Luke 7:37

Social custom allowed needy people to visit such meals and to partake of some of the leftovers. [Note: Liefeld, p. 903.] Moreover it was not unusual for people to drop in when a rabbi was visiting. [Note: Martin, p. 224.] Luke gallantly omitted describing why the woman was a sinner, though the commentators love to guess. Some have assumed that the woman was Mary Magdalene, but this is pure speculation. The point was that she was a member of the social class called sinners that the Pharisees regarded as treating the law loosely. The liquid perfume was in an expensive alabaster vial. Jewish women frequently wore such vials suspended from a cord around their necks. [Note: Morris, pp. 146-47.]