Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 26:7

"there came unto him a woman having an alabaster cruse of exceeding precious ointment, and she poured it upon his head, as he sat at meat." — Matthew 26:7 (ASV)

There came to him a woman — We learn from St. John (John 12:3) that this was Mary, the sister of Lazarus. It is hardly conceivable—unless we suppose she came veiled and that St. John alone knew her—that the writers of the first two Gospels, or their sources, could have been ignorant of who she was. We can only see their suppression of her name as an example of the remarkable reticence that sealed their lips regarding every member of the family at Bethany. A prevailing tradition or conjecture in the Western Church has identified the sister of Lazarus with the "woman who was a sinner" from Luke 7. On this assumption, what we now read was a repetition of a loving offering that had been made before. Of this, however, there is not a shadow of proof (see notes on Luke 7:37-38). It may well have been, on the other hand, that the household of Bethany had heard of that act, and that this suggested the way in which their love and gratitude now showed itself.

An alabaster box of very precious ointment — The box was probably a vase made of the material we know as alabaster. According to one etymology, however, the word originally described the shape of the vase (as being made without handles) and was later extended to the material from which such vases were commonly made. The lid was cemented down so that it could not be removed like a cork or stopper. St. John (John 12:3) describes the quantity as a pound (litra = about twelve ounces), and both St. John and St. Mark add that it was "of spikenard." The word translated this way, however (pistikè), is found only in those two passages (Mark 14:3; John 12:3), and it is debatable whether it has this meaning or if it means "pure, genuine, unadulterated." The "nard" so described is identified by botanists with the Nardostachys jatamansi, the sumbul of India, but the term was probably applied by Greeks and Romans to other perfumes as well.

The value of the ointment is later estimated at roughly three hundred denarii (John 12:5). Such preparations, like genuine âtar of roses in the modern East, consisted mainly of the essential oils of carefully cultivated flowers and often fetched a nearly fabulous price. The fact that Mary had such a costly ointment with her indicates that the household of Bethany belonged to a relatively wealthy class, which agrees with the general impression left by the account in John 11. It is a probable conjecture that a similarly costly ointment had been used to embalm the body of her brother, who had so recently been raised from the dead, and that this gave special significance to our Lord’s comment on the act. St. Mark adds that she broke or crushed the vessel to pour out the ointment; St. John adds that she anointed His feet and wiped them with her hair.