Wiliam Barclay describes the basic courtesies extended to guests in Jesus' day in commentary on this familiar reading. Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus to eat with him but doesn't extend the basic courtesies that normally would be offered to a guest. As always this additional information about daily life lends insight and richness to the Scripture message.
The scene is the courtyard of the house of Simon the Pharisee. The houses of well-to-do people were built round an open courtyard in the form of a hollow square. Often in the courtyard there would be a garden and a fountain; and there in the warm weather meals were eaten. It was the custom that when a Rabbi was at a meal in such a house, all kinds of people came in - they were quite free to do so - to listen to the pearls of wisdom which fell from his lips. That explains the presence of the woman.
When a guest entered such a house three things were always done. The host placed his hand on the guest's shoulder and gave him the kiss of peace. That was a mark of respect which was never omitted in the case of a distinguished Rabbi. The roads were only dust tracks, and shoes were merely soles held in place by straps across the foot. So always cool water was poured over the guest's feet to cleanse and comfort them. Either a pinch of sweet-smelling incense was burned or a drop of attar of roses was placed on the guest's head. These things good manners demanded, and in this case not one of them was done.
In the east the guests did not sit, but reclined, at table. They lay on low couches, resting on the left elbow, leaving the right arm free, with the feet stretched out behind; and during the meal the sandals were taken off. That explains how the woman was standing at Jesus' feet.
A woman at the feast washes Jesus' feet with her tears, dries them with her hair and annoints them with perfume. Barclay also elaborates on the significance of the woman's actions in regard to common behavior.
The woman was a bad woman, and a notoriously bad woman, a prostitute. No doubt she had listened to Jesus speak from the edge of the crowd and had glimpsed in him the hand with which could lift her from the mire of her ways. Round her neck she wore, like all Jewish women, a little phial of concentrated perfume; they were called alabasters; and they were very costly. She wished to pour it on his feet, for it was all she had to offer. But as she saw him the tears came and fell upon his feet. For a Jewish woman to appear with hair unbound was an act of the gravest immodesty. On her wedding day a girl bound up her hair and never would she appear with it unbound again. The fact that this woman loosed her long hair in public showed how she had forgotten everyone except Jesus.
Scriptures, and the Gospels in particular, delight in emphasizing important points by using obvious contrasts. Knowing these customs makes it abundantly clear that we are being shown the desirability of losing ourselves in Jesus versus caring about ourselves so much we barely acknowledge his presence.
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