John 12:1-8
Mary Anoints Jesus
1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom He had raised from the dead.(A)
2 So they gave a supper for Him there. Martha was serving, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.
3 Then (a)Mary took a pound of very expensive perfume of pure (b)nard, and she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, the one who was going to betray Him, said,
5 “Why was this perfume not sold for (c)three hundred denarii and [the money] given to the poor?”
6 Now he said this, not because he cared about the poor [for he had never cared about them], but because he was a thief; and since he had the money box [serving as treasurer for the twelve disciples], he used to pilfer what was put into it.
7 So Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep [the rest of] it for the day of My burial.
8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”
Footnotes:
a.
John 12:3: There were two anointings of Jesus. This one in Bethany by Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus (Matt 26:7; Mark 14:3), and the other in the area of Galilee by an unnamed woman (Luke 7:37, 38).
b.
John 12:3: This was a thick, scented oil obtained from the root of a flowering plant grown in the Himalayas of Tibet and in the northern regions of India and Nepal.
c.
John 12:5: I.e. about a year’s wages for an ordinary workman.