The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke the Evangelist composed this Gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles.

[5] Arno Gaebelein notes that while these parables have wide appeal and application, in studying them "it must not be overlooked that the Lord answers in the first place the murmuring Pharisees".

This is the third mention by Luke of the tax collectors (Greek: οι τελωναι, hoi telōnai, also translated as "publicans"); they were previously one of the groups who answered John the Baptist's call to repentance,[8] and Jesus ate with them, amidst the Pharisees' earlier complaints, in chapter 5.

The New King James Version notes that married women often wore such coins in a ten-piece garland.

[14] Franklin notes that in both of these stories, the primary narrative about God's search for the lost is supplemented by a comment on repentance (verses 7 and 10), which "appears to have been introduced, not because the movement of the parable itself required it, but because Luke was sensitive to the charge that emphasis upon the gracious outreach of God could underplay the necessity for response on the part of those it met.