Earlier in Mark’s Gospel Jesus had “cleansed the Temple” and
admonished the temple authorities and scribes saying, “My house shall be called
a house of prayer for all the nations,” and rebuked them for making it “a den
of robbers” (11:15-17). Even that day the
authorities were “looking for a way to kill him” (v. 18). Later, they want to arrest him when they
realize the Parable of the Wicked Tenants was spoken against them (12:12). Now two days before the Passover and the
festival of Unleavened Bread, the chief priests, and the scribes are looking
for a way to arrest him through treachery and kill him before the feast (14:1-2). While they seek to destroy him, an unnamed
woman in Bethany anoints Jesus before his death and burial; Jesus says, “wherever
the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told
in the remembrance of her” (v. 9). In
the meantime, Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests to hand him over to them
(vv. 10-11).
My question is who is that woman? She is remarkable! Matthew’s parallel account is also nameless (Matt
26:6-13). In a close parallel account in
the Gospel of John, Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus’ feet (12:3). In Luke’s Gospel, which appears to be an
entirely different account, happening at a different point in Jesus’ ministry,
and takes place in a different home, a sinful woman anoints and bathes Jesus, “kissing
his feet and anointing them with ointment” (Lk 7:37-38). In the 6th century, Gregory the
Great associates the woman in Luke 7 as Mary Magdalene (Homily
33.1).
Jerome argues that the woman in Mark 14 is not the same woman in Luke 7. He also points out a dichotomy. It was not the priest and scribes in the temple who had ointment to anoint Jesus, rather it is the woman in Mark 14 who is outside the temple who carries a jar of ointment for anointing Jesus (Homily 84).
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| People gathered outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Israel (2017 Israel Trip) LFL |
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