Bobzammel

A little contradiction for ya:

In Matthew's account(Matthew 26), an anonymous woman takes an alabaster box of ointment at the house of Simon The Leper, two days before the passover, and pours it on his head. The disciples have a problem with this, saying that the box would be better spent if it were sold and used to give to the poor, but Jesus states that due to his coming crucifixion, that the annointing has been for his burial.

Mark's account(Mark 14) is pretty much the same, except he states that not as many disciples were upset and also that the ointment was Spinard.

No contradiction so far, however....

Luke(Luke 7) has a story which has Jesus at the house of another Simon, this time a Pharisee. Instead of breaking it on his head, the woman breaks it on his feet and wipes it with her hair. Jesus forgives her, since she apparentally is a sinner...a prostitute perhaps, and some traditions and many movie and TV adaptations have identified her with Mary Magdelene. The Pharisee is taken aback, but Jesus scolds the man for his lack of hospitality. The event is said to happen well ahead of the passover.

Now, this LUKE story, although similar, could honestly be a seperate story than that of MARK and MATTHEW. However when we come to an annointing woman story in JOHN, things get a little hairy.

JOHN's story(Chapter 12) follows the same pattern as Matthew and Mark's, but there are some subtle differences. The event this time takes place SIX days before the passover, and in Lazarus's house, where he has prepared a dinner for Jesus and his disciples. Lazarus's sister Mary then takes the ointment and splashes it on Jesus's Feet, ala the LUKE story. Only Judas has a problem with this, instead of all the disciples, and Jesus pretty much says the same things he stated in the MARK account.

So to sum it up:

MATTHEW

Box poured on head; disciples angry, two days before passover

MARK
Box poured on head, disciples angry, two days before passover

LUKE
Box poured on feet, pharisee angry, pretty much a different story

JOHN
Box poured on feet, Judas angry, six days before passover.

So basically, it almost appears like John-or whoever wrote the fourth gospel, seemed to combine the Matthew/Mark account with Luke, and also further villainized Judas.


Here's a counterpoint to this argument from Turkel:

http://www.tektonics.org/femanoint.html but he dodges the two or six days argument.

Yuri Kuchinsky

Hi, Bobzammel,

These contradictions in the anointing stories are dime a dozen. The whole thing is a very difficult interpretative problem. In my own view, the Lukan story is the original one, and all the others derived from it.

Here's something for you to check out. It's a long analysis, but nobody has been able to find anything wrong with it as yet.

http://www.trends.net/~yuku/bbl/anoint.htm

Cheers,

Yuri.