Mark 14:3-9

A Woman Anoints Jesus With Perfumed Oil (14:3-9).

Mark deliberately places this incident between the plotting of the Sanhedrin and the offer of betrayal by Jesus, in order to lay emphasis on the fact that in it Jesus is being anointed as the Messiah in readiness for His burial, thus revealing that the Sanhedrin and Judas are only unknowingly carrying out God's plan. It is an indication that in spite of all outward appearance all was taking place within God's purposes. He knew precisely what was happening. John places it at Jesus' first arrival in Jerusalem prior to His entry on the ass. (The story in Luke 7:36, which some try to suggest is a variant of the same story, is so different in every detail that such an idea must be dismissed. Given the commonplace fact of a woman coming to Jesus in order to demonstrate her love with perfumed oil the details could not in fact have been more different).