Ointment, &c.— Balsam of spikenard, which was very costly; and she broke open the box, or vessel, &c. See Blackwall's Sac. Classics, vol. 2: p. 166. The spikenard,— πιστικης ναρδου, pure and unadulterated spikenard, was esteemed a very valuable aromatic. Sir Norton Knatchbull, Dr. Hammond, and others maintain, that συντριψασα does not signify that she brake the vessel, but only that she shook it, so as to break the coagulative parts of the rich balsam, and bring it to such a liquidity, that it might be fit to be poured out. Dr. Doddridge, however, and others think the original does not so naturally express this, and therefore they imagine that the woman broke off the top of the vessel in which the balsam was contained. See the note on Matthew 26:7 and Stockius on the word συντυριβω.
Related Commentaries of Mark 14:3
Mark 14:3
3 And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenarda very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.