The Bible Book

246

I

n the last week of His life,

Jesus has a moving encounter

in Bethany. Two days before

Passover, He is reclining at the

table in the home of Simon the

Leper in Bethany, near Jerusalem,

where He is staying. Unexpectedly,

a woman enters Simon’s home.

Uninvited, and unprompted, she

comes to Jesus and pours perfume

defends the woman and tells her

accusers to leave her alone. He

argues that the poor will always

be there, and the disciples can

help them at any time.

Jesus then adds that He will

not be with His discipes for much

longer and explains this to the

assembled company: “She poured

perfume on My body beforehand

IN BRIEF

PA S SAGE

Matthew 26:6–13; Mark

14:3–9; John 12:1–8

THEME

Foretelling Jesus’s death

SETTING

c. 29 ce The village of Bethany,

near Jerusalem.

KEY FIGURES

Jesus The Son of God, in the

last days of His earthly life.

The woman Possibly Mary

of Bethany, who anoints Jesus.

Judas The disciple who later

betrays Jesus.

SHE HAS DONE

A BEAUTIFUL

THING TO ME

MARK 14:6, JESUS ANOINTED AT BETHANY

A woman anoints Jesus with nard

as He dines with friends in Bethany,

in this illumination from the Codex

de Predis by 15th-century Italian

miniaturist Cristoforo de Predis.

onto His head from an alabaster jar.

The perfume is nard—an expensive

oil imported from India. Following

its use in this symbolic act of

anointing, Jesus foretells His

coming death to His disciples

and to the other guests that are

assembled in the house.

Afterward, the woman is

rebuked by some of those present—

disciples and others—who accuse

her of wasting perfume that could

have been sold “for more than a

year’s wages” (Mark 14:5), raising

money to be given to the poor.

However, Jesus immediately

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247

See also: The Raising of Lazarus 226–27 ■ The Last Supper 248–53 ■ Betrayal in the Garden 254–55 ■

The Crucifixion 258–65 ■ The Empty Tomb 268–71

THE GOSPELS

to prepare for My burial” (Mark

14:8). None of the Gospel authors

tell us how the disciples responded

to Jesus’s claim.

Mary of Bethany

In the version of this scene in

John’s Gospel, the anointing takes

place at a dinner held in Jesus’s

honor in Bethany. Here, Mary, the

sister of Lazarus, whom Jesus had

previously resurrected from the

dead (John 11:1), anoints Jesus.

According to John, she pours oil

over His feet and then wipes them

with her hair (John 12:3), filling the

house with perfume. This action

would have been doubly shocking,

given that it was against custom

for Jewish women to let down

their hair when in public.

John’s description echoes

another Gospel event (Luke 7:36–

50), in which a “sinful woman”

weeps at Jesus’s feet, before

drying His feet with her hair and

anointing them. While Mary of

Bethany is sometimes incorrectly

confused with this sinful woman,

in all the biblical accounts that

reference Mary she is generally

portrayed as a good and devoted

servant of Jesus.

Jesus portrays Mary’s actions

as a sign that she knows what is

coming: she, unlike the disciples,

accepts His imminent death. The

Gospels give no other clues to her

motives, although some scholars

propose it was to show gratitude

to Jesus for raising her brother

from the dead. Whatever Mary’s

reasons, Jesus asks the disciples

to remember her act: “wherever

this gospel is preached ... what

she has done will also be told, in

memory of her” (Matthew 26:13).

Preface to betrayal

When Mary anoints Jesus, the

disciples are taken aback, not

by the scale of her devotion, but

rather her extravagance. As John

notes, the nard cost 300 denarii,

or a year’s wages (a laborer at the

time would earn one denarius per

day). John’s Gospel attributes the

objection about wasting money to

just one disciple—Judas Iscariot,

the group’s treasurer, who, it is

Anointing for burial

In the ancient world, anointing

corpses for burial was a common

practice. This symbolic act

consisted of pouring aromatic

oil over a person’s head, feet,

or entire body. The effect of

the ritual was to designate its

object as belonging to God. It

did not matter whether the

consecration took place when

the person—or creature—

was alive, or after their death.

Sometimes, even inanimate

objects were anointed in the

Bible—Jacob, for example,

anointed a rock in Genesis 28:18,

to designate a place, Bethel, as

the house of God.

These oils were also used as

a form of medicine for centuries

by many different cultures. They

were thought to have special

properties that could drive out

demons that were believed to

cause disease. To this day,

European kings and queens are

sanctified with oil in ceremonies

involving a divine blessing. When

Jesus is anointed in Bethany, this

simple act represents a symbolic

preparation for His death and an

affirmation of His holiness.

A pharaoh is anointed by gods

Horus and Thoth in this bas relief

from the Temple of Horus and Sobek

in Kom Ombo, Upper Egypt.

implied, wanted the money for

himself (John 12:6). The story

closes with Judas going to the

chief priests, who offer him money

in exchange for handing Jesus to

them. Scholars have long debated

the correlation between the events

at Bethany and Judas’s subsequent

betrayal. It is not clear if Jesus’s

foretelling of His own demise is

a trigger for Judas’s actions. ■

The poor you

will always have with

you, and you can help

them any time you

want. But you will not

always have me. She

did what she could.

Mark 14:7

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