John 12 · a question people ask
Mark and Matthew also tell of a woman pouring ointment on Jesus at Bethany. Is it the same anointing as Mary's?
Each Gospel tells it in its own words, and none of them says whether they tell one event or two. John's Gospel says that "six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany" (12:1), "they made him a supper there" (12:2), and "Mary took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair" (12:3). Mark says, "While he was at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster jar of ointment of pure nard" (Mark 14:3), and "She broke the jar and poured it over his head" (Mark 14:3). Matthew says, "she poured it on his head as he sat at the table" (Matthew 26:7). In John, Judas asks, "Why wasn’t this ointment sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" (12:5); in Mark, "there were some who were indignant among themselves" (Mark 14:4); in Matthew, "when his disciples saw this, they were indignant" (Matthew 26:8). In John, Jesus says, "She has kept this for the day of my burial" (12:7); in Mark, "She has anointed my body beforehand for the burying" (Mark 14:8); in Matthew, "she did it to prepare me for burial" (Matthew 26:12). All three give Jesus's words, "For you always have the poor with you" (John 12:8; Mark 14:7; Matthew 26:11). These notes set the tellings side by side, don't fit them together, and don't say whether they are one event or two. Favor's chapter on Mark 14 teaches Mark's telling.
The verses
“Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him having an alabaster jar of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. But when his disciples saw this, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor.” However, knowing this, Jesus said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has done a good work for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you don’t always have me. For in pouring this ointment on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.”