Mark 14:3

3 And when he was at Bethany, in the house of Simon leprous, and rested, a woman came, that had a box of alabaster of precious ointment spikenard; and when the box of alabaster was broken, she poured it on his head. [+And when he was at Bethany, in the house of Simon leprous, and sat at the meat, a woman came, having a box of alabaster of precious ointment spikenard; and the box broken, she poured it out upon his head.]

Mark 14:3 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 14:3

And being in Bethany
A place about two miles from Jerusalem, whither he retired after he had took his leave of the temple, and had predicted its destruction; a place he often went to, and from, the last week of his life; having some dear friends, and familiar acquaintance there, as Lazarus, and his two sisters, Martha and Mary, and the person next mentioned:

in the house of Simon the leper;
so called because he had been one, and to distinguish him from Simon the Pharisee, and Simon Peter the apostle, and others; (See Gill on Matthew 26:6);

as he sat at meat there came a woman;
generally thought to be Mary Magdalene, or Mary the sister of Lazarus:

having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard;
or "pure nard", unmixed and genuine; or liquid nard, which was drinkable, and so easy to be poured out; or Pistic nard, called so, either from "Pista", the name of a place from whence it was brought, or from "Pistaca", which, with the Rabbins, signifies "maste"; of which, among other things, this ointment was made. Moreover, ointment of nard was made both of the leaves of nard, and called foliate nard, and of the spikes of it, and called, as here, spikenard. Now ointment made of nard was, as Pliny says ^F23, the principal among ointments. The Syriac is, by him, said to be the best; this here is said to be

very precious,
costly, and valuable:

and she brake the box.
The Syriac and Ethiopic versions render it, "she opened it"; and the Persic version, "she opened the head", or "top of the bottle", or "vial":

and poured it on his head;
on the head of Christ, as the same version presses it; (See Gill on Matthew 26:7).

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 12.

Mark 14:3 In-Context

1 Pask and the feast of therf loaves was after two days. And the high priests [And the highest priests] and the scribes sought, how they should hold him with guile, and slay [him].

2 But they said, Not in the feast day, lest peradventure a noise were made among the people.

3 And when he was at Bethany, in the house of Simon leprous, and rested, a woman came, that had a box of alabaster of precious ointment spikenard; and when the box of alabaster was broken, she poured it on his head. [+And when he was at Bethany, in the house of Simon leprous, and sat at the meat, a woman came, having a box of alabaster of precious ointment spikenard; and the box broken, she poured it out upon his head.]

4 But there were some that bare it heavily within themselves, and said, Whereto is this loss of ointment made?

5 For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and be given to poor men. And they grumbled against her [And they groaned against her].