1. To Ta<r%«, the passover) This is said in a strict sense, as in ver. 12 ; for r« «£u/za, " the feast of unleavened bread," is added. — IMTO. 8ub tyttifof) That is to say on the following day.1
3. n/ffr/zSj;, genuine) French veritable [So marg. of Eng.
1 Two days before the Passover. — ED. and TKANSL.
Vers., pure, or else liquid; but its text, ointment of spikenard"^. Pliny, on the contrary, mentions Pseudo-nardum. Nonnus lengthens the middle syllable in merits ; viz. as if formed from Pista, a city of the Indians in the region of Cabul ; a region from which most of the aromatic perfumes even already at that time used to be derived; see Lud. de Dieu, in Act, p. 133. But -Tr/ora/o? would rather be the form, if derived from the proper name, [swrp l-^affa, having broken) That none of the ointment might remain in the vessel, wThich, had it been of glass, would have burst asunder into a number of fragments.
-v.g.]
5. 'ETCCVW rpiaxoaiuv, above three hundred) It may be doubted whether they could have accurately estimated its value. It is a phrase, resembling an adage \_At all events almost 5000 men might have been fed for two hundred denani ; therefore one may judge that that sum was to be estimated as of much higher value.
7. To:)? -ffTM^o-j^ the poor) Whom ye speak of. — orav, if [when soever]) ye will, as ye here show [by your very remark as to the poor]. — ftwaaQt, ye can) Never is there any one so needy, as to be able to give nothing. — e%s«, ye have) thus present with you as now. It is not always that such an honour can be con ferred on me.
8. "o, What) An abbreviated mode of expression ; i.e. What she had, she has freely bestowed ; and what she could, she hath done ; or else, what she had [it in her power] to do, she hath done. — aurr), she, emphatically coheres with efface, she had. Hardly any one else of those, who were in attendance on Jesus, had so costly ointment. It was divinely designed and appointed for the purpose of this being done. — TposXa/Ss, she has anticipated [she is come aforehand] to) It would not have been becoming for the body of Christ, which knew not corruption, to have been anointed after death ; on this account it was anointed before hand.
9. E/V oXoi/, throughout the whole) In all its wide extent. — avrq, she) Demonstratively.
11. 'E^dpriaav, they icere glad) They felt joy, and they testi fied it.
12. To -raffia 'i&vnv, they killed [sacrificed] the passover) viz,