Matthew
26:7, Mark 14:3 and Luke 7:36-38 all tell us about a woman
who came having an alabaster flask of very precious oil
of spikenard. “And while he was in Bethany in the
house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came
a woman having an alabaster cruse of ointment of pure
nard very costly; [and] she brake the cruse, and poured
it over his head.” This account, recorded in Mark
14:3, is more correctly interpreted as “she brake
the seal” since the alabastrons of the day were
often sealed, or made fast with wax, to prevent the perfume
from escaping. It was not likely that she would break
the cruse (sometimes translated “box”) itself
when it was unnecessary; especially as the unguent, being
liquid, would have been wasted, when it was very precious.
Nor could she easily have poured it on his head from a
broken cruse or flask. The woman who did exactly that
received from Yahshua what no other player in the Redemption
Story received: His never-ending command that where the
gospel is preached the story of her alabaster jar is to
be told. |
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