Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
John 12:1-11, Mary's nard and loosened hair
Six days before Passover, at a dinner in Jesus' honor in Bethany, Mary pours a pound of costly nard on his feet and wipes them with her hair. Judas objects, and Jesus says she has kept it for the day of his burial.
John 12:1-11, in every translation this tool compares.
At a dinner in Bethany shortly before Passover, Mary pours a very costly perfume on Jesus' feet and wipes them with her hair. Judas objects that the money could have gone to the poor, and John notes that he was a thief. Jesus defends her act as preparation for his burial, and the chief priests begin plotting against Lazarus as well.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/reclining-at-table\/","n":"Reclining at table","s":"At banquets men lay on couches, propped on the left elbow, and where you lay showed your rank.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/anointing-with-oil\/","n":"Anointing with oil","s":"Oil poured on the head was a courtesy to a guest, the sign of a new king, a medicine, and care for the dead. The setting decided which.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/washing-feet\/","n":"Washing feet","s":"A good host set out water so arriving guests could wash the dust of the road off their feet. Doing the washing yourself was a slave's work, and a disciple was not expected to touch even his teacher's feet.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/burial-and-mourning\/","n":"Burial and mourning","s":"Mourners came at once, the dead were buried the same day, wrapped in linen in rock tombs, and family carried the duty of burial. Pagan mourning, with little hope beyond a shadowy underworld, could be bleak.","r":""}
The pound was a Roman pound of nearly twelve ounces of spikenard imported from northern India, when a flask usually held about an ounce (Keener and his notes; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles). Hosts gave guests water for their feet and anointed only the head, and only servants normally handled feet, so pouring the perfume on his feet is doubly extravagant (Keener and his notes; the ESV Study Bible). Keener says religious Jews resented married women who uncovered their hair before men; Mary was probably unmarried, which softens the act but might still raise pious eyebrows, and the cultural backgrounds notes say a single woman was not required to cover her hair. The ESV and CSB Study Bibles say Jewish women rarely unbound their hair in public, and Wright compares letting it down to a woman at a polite modern dinner party hitching her long skirt up to her thighs. What Jesus means by keeping it for his burial is read several ways: keep the rest of the perfume, keep the memory of the act, or she had saved it for this (the ESV Study Bible).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 12:1-2, 12:3, 12:4-5 and 12:6-7
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 12:2, 12:3, 12:6 and 12:7
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on John 12:3 and 12:7
- CSB Study Bible, note on John 12:3
- N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part Two, comment on John 12:1-8
