Christianity Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for committed Christians, experts in Christianity and those interested in learning more. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
The Anointing of Jesus is recorded in all four Gospels. A woman anoints Jesus' feet with expensive perfume and wipes the perfume with her hair.
Was this one event, or multiple events?
(I tend to think the former, since Jesus said that this story will be told wherever the gospel is preached (Mark 14:9). It may be a stretch, but I thought that would also apply to the four Biblical gospels.)
The four gospels record the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. There are multiple events that are shared and reported among the four gospels.
This is one of those events.
Note that Wikipedia mentions that this could be two separate events, but it is commonly accepted to be one event, shared among the gospels.
Justification?
If we look at the four gospels, we see Jesus crucified, buried, and resurrected four separate times. The events leading up to his death are similar including four last suppers, four records of trial, etc.
Now, we can presume that he did all of these events multiple times, or we can (rightly) move forward with the understanding that these records are four viewpoints of the same events.
In all four books, Jesus was anointed with expensive oil. Two books show he was anointed on his head, two show he was anointed on his feet. More than likely, he was anointed on once on both his head and his feet.
Mark records the estimate of the oil at 300 denarii. A denarius is valued at 10 asses. A donkey, in modern currency, is worth around US$1000-$2500. This makes the oil worth 3,000 asses, which is, in today's money, $3,000,000 - $7,500,000.
I don't know about you, but I rarely come across any single item that's worth multiple millions of dollars.
Yes, Jesus might have been anointed twice or four times. But if we use just the tiniest amount of common sense, it seems pretty obvious that being anointed with a $3million oil was not a common event. Therefore, it's extremely safe to assume that this was really simply one event.
The account in Luke is vastly different than the other accounts. John tells that Martha was serving and Mary was at Jesus' feet, with Lazarus sitting nearby. Luke says that after Jesus rebuked Simon the Pharisee, he told the woman that her faith had saved her, and to go in peace.
Why would he say that to Mary? Mary and Martha had hosted Jesus before, and Jesus brought their beloved brother back to life. Jesus and Mary are close friends. So why would He tell her to leave the banquet?
No, Mary being a devoted disciple, would have known about what the other woman did - and may have even seen it, or at least smelled it! The story of the other woman was at the end of Luke 7, and Luke 8:1-2 tells us that as Jesus was soon after (the first anointing) going from town to town, with Mary was one of the women following Him and supporting His ministry.
I think the evidence points to Mary copying what the other woman did to express her thankfulness and love for Jesus. After all, she had had 7 demons cast out of her, and Jesus had healed her brother of death. She had much to be thankful for.
Just read John 11:2, which states that Mary was the one who anointed Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair...and at this time, Lazarus was sick. I think I found confirmation of my theory that Mary did this to Jesus twice!
