Pharisee, in Galilee, with the long-subsequent feast at the house of
Simon the leper, at Bethany, and the anointing of the feet by 'a woman
that was a sinner' in the city, with the anointing of the head by Mary
the sister of Martha, adopt principles of criticism so reckless and
arbitrary that their general acceptance would rob the Gospels of all
credibility, and make them hardly worth study as truthful narratives. As
for the names Simon and Judas, which have led to so many identifications
of different persons and different incidents, they were at least as
common among the Jews of that day as Smith and Jones among ourselves.
There are five or six Judes and nine Simons mentioned in the New
Testament, and two Judes and two Simons among the Apostles alone;
Josephus speaks of some ten Judes and twenty Simons in his writings, and
there must, therefore, have been thousands of others who at this period
had one of these two names. The incident (of anointing with ointment) is
one quite in accordance with the customs of the time and country, and
there is not the least improbability in its repetition under different
circumstances. (Eccles. 9:8; Cant. 4:10; Amos 6:6.) The custom still
continues."

The learned canon is fully justified in his vigorous criticism;
nevertheless he endorses the commonly-accepted identification of the
woman mentioned in connection with the meal in the house of Simon the
Pharisee with Mary Magdalene, although he admits that the foundation of
the assumed identification is "an ancient tradition,--especially
prevalent in the Western Church, and followed by the translation of our
English version" (p. 233). As stated in our text, there is an entire
absence of trustworthy evidence that Mary Magdalene was ever tainted
with the sin for which the repentant woman in the Pharisee's house was
so graciously pardoned by our Lord.

11. The Unpardonable Sin.--The nature of the awful sin against the Holy
Ghost, against which the Lord warned the Pharisaic accusers who sought
to ascribe His divine power to Satan, is more fully explained, and its
dread results are more explicitly set forth in modern revelation.
Concerning them and their dreadful fate, the Almighty has said:--"I say
that it had been better for them never to have been born, for they are
vessels of wrath, doomed to suffer the wrath of God, with the devil and
his angels in eternity; concerning whom I have said there is no
forgiveness in this world nor in the wor