gospel · 30 · Bethany
Six days before the Passover, at table in Bethany, a flask of pure nard worth three hundred denarii was poured over him and the house was filled with the fragrance. Judas objected that it might have been sold for the poor. 'Leave her alone,' he said; 'she has kept it for the day of my burial' — the passion named aloud before it began.
The anointings of Jesus's head or feet are events recorded in the four gospels. The account in Matthew 26, Mark 14, takes place on Holy Wednesday, while the account in John 12 takes place 6 days before Passover in Bethany, a village in Judaea on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, where Lazarus lived. In Matthew and Mark, he is anointed by an unnamed woman. In John, the woman is identified as Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus of Bethany. The event in Luke features an unnamed sinful woman, and is in the northern region, as Luke 7 indicates Jesus was ministering in the northern regions of Nain and Capernaum. The honorific anointing with perfume is an action frequently mentioned in other literature from the time; however, using long hair to dry Jesus's feet, as in John and Luke, is not recorded elsewhere, and should be regarded as an exceptional gesture. Considerable debate has discussed the identity of the woman, the location, timing, and the message.
'She has kept it for the day of my burial.'