Luke 7:37 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Which was a sinner—box of ointment,— Who had been a sinner—box of perfume. It is generally supposed, that the woman who anointed our Lord in Simon's house, was she who in the Gospel is called Mary Magdalene, for no other reason than because St. Luke, in the beginning of the following chapter, mentions her as one of our Lord's attendants, and one out of whom he had cast seven devils. Some indeed attempt to prove it out of the Talmud, which mentions a lewd woman called Mary Megadella, or the plaiter, viz. of hair, an epithet probably given to all prostitutes in those times on account of their nicety in dress; but this has no relation to the name Magdalene. In truth Mary Magdalene seems rather to have been a woman of high station and opulent fortune,being mentioned by St. Luke, (ch. Luke 8:2.) even before Joanna, though the wife of so great a man as Herod's steward. Besides, the other evangelists, when they have occasion to speak of our Lord's female friends, commonly assign the first place to Mary Magdalene, who was probably so called from Magdala, the place of her birth, a town situated near the lake of Tiberias, and mentioned Matthew 15:39. The character given to this woman, that she had been a sinner, renders it probable that she had formerly been a harlot; for the word αμαρτωλος is frequently used in this sense: but her action on this occasion proves, that she was now awakened to a just sight and sense of her sins. The city, in which she is said to have lived, means Capernaum, the place of our Lord's ordinary residence, which is often described in that general way. Probably she was acquainted at the Pharisee's house, for she gained easy access even into the room where the company was sitting. It may be necessary just to remark, that this is a very different historyfrom that of Mary's anointing Christ's head alittle before his death. See Matthew 26:6; Matthew 26:75 and the parallel places.