534 John J. Kilgallen that journey. Third, there is need for at least internal peace and confidence in a world of criticism and ostracism. Jesus may not have convinced Simon, the dinner guests and the city that the woman should be known no longer as a sinner. But he at least has bolstered the woman’s courage and conviction with his words of comfort. In offering some kind of calm within the storm of criticism she feels on every side, Jesus has put in its proper place the imposing triad “city-Pharisee-dinner guests”. As noted, the story’s very structure calls for these words of Jesus. It is most unlikely that the creator of the earliest story did understand the comfort the woman could draw from her response to Jesus. It needs only a word to make explicit what is already implicit in the inherited story. * ** There is no historical doubt that the woman of vv. 36-50 came to Jesus with a sense of forgiveness and a desire to thank him; efforts to show the relationship of other “women” stories in Luke and John, so as to suggest that vv. 36-50 are unhistorical, stir interest but, ultimately, fail (26). In addition, the story was composed originally by believers in Jesus at the right hand of God: this suggests that, though their formulas were not the most expressive of their beliefs, they knew that Jesus enjoyed the powers of God, one of which is forgiveness (27). The earliest form of this event-turned-into-story indicates that it was aimed at an audience who, for various reasons, would profit from a contrast of two persons which would highlight the prophetic quality of Jesus (28). It cannot be shown that he who formulated this story was ignorant of the belief that Jesus forgives sins. It is better to assume that this Christian, because the Sitz-im-Leben he confronted called for another value, did not develop this aspect of Jesus. Then, once someone had introduced the small parable and the comment about it (vv. 41-43), the story, though directed again at a particular audience and teaching, lay open to the final form we have, that which shows Theophilus that what he had been taught, that Jesus can forgive sins, is reliable. That the one who inserted the parable was oblivious to the implications of his parable seems most unlikely. That Theophilus had not known (before he read Luke’s Gospel) that Jesus was preached as having the power on earth to forgive sins — this is also less likely. The main conclusion to all this lies in the area of source- and literary- criticism — specifically in the use of the term ‘addition’. The impression is often given in commentaries that ‘addition’ means a piece of information or of faith that is foreign to the earlier story and/or to the tradition involved in the (26) For a good discussion of the relationship among Luke, Matthew, Mark and John in this regard, cf. BOCK, Luke, 690-691. (27) Very much allied with judgement (encapsulated in the Son of Man image) is mercy, the expression of which is forgiveness. Certainly there are somber statements made in the New Testament suggested by the strict impartiality of the Judge; yet, the Old Testament imagery can be called upon which says that ejn tw/' ajnasth'nai eij" krivsin to;n qeo;n tou' sw'sai pavnta" tou;" praei'" th'" gh'" diavyalma (Ps 75,10 [LXX]). (28) J. KREMER, Lucasevangelium (NEB 3, Wurzburg 1988) 86: “Durch sein Wissen um die Gedanken des Pharisäers zeigt Jesus, dass er ‘ein Prophet’ ist (vgl. 5,22)”.