The anointing of Christ is recorded in all four Gospels, yet religious scholars find it difficult to make a conclusive decision on whether this was one recorded event, two recorded events, or three recorded events.
And depending on what lens you look at it, this could either be a contradiction, or a rare occurrence where three women (a miracle in and of itself) did the same thing to Christ.
My opinion that this was one woman—but before I dive into that, let me determine how and why I came up with this.
None of the Gospels are said to be recorded chronologically, and Luke seems to record the most of Christ’s teachings, implying that Luke was much more focused on Christ’s teachings rather than miracles. Luke seems to concentrate more on the compassionate side of Christ, and is among the few Gospels that take Christ’s interaction with women seriously, while the others seem to avoid them.
The Gospel of Matthew also has a good amount of Christ’s parables and teachings recorded, but it is heavily focused on a Jewish audience, and seems to be a scholarly article to convince Jews that Christ, did in fact fulfil the Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah to come.
The Gospel of Mark is a compilation of Peter’s preaching, as written by Mark who accompanied him. Mark is the shortest Gospel, and focuses heavily on Christ’s miracles and His role.
The Gospel of John focuses on Christ’s deification, His identity with the father, and appeals more to a Greek audience that was concerned with philosophy at the time.
So, why is understanding this necessary?
Because it may not be that these Gospels recorded the anointing of Christ’s feet as being separate events, but rather, each Gospel recorded the same event in a different light.
Let’s start with Luke.
Luke’s Account
When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
48Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Luke 7:36-50
All the synoptic Gospels only record one Passover, and though Luke claims that Jesus began His ministry around 30 years of age, it offers very little insight into how many years His ministry lasted.
Luke, written after both Matthew and Mark, was written to a specific audience, and Luke’s purpose for recounting the life of Christ seems to be more for a secular reason than a spiritual one, though Luke highlights spiritual themes as he was a believer at the time.
Luke’s main purpose seems to be recording the teachings of Christ and the human and compassionate nature of Christ. So, while Luke pulls his references from the earlier Gospels, Luke was in no way trying to construct a chronological biography of Christ’s life, but rather, he seemed more concerned with using his references to highlight certain messages he was trying to convey.
In chapter 5 of Luke, he recounts Christ healing a man with leprosy and then, later Luke focuses on one theme—forgiveness and salvation. In fact, Luke’s first mention of Pharisees came after healing the leper. In fact, all three synoptic Gospels record Jesus’s first qualm with the Pharisees happening after he heals the man with leprosy (this will be necessary for later).
We see a break in chapter 7, where Luke, after recording John sending his disciples to Christ, where Luke begins to talk about Jesus being invited to dinner at the home of a Pharisee named Simon. This is where the anointing took place.
Luke offers no context clues as to where this could’ve taken place, and though many claim that this perhaps happened in the Galilean area or Capernaum, there is no surety in this, since there are no transitional statements that could pinpoint what Luke’s purpose for doing this was.
Except … when we dive into chapter 8, we see that Luke introduces, for the first time, women into the narrative, stating that these women also were disciples of Christ and many of them financed Christ’s ministry. He seemed to introduce the female characters to his story earlier than other Gospels.
Luke introduces Mary (of Magdalene) early in his account and he is the only Synoptic Gospel that mentions Mary (both the one of Magdalene and of Bethany, who might be the same person) by name outside of the resurrection account.
John mentions Mary of Bethany close to the resurrection account—when Lazarus died and during her anointing Christ, but we’ll get to that.
Luke seemed to be more interested in telling a narrative of Christ that would’ve defied cultural manners of the time. Christ traveled with women, associated himself with tax collectors, and dined with who the Pharisees considered sinful people.
Luke’s account of the Gospel also seems to not care too much about political and religious biases as he straightforwardly speaks about Christ’s interaction with Pharisees, prostitutes, tax collectors, and other sinners.
We can see this on how both Mark and Matthew’s account of Christ calling Matthew is structured. Luke says “Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi” whereas both Mark and Matthew instead say “Jesus saw Levi/Matthew at the tax booth”, deliberately disassociating Matthew from his profession as a tax collector.
We need to understand that both Mark and Matthews’s reason for disassociating themselves (or at least trying to) from sinners, prostitutes, and Pharisees is perhaps due to their own biases as well as their need to gain the favor of a Jewish audience at the time.
Mark and Matthew’s Account
Now that we’ve established the cultural biases that Mark and Matthew seem to have, we can say evidently that neither of these books were interested in presenting the life of Christ in a way that would appeal more to a Gentile audience.
Rather, Matthew’s purpose of writing this account of Christ (as an eye-witness) was to appeal to the Jewish audience—to prove to them that Christ is really the foretold Messiah. Mark was a scribe compiling Peter’s teachings of Christ, and thus both Gospels had some biases snuck into their accounts of the Gospel.
This also means that while their Gospel is mostly chronological, it perhaps wasn’t necessarily meant to be that way—and perhaps, some stories weren’t meant to make it into the accounts either.
The Anointing According to Matthew
While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, 7a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.
8When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”
10Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Matthew 26:6-13
The Anointing According to Mark
Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 2“But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.”
3While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.
4Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.
6“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 11 They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So, he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
Mark 14:4-11
The Accounts of Matthew and Mark
John 11:57 (we’ll get to John’s account) gives us a detail that’s missing from Mark and Matthew, but is very evident in why they would follow up their accounts of the Pharisee’s plot to kill Christ with the anointing.
In John 11, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead; the Pharisees were told this, and thus they planned to kill both Lazarus and Jesus. This was during Passover, and thus, they knew they couldn’t do it openly as it would cause a riot, so instead, they opted to do it secretly, charging anyone who knew about Christ’s whereabouts to tell them.
Both Mark and Matthew mention that the Pharisees were now plotting to kill Christ, but neither of these Gospels seemed interested in setting the tone for the woman who anointed Christ—they seemed to do a flashback to a past event—a dinner where ‘one of the disciples’ had questioned the perfume used to anoint Christ
Now, for reasons of bias, neither of these Gospels actually mention which disciple had questioned where this woman got her jar of perfume and neither of them mentions the woman by name. They were more preoccupied with a setting—right after this, they mention Judas going to the Chief Priest and asking him to name a price—that is, Judas was the one to betray Christ.
Both the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Matthew were interested in setting the scene for the death and resurrection of Christ, because this is the central theme of their accounts of the Gospel.
As they were writing to a Jewish audience, they were convincing their crowd that Christ was indeed the Messiah—the one who died and rose again. Thus, to have a set-up like this would be crucial. For Matthew, who was concerned with symbolism, he states:
“For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
He recounts these words of Christ—that the woman’s actions was done to prepare His body for burial—and then Christ prophesies that whenever the Gospel is proclaimed to the entire world, what she did would be told in memory of her. He seems to prophesy that the foundation of the Gospel will be built on her testimony and eye-witness to the resurrection. Mark recalls this same thing as well.
Later down, both Mark and Matthew decides to mention Mary Magdalene (the same Mary in the Gospel of Luke who financed Christ’s ministry).
Luke disregards the need to mention the anointing of Christ during the time of the Passover because he’d already mentioned it in reference to Mary being one of the women who supported Christ’s ministry.
Instead, since his audience was Gentile, there was no need for it—there was no symbolism that they’d relate to in this context, and thus, Luke jumps straight into mentioning that Judas betrayed Christ.
In Luke’s account of the resurrection, he directly states that the disciples had refused to believe the women outright because they thought they spoke non-sense, whereas Matthew pushes out completely the fact that the women witnessed Christ’s resurrected body first. Mark’s earliest manuscripts actually omit this entire scene, and instead, it was added twenty years after Mark had written this Gospel.
So, clearly, there was a bias in Mark and Matthew, a bias that was focused on a Jewish audience who would not have taken well to hearing the role women played in Christ’s ministry, especially if these women were once deemed immoral.
A Gentile audience, however, would not have cared for these legalistic biases, and thus, Luke was able to write freely.
John’s Account
I like to say that John’s Gospel is the ‘petty’ Gospel. The Gospel that is filled with wit, sarcasm, humor, and above all things, his revenge on Peter (it seems). Thus, John does more name-dropping when it comes to his retelling of the resurrection.
The pettiness furthers when you see that clearly Christ had spats not just with the Pharisees, but with the disciples as well. John was considered the disciple whom Christ loved the most, and it may be very well that John was the youngest of the men, perhaps anywhere around 12 to 14 when Christ’s ministry took place.
John wrote his account last, and though he references some elements from the other Gospels, his account focuses strictly of the deity of Christ. It was philosophical and theological, and perhaps appealed to a Greek audience that was more mindful of these things.
With that being said, John gives us the backstory of Lazarus—the man who Christ rose from the dead—the man that started it all. It was Lazarus’s resurrection that put things in place for the Pharisees to seriously consider killing Christ. For years Christ had been evading them; they tried to stone Him several times for claiming to be God.
And now He’s raising the dead! He’s taking things too far.
If Lazarus was one of the Pharisees who secretly followed Christ, and then began openly following him (especially if he was no longer allowed back to the Sanhedrin after being a leper) it would be easy to see why they’d want to kill him.
Most of Jesus’s encounters with Pharisees who’d believed in him had been secretive (like Nicodemus). If a Pharisee (or ex-Pharisee) suddenly ‘switched sides’ and followed Christ, this could cause a major disruption, and thus, the other Pharisees would easily want to get rid of Christ—and the Pharisee.
We know it all too well in our modern era—silencing someone when they get a little too out of hand. Let’s say the Pharisees invented the ‘cancel culture’ before it was even a thing. And their way of doing it was a bit ruthless to say the least.
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
7“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
9Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11 for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.
John 12:1-11
Remember when I said John was the *petty* Gospel? Unlike Mark and Matthew who strictly just wanted to tell the story of their Messiah and His death and resurrection, John seemed to be out for blood—in writing at least.
John never told his narrative to set the atmosphere of Jesus’s arrest, because he never followed the anointing up with that. Instead, John claims that this event took place six days before the Passover, and then after mentioning it, he goes on to recount more of Christ’s final words to His disciples rather than set up the arrest.
Why?
Because John wanted to be petty—and also, John wanted to showcase the disruption Lazarus was causing in Jerusalem.
He name-drops Judas as being the one to question Mary’s money (and yes, he mentions that it was Mary at this point) and that Judas’s reason was because he was stealing from the treasury.
Earlier, in Luke, we see that Mary (Magdalene) was among the women financing Jesus’s ministry. If Mary (Magdalene) and Mary of Bethany are the same, and if Lazarus is really Simon the Pharisee, then we can easily see how their wealth would’ve come about. After all, Lazarus could afford a tomb, and he seems to be well-known among the Sanhedrin as many people came for his burial.
If Mary, Lazarus’s sister, was a bit wayward, then it could be understood why Lazarus would’ve passed the comment. Perhaps, Lazarus had wanted to disassociate himself from his sister’s past lifestyle, and perhaps Mary did indeed have a past, but then she had an encounter with Christ, and that encounter forever changed her life.
Her final act was to break the bottle of expensive perfume (usually handed down from mother to daughter) over Jesus, a symbol of her gratitude and love for Christ who’d healed and forgiven her. And perhaps, Simon, seeing this, fully converted and dedicated himself to Jesus’s ministry.
So, it was easy to see why Judas would take problems with this. He was the treasurer, he was stealing money, and he was stealing money from Lazarus and his family—they were using that money to finance Christ’s ministry.
If Judas had been stealing money, it perhaps might have been to pay off a debt because why else would’ve he been so upset with what Mary did with her money? Perhaps he couldn’t steal any more money from the treasury and he needed that money desperately—he needed that money to pay off a debt, and because he was desperate, it sent him to the Chief Priest, where he betrayed Christ for money.
It all then ties back to why Luke’s earlier account of this incident, Jesus used the illustration of a man needing to pay off debt. However, Jesus uses the illustration to highlight forgiveness, and perhaps that was Jesus hinting to Judas that He knew what Judas was doing, why he was doing it, and urging Judas to repent.
Judas never did repent.
The Final Verdict
There were many who followed Christ and repented. For that matter, Lazarus (Simon the Leper) repented, Mary repented, even Peter repented. Judas never did. Judas’s ultimate demise was failing to realize that the one who forgave sins was among him.
John’s account of Christ being anointed highlights the key components of Christ’s mission on earth: He came to atone for our sins, to forgive us through the shedding of His blood. Luke’s account of the anointing tells us that Christ was the forgiver of all sins, and not just some. He came to save those who were lost.
Mark and Matthew’s account was written to pave the way to what Christ had to do to atone for our sins—He had to die. And He came to fulfil the very first of the prophesy—that the seed of the woman would come to bring salvation to the world. Because it was through the deception of a woman, and the disobedience of a man that sin entered.
Yet it was through the obedience of one man and the eye-witness of a woman that salvation spread. What happened at Bethany came to close the loop that was left open because of the fall.
Next Post…
Now that we’ve indulged a bit in Christ’s anointing at Bethany, we can slowly approach the closing. This has been a long post, so for the next post, I promise I’ll spend just a few paragraphs on it.
We’ll be tackling the washing of the feet. I’ll be uploading two posts one after the other: after the washing of feet, we’ll deal with the last supper, and how it plays a relevant role in the final days of Christ.
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