The Divine Trinity

p. 116

“The gospels report Jesus as referring to his own reputation as a gluttonous man and a winebibber, but never think it necessary to refute the charge. It would not have taken much to twist the Zaccheus episode into living it up with the exploiting classes instead of identifying with the dispossessed. Nor would many a clergyman today be able to survive three circumstantial accounts (Mk. 14:3-9; Lk. 7:36-50; Jn 12:1-8) in the local paper that he had had his feet (or head) kissed, scented, and wiped with the hair of a woman of doubtful repute. The lack of defensiveness with which such compromising stories are told says a great deal.”