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Mary Magdalene is traditionally depicted with a vessel of ointment, in reference to the Anointing of Jesus, in reality the jar is more likely to have been an Amphora, a much larger object.

The anointing of Jesus is an event reported by the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John, in which a woman pours a whole jar of very expensive perfume over the head of Jesus. According to the Gospel of Mark the perfume in question was the purest of Spikenard. Luke adds that the woman had been sinful all her life, and was crying; and when, according to Luke, her tears started landing on the feet of Jesus, she wiped his feet with her hair. Though the Synoptic Gospels do not identify the woman, John 12:1-8 names her Mary, which is commonly interpreted to be Mary, a sister to Lazarus, and the somewhat erotic iconography of the woman's act has traditionally been associated with Mary Magdalene.

In the narratives, some people get angry at the woman because the perfume could have been sold for a year's wages, which Mark enumerates as 300 denarii, and the money given to the poor. While the synoptics do not identify the objectors, the Gospel of John states that it was Judas. Jesus is described as justifying the action of the woman by stating that the poor will always exist, and can be helped whenever desired. While some scholars have criticised this response as lax morality, others have argued that Jesus is actually being portrayed as rebuking the objectors, since they had actually retained the valuable jar of perfume rather than selling it for the poor, and appear to only object when the jar is destroyed.

Mark and Matthew say that this occurred while Jesus was in Bethany relaxing at the home of Simon the Leper, a man whose significance is not explained any further by surviving texts of Mark or Matthew, while Luke identifies Simon as a Pharisee that had invited Jesus to dinner, though the location is not specified. The Gospel of John, however, identifies the location as the home of Lazarus and his two sisters. The Roman Catholic Church follows the Synoptic Gospels in the location of the event.

The Scholars Version note to Mark 14:3-9 states: "...The disciples miss the point, which Jesus makes clear: the woman has signalled his impending death and burial. It must be unintentional irony when Mark has Jesus predict that this story will always be told in memory of a woman whose very name escapes him."

• Christ
• Messiah
• Ointment
• Chrism
• Anointing
• Ointment of Jesus

• Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament Doubleday 1997 ISBN 0-385-24767-2
• Brown, Raymond E. et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary Prentice Hall 1990 ISBN 0-13-614934-0
• Kilgallen, John J. A Brief Commentary on the Gospel of Mark Paulist Press 1989 ISBN 0-8091-3059-9
• Miller, Robert J. Editor The Complete Gospels Polebridge Press 1994 ISBN 0-06-065587-9