December 6, 2015          John 12:1-8

Download discussion questions:  John 12_1-8 woman with perfume

After John’s prologue in chapter 1, the rest of the first eleven chapters cover most of the three-year ministry of Jesus.  The next nine chapters (12-20) cover about a week, followed by a closing (or denouement – I always liked that word) in chapter 21.

In what may be the pivotal event in the transition, the raising of Lazarus, John inserts a curious detail to identify the family involved:  “It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick” (John 11:2).  The curious aspect is that the event John describes had not happened yet, not until the next chapter.  Apparently, by the time John’s Gospel was written the story had circulated so widely (in oral tradition as well as other written records) that Mary’s action was a well-known touchstone that readers could identify.  Along with the raising of her brother, Mary’s act marked a distinct change in John’s telling of Jesus’ ministry.

In our discussion of the John 11 passage, a question was brought up about John’s record of Mary anointing Jesus.  Is this the same incident recorded in the three synoptic Gospels?  Did Matthew, Mark, and Luke also record the same even that John describes?  Or were there different occasions that were very similar, but involving different women and at different locations?  Does this present a problem for our understanding of the reliability of Scripture?  Are these different (maybe inconsistent) reports of the same event?  Are they different perspectives of the event?  Were these separate but similar events?

This week’s handout enables us to look at the four passages side-by-side and to compare and contrast the reports of four different Apostolic witnesses.