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IN DEFENCE OF TWO DINNERS AT BETHANY DURING JESUS’ LAST WEEK IN JERUSALEM

There is controversy among Bible scholars over how many times Jesus was anointed and the apparent discrepancy over when St. John records His dinner in Bethany as opposed to the Synoptic Gospels. The accounts agree if there were two different dinners recorded in the Gospels and 3 different anointings at 3 different times by 3 or possibly 2 different women (Mary may have anointed Christ twice: once on Saturday and a second time on Wednesday of the last Passover holy week). I think each anointing of Christ symbolized the 3 holy offices He fulfilled as God’s supreme Prophet, High Priest, and Davidic King:

 

• Anointing # 1: Early in Jesus’ ministry, an unnamed sinful woman at the home of Simon, a wealthy Pharisee, anoints His feet with ointment and wipes them with her hair (Lk 7:36-38).



• Anointing #2: Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus’ feet and wipes his feet with her hair on Saturday, Nisan the 9^th. The next day on the 10^th of Nisan, the day the sacrificial lambs or kids were to be chosen (Exodus 12:3), Jesus rides into Jerusalem—the sacrificial Lamb of God, there for all to see and judge His perfection (Jn 12:1-3).



• Anointing #3: An unnamed woman anoints Jesus’ head at the home of Simon the Leper in Bethany two days before the Passover. As the ancients counted this is Wednesday, Nisan the 13^th (Matthew 26:1-16: Mark 14:1-11)

 

What are the similarities between the accounts in Matthew and Mark with John’s dinner at Bethany in chapter 12 and what are the differences? 

*note the difference “to keep it for the day of my burial” and “she did it to prepare for the day of my burial.”  +Luke also records Judas’ betrayal just prior to the Last Super in Luke 22:1-6.

You will notice that the Gospels of Matthew and Mark appear to record the same event; however, those two accounts do not agree with the account of the dinner at Bethany recorded in the Gospel of John.  The differences in the accounts in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark compared to the account in the Gospel of John suggest two different dinners which Jesus attended with dear friends in Bethany and two separate anointings (there is a 3^rd anointing earlier in Jesus’ ministry recorded in Luke 7:36-38).  It is possible, and I believe likely, that Mary of Bethany was present at both dinners and both the anointings of the Messiah in Bethany could have been given by her on two separate occasions, 5 days apart (as the ancients counted; 5 being the symbolic number of grace in the symbolic significance of numbers). It also significant in John 12:7 when Jesus tells Mary to keep some of the nard: So Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone; let her keep it for the day of my burial…’.   However in both Matthew 26:12 and Mark 14:8 Jesus announces to those present at the dinner that the anointing is in preparation for His burial: She has done what she could: she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial (Mk 14:8).  It is likely that Mary of Bethany used a bottle of expensive nard to anoint the head of Christ on Saturday and then used the same bottle of nard several days later on Wednesday, two days before the Passover (as the ancients counted), at the dinner party in the home of Simon the Leper, to anoint Jesus’ feet in preparation for Christ’s Passion.  The accounts in both Mark and John identify the bottle as costing 300 denarii (Mark 14:5; John 12:5).

The key point which supports the two dinners is that Judas could not betray Jesus and set the events of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion in motion until Jesus’ “hour had come.”  There is no mention of Judas’ betrayal in the events during or after the dinner recorded in John 12:1-11.  Jesus’ “hour” in John’s Gospel does not come until John 12:23 on what would be His last day teaching at the Temple in Jerusalem when the Gentiles ask to speak to Jesus, which would have been Wednesday of Passion Week:  Jesus’ response is: Now the hour has come….  The next mention of His “hour” is in 13:1: Before the festival of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father…  This passage sets up the events of the Last Supper soon to take place and is in agreement with Matthew and Mark—Judas betrays Jesus after the meal in Bethany but before the feast of the Passover—a betrayal which was after the dinner which would have been on what we would determine as Wednesday night after sundown but which was for the Jews, the beginning of the next day which was the day of the Passover sacrifice, the festival of which was to take place in the Temple at 12 noon on Thursday with the sacrificial meal that night—our Thursday night at sundown which would have been the beginning of the Jewish (sundown being the beginning of the next day) Friday, “Preparation Day” for the “Great Sabbath” of Passover/ Feast of Unleavened Bread week.

The Gospels record during His last week in Jerusalem Jesus taught at the Temple daily and withdrew from the city with His disciples every evening to the Mt. of Olives (Mark 11:11; 19; Luke 21:37-38; John 18:1-2), but He also spent at least one night that week in the town of Bethany (Matthew 21:17).  It is reasonable to assume that Jesus and the Apostles dined with friends in Bethany on more than one occasion with more than one family bearing the joy, and the expense, of entertaining the Messiah and his Apostles; dining at the Sabbath meal with the family of Lazarus and then later on Wednesday at the home of Simon the Leper. 

Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2007 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.