Alabaster Box

[Song]

I'am trying to get an answer to a basic bible quesitons ... I am looking for info on the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with the oils from her alabaster box… Any one have any info??

[sarahbug]

Check out Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, and Luke 7:36-50.

[Song]

is there any more info available?? which Mary is this Bethany or Magdalene??

Do we know anything about the "sin"?

[sarahbug]

I think the general thought is that it's Mary, sister of Lazarus. I couldn't really find anything for certain. A few conflicting opinions. I've not really studied this story, so I'm kind of learning as I go. :) Hope I'm helping a little! I'm not sure anyone knows exactly which Mary they are speaking of. Some think it is a different woman entirely. Others think that each telling of a woman annointing Jesus is a different story...in other words, three different instances of similar events. I don't think the exact sin is known, though some think the sin is adultery, since the alabaster box is sometimes associated with Mary Magdalene, and many assume she was guilty of adultery. (For what it's worth, it's never mentioned in the Bible that Mary Magdalene was guilty of adultery.)

Like I said, I'm learning as I go, and I might be wrong, so hopefully someone who has studied this more closely can offer more insight than I can!

There are quite a few commentaries and Bible studies on this subject. Just go to google and try typing in "alabaster box".

[Wisdom's Child]

Here is what I could find in the ECF's...


Early Church Fathers
The Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers - Series One; Volume 6
St. Augustine: The Harmony of the Gospel
Book 2, Chapter 79

OF THE CONCORD BETWEEN MATTHEW, MARK, AND JOHN IN THEIR NOTICES OF THE SUPPER AT BETHANY, AT WHICH THE WOMAN POURED THE PRECIOUS OINTMENT ON THE LORD, AND OF THE METHOD IN WHICH THESE ACCOUNTS ARE TO BE HARMONIZED WITH THAT OF LUKE, WHEN HE RECORDS AN INCIDENT OF A SIMILAR NATURE AT A DIFFERENT PERIOD

154. Matthew, then, continuing his narrative from the point up to which we had concluded its examination, proceeds in the following terms: "Then assembled together the chief priests and the elders of the people unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill Him: but they said, Not on the feast-day, lest there be an uproar among the people. Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto Him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment, and poured it on His head as He sat at meat;" and so on down to the words, "there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her." The scene with the woman and the costly ointment at Bethany we have now to consider, as it is thus detailed. For although Luke records an incident resembling this, and although the name which he assigns to the person in whose house the Lord was supping might also suggest an identity between the two narratives (for Luke likewise names the host "Simon"), still, since there is nothing either in nature or in the customs of men to make the case an incredible one, that as one man may have two names, two men may with all the greater likelihood have one and the same name, it is more reasonable to believe that the Simon in whose house [it is thus supposed, according to Luke's version, that] this scene at Bethany took place, was a different person from the Simon [named by Matthew]. For Luke, again, does not specify Bethany as the place where the incident which he records happened. And although it is true that he in no way particularizes the town or village in which that occurrence took place, still his narrative does not seem to deal with the same locality. Consequently, my opinion is, that there is but one interpretation to be put upon the matter. That is not, however, to suppose that the woman who appears in Matthew was an entirely different person from the woman who approached the feet of Jesus on that occasion in the character of a sinner, and kissed them, and washed them with her tears, and wiped them with her hair, and anointed them with ointment, in reference to whose case Jesus also made use of the parable of the two debtors, and said that her sins, which were many, were forgiven her because she loved much. But my theory is, that it was the same Mary who did this deed on two separate occasions, the one being that which Luke has put on record, when she approached Him first of all in that remarkable humility, and with those tears, and obtained the forgiveness of her sins. For John, too, although he has not given the kind of recital which Luke has left us of the circumstances connected with that incident, has at least mentioned the fact, in commending the circumstances connected with that incident, has at least mentioned the fact, in commending the same Mary to our notice, when he has just begun to tell the story of the raising of Lazarus, and before his narrative brings the Lord to Bethany itself. The history which he offers us of that transaction proceeds thus: "Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary; and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick." By this statement John attests what Luke has told us when he records a scene of this nature in the house of a certain Pharisee, whose name was Simon. Here, then, we see that Mary had acted in this way before that time. And what she did a second time in Bethany is a different matter, which does not belong to Luke's narrative, but is related by three of the evangelists in concert, namely, John, Matthew, and Mark.


Early Church Fathers
The Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers - Series One; Volume 10
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew

HOMILY 80: MATTHEW 26:6, 7

Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,
there came unto Him a woman having an alabaster box
of very precious ointment, and poured it on His head, as He sat at meat."

This woman seems indeed to be one and the same with all the evangelists, yet she is not so; but though with the three she cloth seem to me to be one and the same, yet not so with John, but another person, one much to be admired, the sister of Lazarus.


Though it is not more than conjecture, St. Augustine and Chrysostom feels it was Mary from the House of Simon the Leper, the same as had the sister Martha, and brother Lazarus.



:cool:

[Song]

Okay, i want to make sure i understand this... The Mary that anointed Jesus' feet was the sister to Martha and Lazarus (Mary of Bethany right?) she did it twice?? i guess i didn't realize this but it make since... any thoughts on why she did this?? Was the first time a worship of thanks for her forgiveness? and the second time a worship of thanks for raising her brother from the dead?? or am i totally off base??

I feel strongly about the second time being a worship of thanks for raising her brother from the dead, What would you do if God raised your loved one from the dead?? how could you thank him... he's God he needs nothing... what better way!?!? this is my own thoughts..