READING BETWEEN THE TEXTS: MINOR CHARACTERS WHO PREPARE THE WAY FOR JESUS

Encounter, Winter 2005 by Gardner, A Edward

In line with previous arguments, I will interpret the unnamed woman's anointing of Jesus as a major obstacle or stumbling block set before Jesus. This point of view may go against the usual interpretation. The ointment and the extravagant love of the woman for Jesus have the quality of eras about it. First, it would correspond in an opposite sense to Herodias's extraordinary hatred of John. Second, the dancing of Herodias's unnamed daughter proved to be a temptation for Herod and led to John's beheading (6:14-29). Courtiers and the leading men of Galilee were guests at Herod's all-male birthday party. Two thousand years may have elapsed, but males today more than ever use and exploit women for pornographic purposes. It is no stretch of the imagination to suppose that the dance of the young girl was erotic. By contrast-and comparison-we are told that, while at Bethany, Jesus was in the house of Simon the Leper. The point is made that Jesus "sat at the table" or, more strictly, "reclined." What kind of implicit statement is Mark making by inviting the reader to compare and contrast the scenes of Herod's banquet with the men and of Jesus's table fellowship with outcasts and his disciples? The plot of the beheading of John and the anointing of Jesus's head is repeated with likenesses and differences. Is Jesus reclining at a male party? Is the woman who enters entirely virtuous and pure in her extravagant love for Jesus? Does Jesus find the woman a temptation? If so, how does he handle the temptation? I propose that Jesus rejects Satan's temptation, calling it "an anointing beforehand for his burial." He does not turn aside from the way to the cross. In fact, the occasion of Jesus's anointing as temptation becomes the occasion of Jesus's anointing as the Messiah, the Anointed One (chrio, christos), anointed for the cross and for burial. King Herod succumbs to Satan's temptation; Jesus makes the temptation an occasion for a triumph over Satan. Jesus, who does not criticize the woman or her love, is greatly pleased with this unnamed lover, saying "she has done a beautiful thing to me...wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she had done will be told in memory of her" (14:6, 9).16

Scholars may discount the allegory claimed for the Song of Solomon: that it is an allegory of the love of Israel for Yahweh, who is the beloved. The reason, however, that the Song of Solomon was admitted to the Hebrew canon at Jamnia in 97 CE was because the rabbis considered it to be an allegory of divine love. If we consider how the early church viewed Song of Solomon as an allegory, how does this perspective help us interpret the anointing of Jesus?

Mark 14:1 lets the reader know that the chief priests and scribes seek to destroy Jesus. Implicitly, the reader may infer that the chief priests and scribes hate Jesus, and that, as the representatives of Israel, they reject Jesus's message and see him as a threat. The unnamed woman, therefore, takes Israel's place as the lover of the beloved Lord. It would be premature to claim that the woman represents the church. I propose she is a general type representing the outcasts of Israel's society; those excluded from participating in the system of purity. She stands for the ritually impure, who are driven out from the community of the ritually clean. Mark 14:3 signals this idea by using the name of the place where Jesus is "at table" as Bethany, which means "house of the poor, or afflicted." The reader is told the meal is at "the house of Simon the Leper." Jesus is having intimate fellowship with the people the priests and scribes would consider sinners. Into this company of sinners comes a woman to anoint Jesus, who was reclining, with very costly fragrant oil or nard (14:3).17 She has not come intentionally to anoint Jesus as the Anointed One, the Messiah, but surely she has come to anoint Jesus as "the beloved" of this company of sinners. But, by comparison, the voice to Jesus at the baptism (and to the disciples at the Transfiguration) declares that Jesus is also "God's beloved Son."