The Anointing of Jesus. Lk. records a parallel incident (not an alternative version of the same story) earlier in the life of Jesus. Jn. (John 12:1) places the event six days before the Passover. This change may be motived by symbolism, as the Paschal lamb was chosen on 10th of Nisan. But Mk.'s date is not indisputable. He inserts the story here as a preparation for the death of Christ (see especially Mark 14:8). The alabaster vessel and its contents are alike precious. The woman makes her last use of both. She breaks the cruse, perhaps in honour of the guest. Renan seems to have found such a custom in the East (see Swete). Or it may be, that another practice of the Hellenistic age has suggested this detail. In anointing the dead, it was usual to break the flask and lay it in the coffin (HNT). More simply we may suppose that the woman, in her eagerness, could not wait to open the vessel. [The breaking of the vase may have its ultimate root in the well-known custom of breaking what has been used by a sacred person, in order that the sanctity thus communicated to it may not prove dangerous to any one who might use it hereafter. Plates used for the meals of a sacred person are, in harmony with this taboo, frequently destroyed (p. 200, Leviticus 6:24-30 *). Or in view of the custom mentioned in HNT, the breaking of the vessel may symbolise the death of the body (cf. Mark 14:8). A. S. P.] Jesus defends this seeming waste. Immediate social utility is not the final guide to devotion. The woman seized a unique opportunity. The chance of serving Christ in the poor would continue and is likely to continue.
Mark 14:3. Simon, not otherwise known. spikenard: note mg. There is little support for rendering liquid nard. [Fritzsche has argued strongly for the rendering drinkable, since ointments were drunk mixed with wine. But genuine is much more probable. Or pistikes may be equivalent to pistakes and refer to the Pistacia Terebinthus, the resin of which, with other sweet scents, was mixed with oil of nard. See EBi., 4750f. A. S. P.]
Mark 14:8 f. is assumed to be unhistorical by many scholars. But the foreboding of death might have taken the form of 8, and there seems to be no special reason for adding Mark 14:9 unless it were a genuine saying.