The Anointing at Bethany

³ While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,^[a] as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head.^(A)

³⁷ And a woman in the city who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. ³⁸ She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair, kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. ³⁹ Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”^(A)

Mary Anoints Jesus

12 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.^{(A) 2} There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him.^{(B) 3} Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them^[a] with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.^{(C) 4} But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ⁵ “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” ⁶ (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) ⁷ Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it^[b] so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.^{(D) 8} You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”^(E)

² Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill.^(A)

The Anointing at Bethany

⁶ Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,^{[a](A) 7} a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. ⁸ But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, “Why this waste? ⁹ For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum and the money given to the poor.” ¹⁰ But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. ¹¹ For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.^{(B) 12} By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial.^{(C) 13} Truly I tell you, wherever this good news^[b] is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”

¹⁷ He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.