The Meaning of Luke 7:36 Explained

Luke 7:36

KJV: And 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.

YLT: And a certain one of the Pharisees was asking him that he might eat with him, and having gone into the house of the Pharisee he reclined (at meat),

Darby: But one of the Pharisees begged him that he would eat with him. And entering into the house of the Pharisee he took his place at table;

ASV: And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he entered into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

And  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. 

What does Luke 7:36 Mean?

Verse Meaning

We should not overlook the fact that Jesus accepted an invitation to dinner from a Pharisee. He did not cut all the religious leaders off simply because most of them rejected Him. He dealt with people as individuals. Simon appears to have been a critic rather than a disciple of His. Nevertheless Jesus accepted his invitation.

Context Summary

Luke 7:36-50 - The Forgiven Sinner's Grateful Love
What a trio! Christ stands here as a manifestation of the divine love, as it comes among sinners. The love of God is not dependent on our merits; frankly, Luke 7:42, is "freely." It is not turned away by our sins: she is a sinner. It ever manifests itself as the clearing of debts. But it demands recognition and service: thou gavest me no kiss.
The woman represents those who penitently and lovingly recognize the divine love. She was not forgiven because of her love; but her love was the sign that she had been forgiven and recognized it. What will not God's love do! The tropical sun produces rare fruit. What Jesus did for her He can do for your many sins. Pardon will lead to much love, and love becomes the gate of knowledge and the source of obedience.
Simon, the Pharisee, stands for the unloving and self-righteous, who are ignorant of the love of God. They may be respectable in life, rigid in morality, unquestioned in orthodoxy, but what are these without love? See 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Note the contrasts between thou and she, thy and her. [source]

Chapter Summary: Luke 7

1  Jesus finds a greater faith in the centurion;
10  heals his servant, being absent;
11  raises from death the widow's son at Nain;
18  answers John's messengers with the declaration of his miracles;
24  testifies to the people what opinion he held of John;
31  compares this generation to the children in the marketplaces,
36  and allowing his feet to be washed and anointed by a woman who was a sinner,
44  he shows how he is a friend to sinners, to forgive them their sins, upon their repentance

Greek Commentary for Luke 7:36

That he would eat with him [ινα παγηι μετ αυτου]
Second aorist active subjunctive. The use of ινα — hina after ερωταω — erōtaō (see also Luke 16:27) is on the border between the pure object clause and the indirect question (Robertson, Grammar, p. 1046) and the pure final clause. Luke has two other instances of Pharisees who invited Jesus to meals (Luke 11:37; Luke 14:1) and he alone gives them. This is the Gospel of Hospitality (Ragg). Jesus would dine with a Pharisee or with a publican (Luke 5:29; Mark 2:15; Matthew 9:10) and even invited himself to be the guest of Zaccheus (Luke 9:5). This Pharisee was not as hostile as the leaders in Jerusalem. It is not necessary to think this Pharisee had any sinister motive in his invitation though he was not overly friendly (Plummer). [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Luke 7:36

Matthew 26:6 In the house of Simon the leper [εν οικιαι Σιμωνος του λεπρου]
Evidently a man who had been healed of his leprosy by Jesus who gave the feast in honour of Jesus. All sorts of fantastic theories have arisen about it. Some even identify this Simon with the one in Luke 7:36., but Simon was a very common name and the details are very different. Some hold that it was Martha‘s house because she served (John 12:2) and that Simon was either the father or husband of Martha, but Martha loved to serve and that proves nothing. Some identify Mary of Bethany with the sinful woman in Luke 7 and even with Mary Magdalene, both gratuitous and groundless propositions. For the proof that Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene, and the sinful woman of Luke 7 are all distinct see my Some Minor Characters in the New Testament. John (John 12:1) apparently locates the feast six days before the passover, while Mark (Mark 14:3) and Matthew (Matthew 26:6) seem to place it on the Tuesday evening (Jewish Wednesday) just two days before the passover meal. It is possible that John anticipates the date and notes the feast at Bethany at this time because he does not refer to Bethany again. If not, the order of Mark must be followed. According to the order of Mark and Matthew, this feast took place at the very time that the Sanhedrin was plotting about the death of Jesus (Mark 14:1.). [source]
Mark 14:3 As he sat at meat [κατακειμενου αυτου]
Matthew 26:7 uses ανακειμενου — anakeimenou both words meaning reclining (leaning down or up or back) and in the genitive absolute. See note on Matthew 26:6 in proof that this is a different incident from that recorded in Luke 7:36-50. See Matthew 26:6-13 for discussion of details. [source]
Luke 14:8 Sit not down [μη κατακλιτηις]
First aorist (ingressive) passive subjunctive of κατακλινω — kataklinō to recline. Old verb, but peculiar to Luke in the N.T. (Luke 7:36; Luke 9:14; Luke 14:8; Luke 24:30). [source]
Luke 8:1 Soon afterwards [εν τωι κατεχης]
In Luke 7:11 we have εν τωι εχης — en tōi hexēs This word means one after the other, successively, but that gives no definite data as to the time, only that this incident in Luke 8:1-3 follows that in Luke 7:36-50. Both in Luke alone. [source]
John 11:2 And it was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair [ην δε Μαριαμ η αλειπσασα τον κυριον μυρωι και εκμαχασα τους ποδας αυτου ταις τριχιν αυτης]
This description is added to make plainer who Mary is “whose brother Lazarus was sick” There is an evident proleptic allusion to the incident described by John in John 12:1-8 just after chapter 11. As John looks back from the end of the century it was all behind him, though the anointing Note the Aramaic form Μαριαμ — Mariam as usual in John, but Μαριας — Marias in John 11:1. When John wrote, it was as Jesus had foretold (Matthew 26:13), for the fame of Mary of Bethany rested on the incident of the anointing of Jesus. The effort to link Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene and then both names with the sinful woman of Luke 7:36-50 is gratuitous and to my mind grotesque and cruel to the memory of both Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene. Bernard may be taken as a specimen: “The conclusion is inevitable that John (or his editor) regarded Mary of Bethany as the same person who is described by Luke as αμαρτωλος — hamartōlos This critical and artistic heresy has already been discussed in Vol. 2 on Luke‘s Gospel. Suffice it here to say that Luke introduces Mary Magdalene as an entirely new character in John 8:2 and that the details in Luke 7:36-50; John 12:1-8 have only superficial resemblances and serious disagreements. John is not here alluding to Luke‘s record, but preparing for his own in chapter 12. What earthly difficulty is there in two different women under wholly different circumstances doing a similar act for utterly different purposes? [source]
John 12:2 So they made him a supper there [εποιησαν ουν αυτωι δειπνον εκει]
Here again ουν — oun is not inferential, but merely transitional. This supper is given by Mark (Mark 14:3-9) and Matthew (Matthew 26:6-13) just two days (Mark 14:1) before the passover, that is on our Tuesday evening (beginning of Jewish Wednesday), while John mentions (John 12:2-9) it immediately after the arrival of Jesus in Bethany (John 12:1). One must decide which date to follow. Mark and Matthew and Luke follow it with the visit of Judas to the Sanhedrin with an offer to betray Jesus as if exasperated by the rebuke by Jesus at the feast. Bernard considers that John “is here more probably accurate.” It all turns on John‘s purpose in putting it here. This is the last mention of Jesus in Bethany and he may have mentioned it proleptically for that reason as seems to me quite reasonable. Westcott notes that in chapter 12John closes his record of the public ministry of the Lord relative to the disciples at this feast (John 12:1-11), to the multitude in the triumphal entry (John 12:12-19), to the world outside in the visit of the Greeks (verses 20-36a), and with two summary judgments (John 12:36-50). There is no further reason to refer to the feast in the house of another Simon when a sinful woman anointed Jesus (Luke 7:36-50). It is no credit to Luke or to John with Mark and Matthew to have them all making a jumble like that. There were two anointings by two absolutely different women for wholly different purposes. See the discussion on Luke for further details. And Martha served Imperfect active of διακονεω — diakoneō picturing Martha true to the account of her in Luke 10:40 But this fact does not show that Martha was the wife of this Simon at all. They were friends and neighbours and Martha was following her bent. It is Mark (Mark 14:3) and Matthew (Matthew 26:6) who mention the name of the host. It is not Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36), but Simon the leper (Mark 14:3; Matthew 26:6) in whose house they meet. The name is common enough. The Simon in Luke was sharply critical of Jesus; this one is full of gratitude for what Jesus has done for him. That sat at meat “That lay back,” reclined as they did, articular participle (ablative case after εκ — ek) of the common verb ανακειμαι — anakeimai Perhaps Simon gave the feast partly in honour of Lazarus as well as of Jesus since all were now talking of both (John 12:9). It was a gracious occasion. The guests were Jesus, the twelve apostles, and Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. [source]

What do the individual words in Luke 7:36 mean?

Was asking now one Him of the Pharisees that He should eat with him and having entered into the house of the Pharisee He reclined
Ἠρώτα δέ τις αὐτὸν τῶν Φαρισαίων ἵνα φάγῃ μετ’ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰσελθὼν εἰς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ Φαρισαίου κατεκλίθη

Ἠρώτα  Was  asking 
Parse: Verb, Imperfect Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: ἐρωτάω  
Sense: to question.
δέ  now 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: δέ  
Sense: but, moreover, and, etc.
τις  one 
Parse: Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: τὶς  
Sense: a certain, a certain one.
τῶν  of  the 
Parse: Article, Genitive Masculine Plural
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
Φαρισαίων  Pharisees 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Plural
Root: Φαρισαῖος  
Sense: A sect that seems to have started after the Jewish exile.
ἵνα  that 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: ἵνα  
Sense: that, in order that, so that.
φάγῃ  He  should  eat 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Subjunctive Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: ἐσθίω  
Sense: to eat.
εἰσελθὼν  having  entered 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Active, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: εἰσέρχομαι  
Sense: to go out or come in: to enter.
εἰς  into 
Parse: Preposition
Root: εἰς  
Sense: into, unto, to, towards, for, among.
οἶκον  house 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Masculine Singular
Root: οἶκος  
Sense: a house.
τοῦ  of  the 
Parse: Article, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
Φαρισαίου  Pharisee 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root: Φαρισαῖος  
Sense: A sect that seems to have started after the Jewish exile.
κατεκλίθη  He  reclined 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Passive, 3rd Person Singular
Root: κατακλίνω  
Sense: in the NT in reference to eating, to make to recline.

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