Mark 14:3

3. [3035][3036][3037][3038] omit καί before συντρίψασα. [3039][3040][3041][3042][3043][3044] omit κατά before τῆς κεφαλῆς.

[3035] Codex Sinaiticus. 4th cent. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Katharine on Mount Sinai. Now at St Petersburg. The whole Gospel, ending at Mark 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1911.

[3036] Codex Vaticanus. 4th cent., but perhaps a little later than א. In the Vatican Library almost since its foundation by Pope Nicolas V., and one of its greatest treasures. The whole Gospel, ending at Mark 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1889.

[3037] Codex Regius. 8th cent. An important witness. At Paris. Contains Mark 1:1 to Mark 10:15; Mark 10:30 to Mark 15:1; Mark 15:20 to Mark 16:20, but the shorter ending is inserted between Mark 16:8 and Mark 16:9, showing that the scribe preferred it to the longer one.

[3038] Codex Athous Laurae. 8th cent. Like N and Σ, it is written in silver letters on purple vellum. Contains Mark 9:5 to Mark 16:20, and, as in L, the shorter ending is inserted between Mark 16:8 and Mark 16:9. As in Δ, the text of Mark is specially good.

[3039] Codex Sinaiticus. 4th cent. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Katharine on Mount Sinai. Now at St Petersburg. The whole Gospel, ending at Mark 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1911.

[3040] Codex Vaticanus. 4th cent., but perhaps a little later than א. In the Vatican Library almost since its foundation by Pope Nicolas V., and one of its greatest treasures. The whole Gospel, ending at Mark 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1889.

[3041] Codex Ephraemi. 5th cent. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out, and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it; but a great deal of the original writing has been recovered; of Mark we have Mark 1:17 to Mark 6:31; Mark 8:5 to Mark 12:29; Mark 13:19 to Mark 16:20. In the National Library at Paris.

[3042] Codex Regius. 8th cent. An important witness. At Paris. Contains Mark 1:1 to Mark 10:15; Mark 10:30 to Mark 15:1; Mark 15:20 to Mark 16:20, but the shorter ending is inserted between Mark 16:8 and Mark 16:9, showing that the scribe preferred it to the longer one.

[3043] Codex Sangallensis. 9th or 10th cent. Contains the Gospels nearly complete, with an interlinear Latin translation. The text of Mark is specially good, agreeing often with CL. At St Gall.
[3044] Codex Athous Laurae. 8th cent. Like N and Σ, it is written in silver letters on purple vellum. Contains Mark 9:5 to Mark 16:20, and, as in L, the shorter ending is inserted between Mark 16:8 and Mark 16:9. As in Δ, the text of Mark is specially good.

3. ἐν Βηθανίᾳ. That our Lord should be at a supper at Bethany on one of the days before the Passover is what we should expect from Mark 11:11-12, and one would gather from Mt. and Mk that the supper toot place on the evening of Tuesday or Wednesday. But Jn quite distinctly places it before the Triumphal Entry, perhaps on the Friday of the previous week; see on John 12:1. The precision in Jn is not likely to be erroneous, and we must suppose that Mk, followed by Mt., has recorded this event after others which really preceded it. The wish to bring it into close connexion with the treachery of Judas may have caused the displacement.

ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ Σίμωνος. That the owner of the house was called Simon, and that at a meal in his house a woman anointed Christ from an alabaster, are the reasons why, already in Origen’s time, this narrative was confused by some persons with that in Luke 7:36-50. Almost everything else is different, and “the leper” seems to be added here to distinguish this Simon from any other, for Simon was one of the very commonest of names. The difficulty of believing in two anointings is infinitesimal; one such might easily suggest a repetition. Whereas the difficulty of believing that Mary of Bethany had ever been “a sinner” is enormous. There is no evidence of a previous evil life, and what we know of her renders a previous evil life almost incredible.

τοῦ λεπροῦ. We are not told that he was present. If he was presiding as entertainer, he must have been cured of his malady. It is probable that some curable skin diseases were regarded as leprosy; and a cured “leper” might still be known as ὁ λεπρός.

κατακειμένου αὐτοῦ. This second gen. abs. is quite in Mk’s conversational style.

γυνή. There is no hint that she was related to Simon; and that she was his wife, daughter, or sister are improbable conjectures. She may have been still alive when Mk and Mt. wrote, but dead when Jn wrote; hence they might prefer not to name her, while he had no reason for abstaining. Or he happened to know her name, whereas they did not. The case of Malchus is parallel (see on Mark 14:47).

ἀλάβαστρον. The word is all genders, but in class. Gk the termination is -ος, masc. or fem. Boxes or phials for holding unguents were called “alabasters” even when made of other material; but Pliny says that unguents keep best when kept in alabastris (N. H. xiii. 2). Cf. Hdt. iii. 20. In N.T., and probably in LXX., μύρον, “ointment,” is distinguished from ἔλαιον, “oil.” Trench, Syn. § xxxviii. Here μύρου is virtually an adj., ἀλ. μύρου=“unguent-box”; and νάρδου πιστικῆς tells what kind of unguent, and of what quality. The kind is that made from a well-known plant found chiefly in India. Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 485. The quality denoted by πιστική is uncertain, but “potable”= “liquid” (πίνω) may be dismissed. “Trustworthy”=“genuine” is possible. Unguents were often adulterated. The only safe course is to transliterate, “pistic,” and leave the word unexplained; it evidently implies that the ointment used was specially good. See on John 12:3 and cf. Song of Solomon 1:12.

πολυτελοῦς. Horace offers to give a cask of wine for a very small box of good ointment (Carm. IV. xii. 17). Cf. 1 Timothy 2:9; 1 Peter 3:4.

συντρίψασα. Mk alone tells us that she broke the box or phial, possibly in eagerness to pour out the whole contents quickly. Renan’s suggestion may be right that she did not wish the alabaster to be used again for a less worthy purpose (Vie, p. 373, ed. 1863), just as wine-glasses are sometimes broken to show honour to the person whose health has just been drunk. But this is less probable, for she breaks the alabaster before anointing Him, not after. The verb implies violence (Mark 5:4; Revelation 2:27), but the vessel would be fragile. Note the participles.

κατέχεεν. Mt. retains the imperf. and adds ἐπί before κεφαλῆς, which here is probably governed by the κατα-. Verbs compounded with κατά often take a gen.; κατακυριεύω, καταφρονέω, κατεξουσιάζω, κατηγορέω, κ.τ.λ. See crit. note. Jn says that she anointed Christ’s feet and wiped them with her hair, as the sinner wiped her tears from His feet before anointing them (Luke 7:38). She could anoint either head or feet from behind, as He reclined on a couch.