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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 11:2 - 11:2
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
2. ἦν δὲ Μ. ἡ ἀλείψασα. Now Mary was she that anointed; or, Now it was (the) Mary that anointed. This of course does not necessarily imply that the anointing had already taken place, as those who identify Mary with the ‘sinner’ of Luk 7:37 would insist: it merely implies that when S. John wrote, this fact was well known about her, as Christ had promised should be the case (Mat 26:13). S. John tells two facts omitted in the earlier Gospels; (1) that the village of Martha and Mary was Bethany, (2) that the anointing at Bethany was Mary’s act. The identification of Mary of Bethany with the ἁμαρτωλός of Luke 7 is altogether at variance with what S. Luke and S. John tell us of her character. Nor is there any sufficient reason for identifying either of them with Mary Magdalene. Mary of Bethany, Mary of Magdala, and the ‘sinner’ of Luke 7 are three distinct persons.