Mark 14:3-9

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

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. ⁴ But some were there who said to one another in anger, ‘Why was the ointment wasted in this way? ⁵ For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii,^[b] and the money given to the poor.’ And they scolded her. ⁶ But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. ⁷ For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. ⁸ She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the good news^[c] is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’