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

THE ANOINTMENT OF JESUS
"prophetic import," speaking to the senses of the Apostles, as
Dr. Cummings supposes.
4th. That his approbation was really for her generous love,
which being apparent needed not to be pointed out, and that his
reference to his burial was only for after effect, and to show that
her expression of love was opportune.
5th. That his death being uppermost in his mind, what he
said about it incidentally took this shape from the action of the
woman.
Though it seems alnmost ridiculous to argue in favor of a
thing that is so evident on its face as AMary's intention to anoint Jesus for burial, yet as that is so universally denied, we propose to show that that must be the meaning of the language of
our Saviour, and that no other meaning can be the true one.
We shall first speak briefly of the several possible interpretations that have been devised to avoid the true one.
lst. The subject Jesus explained was the conduct of an intelligent agent. In such cases, unless the contrary appears, the
action described should be understood in its relations with that
agent, not with something else; that would be irrelevant.
When such an agent is said to do a thing for or unto an effect,
the intention to produce that effect must be understood, unless
the contrary appears from the nature of the case or from
qualifying expressions. The potter makes "one vessel unto
honor," that expresses his purpose. By a sort of paradox in
language, such an agent is sometimes said to do something unto
a result, without or even against his intention, but that must
appear from the context or the necessity of the case. But in
the explanations of Jesus there is nothing in the nature of the
case or in the context, to show that the intelligent agent had
not the intention the language expresses.
2d. We know of no precedent in the Bible for crediting a
person with one good or bad act he had not done, because he
had done some other one.
3d. If Mary's act was of prophetic import and she did not.
know it, that could not have been mentioned in her justification.
If she did know it by the gift of prophecy only (of which there
is no evidence), the commendation awarded to her was inordinate, for that gift, far inferior in God's sight to the grace of
faith, was (if she had it) common to her and many others.
504
LJUly,