Matthew 26:8

But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
But	δὲ de	G1161	but · conjunction
when	ἰδόντες idontes	G1492	used only in certain past tenses · verb — second aorist active participle, nominative plural masculine
his	αὐτός autós	G846	the reflexive pronoun self
disciples	μαθηταὶ mathētai	G3101	a learner · noun — nominative plural masculine
saw	εἴδω eídō	G1492	used only in certain past tenses
indignation	ἠγανάκτησαν ēganaktēsan	G23	akin to the base of G43 (ἀγκάλη)) · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person plural
saying	λέγοντες· legontes	G3004	properly · verb — present active participle, nominative plural masculine
To	εἰς eis	G1519	to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
purpose	τί ti	G5101	an interrogative pronoun · interrogative pronoun — accusative singular neuter
this	αὕτη; hautē	G3778	the he (she or it) · demonstrative pronoun — nominative singular feminine
waste	ἀπώλεια apōleia	G684	ruin or loss (physical · noun — nominative singular feminine

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 12:4-6 Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him,
Mark 14:4 And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?
Exodus 5:17 But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the LORD.
1 Samuel 17:28-29 And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou dow…
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…
Amos 8:5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the…
Haggai 1:2-4 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built.
Malachi 1:7-10 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

John Gill on Matthew 26:8

But when his disciples saw it,.... What the woman did, what a costly box of ointment it was, and with what profusion she used it, they had indignation: Mark says, "within themselves", Mark 14:4; either among themselves, or their indignation was secret in their breasts; their resentment was private, though it might be betrayed by their looks, and afterwards showed itself in words. This indignation was either at the woman, for the Evangelist Mark observes, that "they murmured against her", Mark 14:5, that she should act such an imprudent part, and be guilty of such extravagance; or at Christ himself, for suffering such an action to be done unto him; for so the Syriac version reads the above c…

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John Calvin on Matthew 26:1-13

Matthew 26:1-13 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, whi…

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Tyndale Open Study Notes on Matthew 26:8

The disciples were indignant: John 12:4 indicates that Judas Iscariot incited this reaction.

Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).

The Church Fathers

(de Cons. Ev. ii. 79.) We may however understand that the other disciples thought or said the same, or that they assented to what Judas said, and thus Matthew and Mark have described their common consent. But Judas said it because he was a thief, the others out of their care for the poor; and John desired to mention it only in the case of him whose thievish propensity he thought ought to be recorded.
— Augustine of Hippo ((as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)), Catena Aurea by Aquinas

And whence had they this thought? They used to hear their Master saying, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice," and blaming the Jews, because they omitted the weightier matters, judgment, and mercy, and faith, and discoursing much on the mount concerning almsgiving, and from these things they inferred with themselves, and reasoned, that if He accepts not whole burnt offerings, neither the ancient worship, much more will He not accept the anointing of oil.
— John Chrysostom, Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 80

I know that some raise a cavil here, because John says that Judas alone was grieved because he had the bag, and was a thief from the beginning; but Matthew, that all the disciples were sorrowful. These know not the figure syllepsis, by which one name is put for many, and many for one; as Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews says, They were sawn asunder, when it is thought that one only, Esaias namely, was so. (Heb. 11:37.)
— Jerome ((as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)), Catena Aurea by Aquinas

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

Judas Iscariot — (Judas of Kerioth). He is sometimes called “the son of Simon,” (John 6:71; 13:2,26) but more commonly ISCARIOTES. (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:19; Luke 6:16) etc. The name Iscariot has received many…
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…
Bethany · Jesus attends a feast in — Jesus attends a feast in
Love · .Mary — .Mary
Parsimony (Stinginess) · Of the disciples, when the ointment was poured upon Jesus — Of the disciples, when the ointment was poured upon Jesus

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).