Note 60 — Chapter VIII · EVENTS IN THE PUBLIC LIFE OF JESUS, EXCLUDING THE MIRACLES.

The two divergencies relative to the person of the woman who anoints Jesus, and to the party who blames her, were thought to be the most readily explained. That what John ascribes to Judas singly, Matthew and Mark refer to all the disciples or spectators, was believed to be simply accounted for by the supposition, that while the rest manifested their disapprobation by gestures only, Judas vented his in words.60 We grant that the word ἔλεγον (they said), preceded as it is in Mark by the words ἀγανακτοῦντες πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς (having indignation within themselves), and followed, as in Matthew, by the words γνοὺς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς (but Jesus knowing), does not necessarily imply that all the disciples gave audible expression to their feelings; as, however, the two first Evangelists immediately after this meal narrate the betrayal by Judas, they would certainly have named the traitor on the above occasion, had he, to their knowledge, made himself conspicuous in connection with the covetous blame which the woman’s liberality drew forth. That John particularizes the woman, whose name is not given by the synoptists, as Mary of Bethany, is, in the ordinary view, only an example how the fourth Evangelist supplies the omissions of his predecessors.61 But as the two first synoptists attach so much importance to the deed of the woman, that they make Jesus predict the perpetuation of her memory on account of it—a particular which John has not—they would assuredly have also given her name had they known it; so that in any case we may conclude thus much: they knew not who the woman was, still less did they conceive her to be Mary of Bethany.