The Anointing of Jesus

Description of The Coloring Page: "in the home of Simon the Leper", table, food, synagogue outside a window, hosts, wall paper, very detailed patterns, Jesus seated while Mary of Bethany pours out expensive perfume on both his head and feet. In western paintings Mary is traditionally shown as wiping the perfume onto Christ's feet with her own hair.  This was considered in Christ's time on earth to be a very extravagant gesture, only reserved for a beloved royal king. This story is told in all four Gospels: Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, Luke 7:36-50 and John 12:1-8

       The anointing of Jesus is one of the relatively few events reported by each of the four Gospels, although the details of the accounts differ. All report the anointing of Jesus with expensive perfume by a woman, who pours the contents of an alabastron jar of "nard" (or spikenard), a very expensive perfume, over Jesus. The anointing angers some of the onlookers because the perfume could have been sold for a year's wages—which the Gospel of Mark enumerates as 300 denarii—and the money given to the poor. Matthew's gospel states that the "disciples were indignant" and John's states that it was Judas who was most offended. John adds that he was bothered because he (Judas) was a thief and desired the money for himself. Jesus is described as justifying the action of the woman by stating that the poor will always exist, and can be helped whenever desired.

       The identification of the woman by Luke as one "who lived a sinful life" and by John as Mary of Bethany played a part in the long-standing identification of Mary Magdalene as a former prostitute by the Western church, once all three figures were thought to be the same "composite Magdalene".

        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.

 

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