Mark, Matthew and John tell versions of the same anointing at Bethany.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Mark 14; Matthew 26; John 12, bedrock
religion · Shared topic · Revision 0
Was Mary Magdalene the woman who anointed Jesus?
Was Mary Magdalene the Woman Who Anointed Jesus? The Nard, Judas, and the Bridegroom
The current answer
A woman pours a fortune in perfume over Jesus. Judas objects. John calls her Mary, but not Magdalene. Then, at the tomb, another Mary appears. Early Christians were not always convinced they were two women.
What remains uncertain
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Claims & evidence
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John names the woman who anointed Jesus with nard as Mary of Bethany, not Mary Magdalene.
Imported citation, not independently checked: John 11:2 and 12:1-8, bedrock
No Gospel says that the woman who anointed Jesus was Mary Magdalene.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Luke 7:36-8:3; John 12:1-8, bedrock
Luke's sinful woman may be the Bethany anointing, retold as a lesson about forgiveness.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Kent Van Til, Journal of Pentecostal Theology 15 (2006), reconstruction
Christians were combining Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany centuries before Gregory the Great.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Elizabeth Schrader, Harvard Theological Review 110 (2017), bedrock
The name Magdalene does not have to mean that Mary came from Magdala.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Schrader and Taylor, Journal of Biblical Literature 140 (2021), contested-but-grounded
John's anointing scene deliberately echoes Song of Songs 1:12.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Jocelyn McWhirter, The Bridegroom Messiah and the People of God (2006), contested-but-grounded
Mary Magdalene's search at the tomb in John 20 echoes the woman seeking her beloved in Song of Songs 3.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Jocelyn McWhirter (2006); Song of Songs 3:1-4, contested-but-grounded
In Mark, the woman who pours oil on Jesus' head performs a royal, messianic anointing.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Guijarro and Rodriguez, Biblical Theology Bulletin 41 (2011), contested-but-grounded
The Gospels set the anointing directly against Judas and his betrayal.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Matthew 26:6-16; Mark 14:3-11; John 12:4-6, bedrock
Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene may have been one historical woman.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Schrader and Taylor (2021); Beavis (2012), reconstruction
No surviving evidence shows that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married.
Imported citation, not independently checked: The canonical Gospels; the Gospel of Philip, bedrock
The Gospel of John presents Jesus as a bridegroom.
Imported citation, not independently checked: John 3:29, bedrock
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