For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.
Parallel translations
- WEB For in pouring this ointment on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.
- BSB By pouring this perfume on Me, she has prepared My body for burial.
- NKJV For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial.
- NASB For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial.
- NLT She has poured this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus interprets the anointing as preparation for His burial. He again points to His imminent death.
Overview
Jesus gives the woman's act a deeper meaning than even she may have intended: it anoints His body beforehand for burial. This reveals once more His clear foreknowledge of the cross looming days away. Her devotion thus becomes a prophetic testimony to the death by which He would save His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Mark 14:8She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.
- John 12:7Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.
- Luke 23:56And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
- 2 Chr 16:14And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art: and they made a very great burning for him.
- Mark 16:1And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
- John 19:39–40And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 26:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.