Text -- Mark 14:1-4 (NET)

The Plot Against Jesus

14:1 Two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the chief priests and the experts in the law were trying to find a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. 14:2 For they said, “Not during the feast, so there won’t be a riot among the people.”

Jesus’ Anointing

14:3 Now while Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of costly aromatic oil from pure nard. After breaking open the jar, she poured it on his head. 14:4 But some who were present indignantly said to one another, “Why this waste of expensive ointment?

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Mar 14:1

¹ tn Or “the chief priests and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.

² tn Grk “were seeking how.”

³ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Mar 14:2

¹ sn The suggestion here is that Jesus was too popular to openly arrest him. The verb were trying is imperfect. It suggests, in this context, that they were always considering the opportunities.

NET Notes: Mar 14:3

¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ sn 1st century middle eastern meals were not eaten while sitting at a table, but while reclining on one’s side on the floor with the head closest to the low table and the feet farthest away.

⁴ sn A jar made of alabaster stone was normally used for very precious substances like perfumes. It normally had a long neck which was sealed and had to be broken off so the contents could be used.

⁵ tn Μύρον (muron) was usually made of myrrh (from which the English word is derived) but here it is used in the sense of ointment or perfumed oil (L&N 6.205). The adjective πιστικῆς (pistikh") is difficult with regard to its exact meaning; some have taken it to derive from πίστις (pistis) and relate to the purity of the oil of nard. More probably it is something like a brand name, “pistic nard,” the exact significance of which has not been discovered.

sn Nard or spikenard is a fragrant oil from the root and spike of the nard plant of northern India. This aromatic oil, if made of something like nard, would have been extremely expensive, costing up to a year’s pay for an average laborer.

NET Notes: Mar 14:4

¹ tn The word “expensive” is not in the Greek text but has been included to suggest a connection to the lengthy phrase “costly aromatic oil from pure nard” occurring earlier in v. 3. The author of Mark shortened this long phrase to just one word in Greek when repeated here, and the phrase “expensive ointment” used in the translation is intended as an abbreviated paraphrase.