deliverer the Jewish people expected God to send.

20When the men reached Jesus, they said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for someone else?'"

20When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?

21At that very time Jesus healed many people of diseases and painful illnesses and of evil spirits, and he gave sight to many people who were blind.

21And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight.

Note"Plagues" here does not mean epidemics. The word means scourges or afflictions, bodily torments of the kind a whip inflicts, used of severe illness.

22Then Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard. Blind people see, lame people walk, people with a serious skin disease are made clean, deaf people hear, dead people are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

22Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.

NoteThe "leprosy" of the Bible covered a range of disfiguring skin conditions, not only the disease called leprosy today. The law declared a person with it ritually unclean and shut out of the community, which is why the word is "cleansed" rather than "healed": the cure restored their place among people as well as their skin. The whole list of signs is phrased in the language of Isaiah's descriptions of the age of deliverance (Isaiah 26, 29, 35 and 61).

23And blessed is the person who does not turn away from me because of what I am."

23And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

Note"Offended in me" does not mean insulted. The Greek verb means tripped up or made to stumble, like a snare that brings someone down; the sense is being thrown off by what Jesus turns out to be.

24After John's messengers had left, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed being shaken by the wind?

24And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind?

Note"Wilderness" means dry, empty, uninhabited country, not forest. Reeds grew thick along the Jordan where John had been baptizing, and a reed bending with every gust was a stock image for a man with no backbone.

25What did you go out to see, then? A man dressed in soft, fine clothes? Look, people who wear splendid clothes and live in comfort are found in kings' palaces.

25But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts.

Note"Live delicately" meant living in luxury and ease, not being frail. "Soft raiment" and "gorgeously apparelled" describe expensive fabrics; the contrast is with John's rough clothing, and "kings' courts" points at the palace of Herod, who is the man holding John prisoner.

26What did you go out to see, then? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet.

26But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.

27This is the man the Scriptures speak about: 'Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will get your road ready before you come.'

27This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

NoteThe quotation is from the prophet Malachi (Malachi 3:1), with wording drawn also from Exodus 23:20. It pictures a herald sent ahead of a king to get the road into passable shape before the royal party travels it.

28I tell you, among all the people born of women there is no prophet greater than John the Baptist. Yet the person who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he is."

28For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

Note"Born of women" is a Hebrew idiom meaning simply human beings, everyone who has ever been born. It is not a comment about mothers.

29All the people who heard this, even the tax collectors, agreed that God was right, because they had let John baptize them.

29And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.

Note"Publicans" were tax and toll collectors, Jews who bought the right to collect revenue for Rome and made their living from what they could squeeze above the quota. They were widely regarded as both collaborators with the occupying power and thieves. "Justified God" means they declared God to be in the right, acknowledged the justice of his dealings.

30But the Pharisees, who were very strict about keeping the law, and the experts in the law refused God's plan for themselves, because they had not let John baptize them.

30But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.

Note"Lawyers" in the King James means experts in the law of Moses, scholars of scripture, not attorneys in a modern court. "The counsel of God" means God's purpose or plan. "Against themselves" is compressed and can be read either as "God's purpose for them" which they threw over, or as "to their own loss"; the Greek admits both.

31The Lord said, "What can I compare the people of this generation to? What are they like?

31And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?

32They are like children sitting in the marketplace, calling out to each other, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We sang a sad funeral song, and you did not cry.'

32They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.

NoteThe picture is of children playing at the two big public occasions of village life, a wedding and a funeral, and the other children refusing to join either game. "We have piped unto you" means we played the flute, the instrument of wedding celebration; "we have mourned to you" means we sang the wailing dirge of a funeral.

33For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.'

33For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.

Note"He hath a devil" translates a word meaning a demon or evil spirit. As an accusation it worked much as calling someone mad works now: his extreme fasting is being written off as possession rather than holiness.

34The Son of Man, the name Jesus uses for himself, came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a man who eats too much and drinks too much, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.'

34The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!

Note"The Son of man" is a phrase that can mean simply "a human being" and is also drawn from a vision in Daniel 7 of a figure given lasting authority; Jesus uses it of himself throughout the Gospels, and its double edge is deliberate. A "winebibber" is a heavy drinker. The two charges, glutton and drunkard, echo the language the law used for a disgraceful son (Deuteronomy 21:20).

35But wisdom is shown to be right by all her children."

35But wisdom is justified of all her children.

Note"Justified of" means proved right by, vindicated by; "of" carries the sense of "by" in 1611 English. Who "her children" are is left open: either the people who follow wisdom, whose lives show she was right, or the results wisdom produces.

36One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him. Jesus went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table.

36And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat.

Note"Sat down to meat" means took his place at the meal; "meat" in 1611 meant food of any kind. At a formal dinner guests did not sit on chairs but reclined on low couches, propped on the left elbow with the feet stretched away from the table. That posture is what makes the rest of the scene physically possible: a person could approach a guest's feet from behind without ever coming to the table.

37There was a woman in that town who was known as a sinner. When she learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfumed oil.

37And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,

NoteCalling her "a sinner" in this way marks a publicly known and disgraceful way of life, most likely prostitution, though Luke never says so outright. An "alabaster box" was a flask carved from soft translucent stone, the standard container for expensive perfumed oil; it had a long neck that was snapped off to release the contents, so opening one used it up.

38She stood behind him at his feet, crying, and began to wet his feet with her tears. She wiped them with her hair, kissed them again and again, and poured the perfumed oil on them.

38And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

NoteThree things here would have struck the other guests. A respectable woman kept her hair bound up in public, and letting it down was immodest. Kissing someone's feet was the gesture of a slave or a suppliant, far below an ordinary greeting. And the perfumed oil was a luxury item being poured out on feet rather than a head.

39When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is, because she is a sinner."

39Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.

NoteThe host's objection turns on contact. Touching, and being touched by, a woman of her reputation was thought to transmit her uncleanness, and a prophet was assumed to have the insight to see what she was and avoid it.

40Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And Simon said, "Teacher, say it."

40And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.

Note"Master" in the King James usually renders a word meaning teacher, the respectful address given to a recognized religious instructor. It does not mean owner. Simon was one of the most common Jewish names of the period.

41"A man who lends money had two people who owed him. One owed him five hundred silver coins, and the other owed fifty.

41There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.

Note"Pence" translates denarii. A denarius was the standard day's pay for an ordinary laborer, so five hundred is roughly twenty months of wages and fifty is about two months. Both sums are real debts; the difference between them is tenfold.

42Neither one had anything to pay him with, so he freely canceled what both of them owed. Tell me, then, which of them will love him more?"

42And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?

Note"Frankly forgave" means canceled the debt outright as a free gift, asking nothing in return. "Frankly" in 1611 meant freely or generously, not candidly. "Forgive" was the ordinary commercial word for writing off what was owed, which is why the story works as a picture of forgiving sins.

43Simon answered, "I suppose the one who had the larger debt canceled." Jesus said to him, "You have judged correctly."

43Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

44And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

NoteJesus is listing the ordinary courtesies a host owed a guest and Simon skipped: water to rinse the dust off feet that had walked open roads in sandals, a kiss of greeting on the cheek, and a little olive oil for the head. None of them was lavish. Their absence was a calculated slight, or at least a pointed coolness.

45You gave me no kiss of greeting, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet.

45Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfumed oil on my feet.

46My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

NoteThe contrast is between two grades of the same gesture. Plain olive oil on the head was cheap, everyday hospitality; the woman used costly scented ointment, and used it on his feet rather than his head.

47So I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But the person who is forgiven little loves little."

47Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

NoteThe logic of this sentence is genuinely disputed, and the Greek allows both readings. "For she loved much" can mean that her love is the evidence that she has already been forgiven, the way a cured patient's health proves the treatment worked, or it can be read as giving the reason she was forgiven. The parable just told points toward the first, since in it the cancellation comes first and the love follows, but the wording itself leaves the question open.

48Then he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

48And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.

49The others eating at the table with him began to say to themselves, "Who is this man, who even forgives sins?"

49And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?

50And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."

50And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.

NoteThe verb translated "saved" is the same one used in this Gospel for being healed and being made whole; it covers rescue of every kind, and the sentence can be heard in all of those senses at once. "Go in peace" is the standard Hebrew farewell, shalom, which means not merely the absence of trouble but soundness and well-being.