Note 150 — TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Preliminary Note.—This anointing is not to be confounded with that of which Luke (7:36-50) gives an account. The reasons for distinguishing it from that anointing I have stated in the preliminary note there. This anointing is not mentioned by Luke. It is reported by Matthew (26:6-13) and Mark (14:3-9). It is true that some harmonists have supposed two distinct anointings in Bethany, but that opinion is entertained by very few scholars and by none of the moderns, and is not a reasonable hypothesis; the differences between John’s account and those of Matthew and Mark are not greater than might have been expected in accounts given by independent witnesses. Matthew and Mark say that Mary anointed Jesus’ head, John that she anointed Jesus’ feet; but certainly she may have anointed both the head and the feet. The principal difference lies in the fact that Matthew and Mark impliedly place the anointing two days before the Paschal feast (Matt. 26:2; Mark 14:1), while John impliedly places it six days before the feast (ver. 1). The chronology is uncertain; some scholars adopt that of Matthew and Mark (Robinson, Geo. W. Clark, Hackett)—​others, that of John (Townsend, Andrews, Alford). The former of these opinions appears to me the more probable for reasons stated in the note on Matthew 26:6-16. In such a case as this, where there appears to be a conflict in the chronology of the evangelists, neither of whom puts any emphasis upon chronological data or gives what may properly be called a date, we may reasonably allow the order of events to be determined by a consideration of the probable way in which one event leads on to another. In this case the discourses of Jesus in the temple and the overthrow of the ambitious hopes of Judas Iscariot naturally led to his complaint at this anointing, and Christ’s sharp rebuke of his spirit here naturally led in turn to his final act of treachery. The note of time afforded by John in verses 1 and 12, though they certainly indicate that the anointing took place prior to the triumphal procession, are not conclusive; for verses 2-9 may be regarded as parenthetical. Thus Dr. Hackett: “John is the only one of the evangelists who speaks of the Saviour stopping at Bethany on the way between Bethany and Jerusalem. Hence, this feast being the principal event which John associates with Bethany during these last days, he not unnaturally inserts the account of the feast immediately after the speaking of the arrival at Bethany. But having (so to speak) discharged his mind of that recollection, he then turns back and resumes the historical order, namely, that on the next day after coming to Bethany Jesus made his public entry into Jerusalem as related by the Synoptists.” We suppose, then, that after the tarry in Ephraim Christ came up to the Passover; stopped at Jericho, where occurred the healing of the blind man, the conversion of Zaccheus, and the parable of the ten pounds (Luke 18:35 to 19:28); from Jericho proceeded to Jerusalem, stopping on the way at Bethany, where, perhaps, he spent the Sabbath; entered Jerusalem in triumph on the following day, and drove from the temple the traders (Luke 19:28-48), and there gave the instructions recorded more or less by all the Synoptists, but most fully by Matthew (chaps. 21:12 to 25:46); and thence retreated to Bethany, where this supper, made for him by Martha and her sister Mary, led directly to the conspiracy of Judas Iscariot for his betrayal (Matt. 26:14-16). See Tabular Harmony, page 45.