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Luke 7:36-38 (ANIV)
Jesus anointed by a sinful woman
36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

DRAWING NOTES:

TIME OF DAY:
Unspecified in the Bible narrative. I have set this scene at noon.

LIGHTING NOTES:
Sunlight illuminates this scene, coming into the large courtyard room through a hole in the ceiling above the fig tree and through small windows high in the walls. The light casts shadows below the figures and objects in this scene.

CHARACTERS PRESENT:
Jesus (in blue outer robe), Simon a Pharisee (in dark blue outer robe and head scarf), the sinful woman (at Jesus’ feet), a servant bringing flat bread on a plate, three un-named male guests.

RESEARCH/ADDITIONAL NOTES:
This scene is set in the home of Simon the Pharisee. I based the architecture on homes I stayed in when I visited Morocco some years ago. The houses’ rooms are all built round a central open to air courtyard, that lets sunlight into the place. Israelite homes were built on a similar design, with small, narrow windows set high in their walls, which let some daylight in, but were too small to admit a burglar!

Here is the scene without the figures.

Background of Luke 07 – Jesus anointed by sinful woman – Scene 01 – Woman’s attention

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Background of Luke 07 – Jesus anointed by sinful woman – Scene 01 – Woman’s attention

We are told in verse 36 that the guests “reclined at the table”. This was the custom at the time: people laid down on couches to eat a meal. The ancient roman’s called this three sided couch arrangement a triclinium, which was a formal dining room which featured three couches arranged in a U-shape around a central table, accommodating nine guests who would recline on their left side to dine. The word itself comes from Greek and means “three-couch room”.

In the centre of the open courtyard is a Ficus carica; the Latin name for the common fig tree. Ficus is the Latin word for fig, and carica refers to the Caria region of ancient Lycia (now part of modern day Turkey), where the common fig is thought to have originated.