The Anointment of Jesus by Mary of Bethany [pp. 484-511]

BY MARY OF BETHANY.
must either have been cured or not present); "I at "a supper,"
apparently more than an ordinary meal, which "they made"
for Jesus; his disciples, inclualing Judas Iscariot, were present. Ltazarus was also at table, and Martha waited on it.
A woman,* i. e., Mary of Bethany, broke, or broke open an
"alabaster" containing a pound (or about a pint) of very precious liquid perfume of spikenard or pure nard, "very costly,"
estimated at over three hundred denarii (evidently a large sum
to them.)" She poured it on Jesus' headt as he reclined; she
also anointed his feet with it, and wiped them with her hair; the
house was filled with the fragrance.t
Some persons, Judas especially, and then the disciples generally, "had indignation within themselves, murmured against
her," though probably not intending that Jesus should hear if
saying," Why was this waste of the ointment made?" and that "it
might have sold for more than three hundred denarii and given
to the poor."
Jesus, " when he understood it," peremptorily silenced these
complaints, saying, "let her alone, why trouble ye the woman?"
He then gave the reason why they should not trouble her,
"for she hath wrought a good work on me," and answered the
his house. As there are no data on which to found any opinion whatever, the conjectures of the learned are just as worthless as those of the child, or as the traditions about it that sprung up ag( s after the event. It might have been in any one
of several ways, no one of them improbable, and therefore the different but not conflicting statements of John and the other two evangelists create no difficulty.
m Lev. 13:46. Num. 5: 1, 2. 2 Kings, 15:5.
* Why did not Matthew and Mark, who must have known'so much of this womar,
give us her name? We cannot tell any more than we can tell why they never mention it in any other connection, or the name of Lazarus. Some of the conjectures
why they did not may be correct, bht nobody can know whether they are or not.
We can never advance in Bible or other knowledge till we distinguish more
strongly between know edge, opinion, and conjecture. These in many of our
commentaries are treated as if all on the same level.
n Matt. 20: 2. Luke 10: 35 John 6: 7.
t To have a pint of liquid ointment, however precious, poured on one's head now,
and creeping down one's fleshb, and smnearing one's clothes, would be anything but
agreeable. But when the great Hebrew poet wished to compare the excellence of
brotherly love to something most agreeable to the imagination of an Israelite, he
says, "It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the
beard,even Aaron's beard,that went down to the skirts of his garment." (Ps. 133: 2)
Jesus was no ascetic He did not discountenance the courtesies of society,
nor a decent attention to the dead. But the case under consideration being
peculiar, s no precedent for ex:ravagance,
1874.]
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