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

BY MARY OF BETHANY.
for burial" also like other infinitives expressing purpose. The
whole later clause is equivalent to "she did it with the intention
to prepare me for burial." The English translation so plainly
expresses that her purpose was to anoint him for burial, that not
one in a thousand, untrammelled by commentaries, would think
of any other meaning. The Greek,* if possible, expresses it still
more plainly. The thing spoken of is the object of the action,
to prepare him for burial. This is a very different thing from
its answering for his burial, or being just in time for it, or "it is
as if" she did it for my burial, as so many commentators arbitrarily and gratuitously assume and interpolate.
We do not depend on verbal niceties, though on our theory
every word in all these descriptions and explanations has a
propriety it would not otherwise have. We depend on the great
and obvious features of the facts and explanations.
But if M1ary knew Jesus was to be crucified, and so it was
doubtful whether his body would be buried at all, how could she
be said knowingly " to prepare him for burial "?
The object of anointing a dead body was to show affectionate
attention to it while yet possible, which was before burial. It
was natural that in speaking of it, this object, so welf understood,
should not be expressed, but that the occasion for it, the approaching burial, should be-so the phrase became "prepare for
burial" instead of "pay the last attentions before burial." And
this conventional phrase would be used whether the further
opportunity for attention would be prevented by burial or in any
other way.
Besides Mary doubtless remembered Jesus' prediction that
he should "remain three days in the heart of the earth "y and
the prophecy that his grave should be with the wicked or the
rich,y and so expected some kind of burial, though an ignominious one at the hands of his executioners, such as was customary
after crucifixion in Judea.
"She hath done what she could" suggests a contrast between
the thing done and something else that she would have done but
found she could not, and that she had come as near to as possible. She would if she could have anointed his body after death
* We are indebted to more than one able Greek scholar for explaining the force
of the original.
Matt. 12: 40. y Is. 53: 9.
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