CHAPTER III ANOINTING

Mary Magdalene With Her Anointing Jar

By Ambrosius Benson

Webster’s Student Dictionary says of the word anoint “to rub with oil or an oily substance, to apply oil as a sacred rite or to consecrate with or as with oil”.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, also called The Old Testament, many, if not all of the Hebrew Kings were anointed to their positions using oil. For instance, Saul the first King of Israel, was anointed as King by the prophet Samuel, 1st Sam 10:1. Later, when Saul found displeasure with God, Samuel was told by God to find a new King and after a search, he found David. Samuel, realizing this was the person God had him looking for, then anointed him as the next King of Israel, again with oil, Sam 16:13. After Saul had died, men of Judah, who were evidently elders, came and also anointed David King over the House of Judah, 2 Sam 2:4. In yet another instance, cited at 2 Kings 9:1-6, the children of one of the prophets with Elisha, anointed Jeho King of Israel with oil. And not only Kings were anointed with oil, as Aaron was appointed to the position of high priest by Moses, who used oil for the occasion, Lev 8:12, The point of this is that evidently oil was considered necessary for the religious rite of anointing a person to a high post in ancient Israel, especially a Kingship. These Kings were called “Messiahs”. The Hebrew word meaning anointed one. The like word in the Greek is Khristo’s or Christ.

While all of these Kings, who were thusly anointed, became “Messiahs”, there was one Messiah who had been prophesied to be the Savior, as well as King of his people. This Messiah or Savior is mentioned specifically in Dan 9:24-26 and again at Isaiah 9:6-7, which says this new King would sit on the throne of David, reading from Psalms 45:6-7 “Thy throne O God, is for ever and ever: The scepter of thy Kingdom is a right scepter: Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows”. Of course as we have shown, Jesus was very well versed in the Hebrew Scriptures. And he knew all of these old prophecies very well. He knew that to be accepted as the true King of Israel, either symbolically or otherwise, he would need to be anointed with oil.

All through his life and ministry, Jesus applied these Old Testament prophecies to himself, as he did in this instance of the Prophecy in Isaiah of the Savior to come at Isaiah 61:1 “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek: he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim to them that are bound”.

Jesus, in the Christian Greek Scriptures, as described at Luke 4:18, publicly read this same passage from Isaiah and goes on to say “This day is this scripture fulfilled”. Referring, of course, to himself as being this prophesied Savior and King of Israel.

As I have said, Jesus would need, or at least want, to be anointed with oil and to do so he would need an anointer. This anointer would have to be a known entity, similar to the prophet Samuel or the Elders of Judah. If not someone of importance or well known, it probably would not be recognized as a fulfillment of the prophecies. A title would even be better, maybe even a title bestowed by Jesus himself, for instance, the Watchtower of the Flock, The Magdalene.

Even though Jesus seemed to make sure all four Gospel writers included the anointing, many today, because of the apparent editing, consider it to be three different events. Two by an unnamed woman, one by a woman sinner, and one by his good friend, Mary of Bethany.

I will go over these four different accounts. One in each of the four gospels, (the one in Luke is actually in two places) to show that they were all of the same event and by the same anointer, Mary of Bethany, whom I have already shown to be Mary Magdalene.

True to the word synoptic (which means similar), the first two of these, one at Matthew 26:6-13 and the other at Mark 14:3-9 are nearly identical. According to both versions, Jesus was in Bethany two days before the Passover (this would be the Passover when he was betrayed), in the house of Simon the Leper, and as he sat at meat, which of course would have meant dinner, a woman came in who remains unnamed. She carried with her an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, which is a very expensive anointing oil. She then broke the box and poured the contents over Jesus’ head. The account in Matthew then says the disciples were indignant over this as they considered it a total waste of money. The only significant difference in these two versions is that in Mark’s account, it used the word “some” instead of “the disciples” were indignant, but for the same reason. Of course, the fact that the disciples were questioning this at all, shows that at the time they did not understand the importance of this anointing to Jesus.

Later, as they actually authored these accounts, the writers, themselves, evidently did see the anointing as more important.

I do not believe there is any question about these first two versions being of one and the same event. In the coverage of this account in Luke, even though it is considered one of the Synoptic Gospels, its coverage of this anointing is very different. There are two separate scriptures in Luke that actually seem to refer to this one event. And because the version in the Gospel of John will shed quite a bit of light on Luke’s, I will discuss that one first.

In this Gospel, attributed to John, which I fully intend to prove was actually authored by Mary Magdalene, we read at 12:1-5 “then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead. (This of course is a reference to the story of Jesus resurrecting Lazarus at John 11). There they made him a supper: and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with odor of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him, why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?” The detractors to my premise that this is a version of the same accounts covered by Matthew and Mark will say, this happened six days before the Passover instead of two, at Lazarus’ house, not Simon the Lepers’ and Judas was the one who was indignant. Whereas Matthew says the disciples were and Mark says some were. Answering these questions; firstly, the scripture does not say the dinner itself was six days prior to the Passover, only that Jesus arrived in Bethany six days before. Secondly, it does not mention whose house it was in. Just that Lazarus lived in Bethany and that he was present at the dinner. And finally Judas was, of course, one of the disciples.

Now consider the many similarities. This event occurred in Bethany. It was the same type of ointment that was used and as costly. And there was a Simon involved. Given these similarities, along with my explanations of any differences, I posit that the event happened at Judas’ father Simon’s house. Of course, it is a given that Mary is Mary of Bethany, (also read John 11:2) sister to both Lazarus and Martha, who are also mentioned as being there.

I will now go to the two accounts in Luke of this same event but written quite differently. The first at 7:36-50 and the second at 10:38-42. The first begins with a Pharisee named Simon, who asks Jesus to eat with him and they sat down to meat. A woman in the city, who was called a sinner, knew Jesus was at the Pharisee’s house and brought an alabaster box of ointment. And standing at his feet behind weeping, she began to wash his feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. She then kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Evidently, Simon was concerned that Jesus had let a sinner anoint him. But Jesus told Simon that she had done the things for him that Simon had not. Such as kissed his feet and washed them with tears and reading directly from the scripture at verse 46 “my head with oil thou didst not anoint. But this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment”. By putting this last sentence in context with the rest of this scripture it is obvious it should read “this woman hath anointed my head with ointment”. Compare this to the version in John which also mentions anointing the feet but not the head. And remember we already know this version mirrors the account in Matthew and Mark where Mary also puts the oil on Jesus’ head. Notice we are in the house of a Simon again, although in this case, a Pharisee. Could Judas’ father Simon, have been a Pharisee as well as a Leper? Of course he could have, but there is also the possibility of error and or editing. The coincidences though, are glaring. Even down to the same alabaster box of ointment. The one major problem with this account in Luke seems to be the timing. As I have shown, the other three occurred at basically the same time, just before Passover where Luke seems to be showing his version earlier.

Now to the second account in Luke that I believe refers to the same anointing at 10:38-42. This is almost identical to the version in the Gospel of John except for the actual anointing or use of oil. This account also seems to be out of sequence with the others. Assuming Luke mostly wrote in some kind of chronological order, although there is evidence that sometimes he did not, he seems to be completely out of touch with these events. The collaboration I have shown between these anointing, covered in all four Gospels, clearly shows them to be of one and the same event. The two in Luke being different versions but also of the same event.

I can posit several possible reasons for these discrepancies in the Gospel of Luke. Reason number one would be that Luke was never there. Remember, he received his information from Paul, who also was never there. And also remember, Paul was one of the main opponents to women’s rights or to women having any kind of important role in the early Christian movement. And there is no proof that Luke even did author this Gospel or if he did, not proof that he wrote it by himself. The point of this chapter is as the title implies, the anointing of Jesus. Jesus was anointed with oil one time to be the Messiah or Christ of the prophecy of the Old Testament, either symbolically or literally, the King of Israel and to sit on the throne of David. He was anointed by the one person he chose to be his anointer, his good friend Mary of Bethany. And for the purpose of this anointing he bestowed the title of Magdalene on her.

Because of the transcribers literally editing Mary Magdalene’s name out of these four accounts, trying to insert two unnamed women into three of the accounts and also two of the accounts falsely indicating the oil was only used on Jesus’ feet, they have made this anointing seem to be three different random acts, and have taken the importance out of it, even though Jesus, himself, considered it to be very important. Some of these premises will become clearer while reading the next chapter called the Beloved Disciple.