Hi everyone. Welcome again to Logical Bible Study. It's the Catholic podcast where we do an

exegesis of scripture, so really helping you understand what the text itself is saying.

And so today we're looking at a short passage from Luke. So it's Luke chapter 8, verses 1 to 3.

Jesus made his way through towns and villages preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.

With him went the twelve, as well as certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and ailments.

Mary surnamed the Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,

Joanna, the wife of Herod's Stuart Chuser, Susanna, and several others who provided for them

out of their own resources. So that's it. It's a nice short passage from Luke today. Let's start

by thinking about the context, what has just happened. And whenever you're doing an exegesis of

scripture, if you really want to understand what it's saying, you should, as much as possible, look at what has just happened. And whenever you're doing an exegesis of scripture, if you really want to

understand what it's saying, you should, as much as possible, look at what has come just before it.

So just prior to this, Jesus has begun his ministry in Galilee, and that is in the northern part

of Israel. So that's where he starts his ministry. Now, in the passage previous to this one, so in chapter 7 verses 36 to 50, there's the story

of Jesus forgiving a sinful woman.

Now that woman is not named, but she is clearly a sinner and Jesus forgives her in that

passage.

Now it's quite likely that that story would have been pretty shocking to the gospel's hearers

because she's

probably some sort of prostitute and yet Jesus accepts her and heals her and forgives her.

In that culture, women were considered to have very low social status, particularly sinful women.

So that was quite a shocking story for Luke to include, and that comes

just before this. But Luke probably wanted to include that story first to show that forgiveness

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