Anointing at Bethany

Biblical Text

The event is recorded in Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, and John 12:1-8. It took place in Bethany, a village near Jerusalem, during Jesus' final week, a few days before the Passover.

• Matthew and Mark: While Jesus was at table in the house of Simon the leper, a woman poured costly ointment from an alabaster box (a vessel for ointment carved from alabaster) on his head. Mark describes it as "ointment of spikenard very precious" and says that the woman broke the box and poured it out. Some of those present (in Matthew, the disciples) were indignant and called it a waste. Jesus said that the woman had prepared beforehand for his burial. He also said that wherever the gospel was preached, what she had done would be told as a memorial of her.
• John: Six days before the Passover, in Bethany, where Lazarus lived, Martha served at the meal. There Mary poured a pound of spikenard on Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair, "and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment" (John 12:3). Judas Iscariot objected, asking why the ointment had not been sold for three hundred pence and the money given to the poor. John adds that Judas said this because he was a thief and kept the money bag.

Background

Bethany was a village on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. John 11:18 states that it was "nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off" (about 15 stadia, a little over 3 km). Spikenard, or nard, is known to have been an ointment derived from a plant native to India and the Himalayan region, and it was extremely valuable. A denarius (rendered "penny" in the KJV) was the equivalent of a laborer's daily wage (Matthew 20:2), so three hundred denarii was a large sum, close to a year's wages. Pouring oil on a person's head was a customary gesture of hospitality toward guests, and it also recalled the anointing performed when kings and priests were installed.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

Both Messiah and Christ mean "the anointed one." Jesus, however, interpreted this act not as a ceremony installing a king but as preparation for his burial. In Mark 16:1 the women went to the tomb with spices, but they did not anoint Jesus' body. For this reason, some interpreters read the ointment poured out at Bethany as the burial anointing Jesus actually received. Immediately after this account, Matthew and Mark place the scene in which Judas agrees to hand Jesus over to the chief priests. The juxtaposition is therefore commonly read as a contrast between lavish devotion and betrayal for money.

Interpretation and Debated Questions

• The same event?: Mark places the event within the narrative of the two days before the Passover, while John dates it six days before the Passover. The ointment is poured on Jesus' head in Matthew and Mark but on his feet in John. Many scholars regard these as accounts of the same event told from different perspectives, though some hold that there were two separate events.
• Relationship to Luke 7: Luke 7:36-50 contains a similar account. In the house of Simon the Pharisee, "a woman in the city, which was a sinner" washed Jesus' feet with her tears and anointed them with ointment. Because this account does not place the event in Bethany and sets it in the middle of Jesus' public ministry, it is generally regarded as a separate event.
• Who was the woman?: Matthew and Mark do not name her; only John identifies her as Mary, the sister of Lazarus (see Martha and Mary). In the Western church, a tradition identifying this Mary, the woman of Luke 7, and Mary Magdalene as a single person is known to have spread after a sermon by Pope Gregory I in the late sixth century. The biblical text, however, makes no such connection. The Orthodox Church has kept them distinct, and Protestants generally distinguish them as well.
• "For ye have the poor always with you": Many interpreters do not take this saying to mean that care for the poor may be treated lightly. Mark 14:7 adds, "and whensoever ye will ye may do them good," which echoes Deuteronomy 15:11. On this reading, the saying emphasizes that little time remained for Jesus to be with his disciples.
• Simon the leper: The text does not say who he was or how he was related to Lazarus's family. Claims on these points are later speculation.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, the expression "breaking the alabaster box" is widely used to describe devotion that gives one's most precious possession without reservation. This passage is frequently preached during Holy Week and in sermons on devotion and offering.