The Last Supper
a woman came to Him with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume, which she poured on His head as He reclined at the table. Matthew 26:7 · Berean Standard Bible
A woman comes to Jesus with an expensive jar of perfume and pours it over His head while He is eating. It is an act of breathtaking generosity.
In that culture, anointing someone's head was reserved for kings and honored guests. This woman is treating Jesus as the most important person in the world.
The narrator describes the woman's beautiful, uninhibited act of worship.
She does not calculate the cost or worry about what people will think. She simply pours out everything she has on the One she loves.
An unnamed woman anoints Jesus' head with costly perfume (myron polytimou) from an alabaster flask (alabastron), an act carrying both royal and funerary significance.
Anointing the head echoes the coronation of kings in Israel (1 Samuel 10:1, 16:13). The alabaster jar suggests nard-based perfume of extraordinary value, possibly a family heirloom.
The narrator describes the woman's bold act of devotion as Jesus reclines at table.
This woman performs a prophetic act she may not fully understand — anointing Jesus as both King and sacrifice in a single, lavish gesture of love.
5“But not during the feast,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”
6While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper,
7a woman came to Him with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume, which she poured on His head as He reclined at the table.
8When the disciples saw this, they were indignant and asked, “Why this waste?
9This perfume could have been sold at a high price, and the money given to the poor.”
Read all of Matthew 26 — Bread broken. Wine poured. A betrayal predicted. The longest night in history begins around a table.
This page covers one. BibleKey does all 31,102 — tap any verse for its meaning, any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, and keep reading without leaving the chapter.
NIV, NLT, NKJV, KJV and the Berean — plus the Catholic NLT-CE and Douay-Rheims, with the full deuterocanon in the reading order.
Tap any of the 31,102 for what it means, and any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, without leaving the chapter.
Start recording at church and put your phone away. You get the transcript, the key moments, and every verse referenced.
Say what's sitting on your heart and hear it back as a real prayer, in a warm voice. Keep the ones that land.
The whole Bible in a year — five chapters a day, five days a week, weekends off. Built to be finished.
A verse each morning with its meaning, how it lands today, something to sit with, and a prayer to close it.
Not just the famous ones. BibleKey is free on iPhone and iPad.
Download on the App StoreFree on iPhone & iPad