some or any person or object · indefinite pronoun — nominative plural masculine
indignation
ἀγανακτοῦντεςaganaktountes
G23
akin to the base of G43 (ἀγκάλη)) · verb — present active participle, nominative plural masculine
within
πρὸςpros
G4314
a preposition of direction · preposition
themselves
ἑαυτούςhe'autous
G1438
him- (her- · reflexive pronoun
and
καίkaí
G2532
and
said
λέγωlégō
G3004
properly
Why
τίti
G5101
an interrogative pronoun · interrogative pronoun — accusative singular neuter
was
γέγονεν;gegonen
G1096
to cause to be ("gen"-erate) · verb — second perfect active indicative, 3rd person singular
this
αὕτηhautē
G3778
the he (she or it) · demonstrative pronoun — nominative singular feminine
waste
ἀπώλειαapōleia
G684
ruin or loss (physical · noun — nominative singular feminine
ointment
μύρουmurou
G3464
"myrrh" · noun — genitive singular neuter
made
γίνομαιgínomai
G1096
to cause to be ("gen"-erate)
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
John 12:4-5 Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him,
Matthew 26:8-9 But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?
Ecclesiastes 4:4 Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of s…
Ecclesiastes 5:4-8 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
Malachi 1:12-13 But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Mark 14:1-11
We have here instances,
I. Of the kindness of Christ's friends, and the provision made of respect and honour for him. Some friends he had, even in and about Jerusalem, that loved him, and never thought they could do enough for him, among whom, though Israel be not gathered, he is, and will be, glorious.
1. Here was one friend, that was so kind as to invite him to sup with him; and he was so kind as to accept the invitation, Mar 14:3. Though he had a prospect of his death approaching, yet he did not abandon himself to a melancholy retirement from all company, but conversed as freely with his friends as usual.
2. Here was another friend, that was so kind as to anoint his head with very preciou…
Alabaster box - Among critics and learned men there are various conjectures concerning the alabaster mentioned by the evangelists: some think it means a glass phial; others, that it signifies a small vessel without a handle, from α negative and λαβη, a handle; and others imagine that it merely signifies a perfume or essence bottle. There are several species of the soft calcareous stone called alabaster, which are enumerated and described in different chemical works.
Spikenard - Or nard. An Indian plant, whose root is very small and slender. It puts forth a long and small stalk, and has several ears or spikes even with the ground, which has given it the name of spikenard: the taste is bitter,…
And there were some that had indignation within themselves,.... The Syriac version reads, "some of the disciples": agreeably to Matthew 26:8, particularly Judas, and others might be incensed by his means:
and said, why was this waste of the ointment made? See Gill on Matthew 26:8.
John Calvin on Mark 14:1-9
Mark 14:1-9
Matthew 26:1-13
Mark 14:1-9
Luke 22:1-2
1. And it happened when Jesus had finished all these discourses, he said to his disciples, 2. You know that after two days is the passover; and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. 3. Then were assembled the chief priests, and scribes, and elders of the people, in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4. And entered into consultation how they would take Jesus by stratagem, and kill him. 5. But they said, Not during the festival, lest there be a commotion among the people. 6. And when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 7. A woman came to him, having ointment, and poured it on his head, while h…
The Church Fathers
And they rebuked her harshly. I do not believe it was said of the good and diligent apostles who loved Christ, but rather of the one who, under the plural number, was proven neither to have adhered faithfully to the Lord nor to his disciples, nor to have cared for the poor.
To him [Judas], it seemed to be wasting the ointment because the jar is broken, but, for us, it was a great good because the perfume spread throughout the world. Why are you indignant, Judas, because the alabaster jar is broken? God, who made you and all the nations, is blessing us with that precious perfume. You wanted to keep the perfume sealed up so that it would not reach others.
There were some who were indignantly saying among themselves, "Why has this waste of ointment been made? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given to the poor." Mark, like Matthew, speaks synecdochically, using the plural for the singular. For John, speaking more distinctly, testifies that Judas said this, and that out of greed, because he was a thief and had the money box and carried what was put in it. It can also be understood that other disciples either thought this or said it, or were persuaded by Judas saying it, and Matthew and Mark expressed the will of all in words, but John said it of Judas because he was a thief, while the rest rejoiced for the sake of the poor. John, however, wished to mention only him who from this occasion believed he should intimate his habit of stealing. And what follows:
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Simon — The abbreviated form of Simeon. (1.) One of the twelve apostles, called the Canaanite (Matt. 10:4; Mark 3:18). This word “Canaanite” does not mean a native of Canaan, but is derived from the Syriac…
Spikenard — (Heb. nerd), a much-valued perfume (Cant. 1:12; 4:13, 14). It was “very precious”, i.e., very costly (Mark 14:3; John 12:3, 5). It is the root of an Indian plant, the Nardostachys jatamansi, of the…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Some (cp. Matt 26:8; John 12:4-5) were indignant over what they considered a waste of the expensive perfume, said to have been worth a year’s wages for the average worker. This large amount of money could have been given to the poor, and it was obligatory to remember the poor during Passover.
