TO UNDERSTAND THE SCENE

All these pictures represent a supper with a varying number of guests. A few details allow the spectator to distinguish between them and avoid any confusion.

The same scene, but according to Mark and Matthew. During a banquet at Simon's house,  Jesus and a woman are in the foreground but, this time, the woman is standing and pours some perfume on Jesus’ head; this is the unction at Bethany made by Mary, Lazarus’ sister, always identified with Mary Magdalene.

Still another banquet but if jars are seen in the foreground or in evidence, it is the Wedding at Cana.

(See the Wedding at Cana)

The Last Supper of Jesus and his apostles can also be depicted as a sort of banquet, and one disciple is leaning on Jesus’ breast, hence the possibility of confusion with the supper at Simon’s house, but the disciple is the Apostle John and he never touches his master’s feet.

(See The Last Supper)

This is a more intimate meal with Jesus and two disciples upset by his death. They recognize the Risen Christ as soon as he shares bread. This is the supper at Emmaus for the two men were on the way to this city.

(See The Pilgrims at Emmaus)

A Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee; Peter Paul RUBENS; c. 1618; oil on canvas; the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Web Gallery of Art

The Gospel according to Luke, chapter 7

Jesus, who has been invited to the house of Simon the Pharisee, is at table when a loose woman enters with a vase of perfume:

[She] stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears, and did wipe them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet…

Seeing that Jesus has not pushed back the sinning woman, Simon is shocked and thinks that Jesus does not know who she is, but Jesus says to him:

And he said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet: but she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I say to you: Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. And he said to her: Your sins are forgiven… And he said to the woman: Your faith has saved you; go in peace. (Luke 7:38-50)

The same scene is related in Mark 14:3-9 and in Matthew 26:6-13. It takes place in Bethany at the house of Simon the leprous but this time the woman pours the perfume on Jesus’ head and she does not wipe it.

On the other hand, the Gospel according to John (12:1-8) takes up the gesture of the perfume on the feet wiped by a woman’s hair. This time, she is Mary, Lazarus’ sister, at Bethany.

The closeness of these versions explains the identification of the sinning woman at Simon’s house with Mary Magdalene.

Comment

In Luke’s narrative, the woman is a sinner whose gesture is at the same time a call for forgiveness and a token of love, hence Jesus’ comment and his eventual pardon.

In the other three narratives, it is a gesture announcing Jesus’ death and which triggers a debate: Should a costly perfume have been poured on Jesus or should the money have been given to the poor?

The sinning Woman at Simon’s house

The representation of the sinning woman wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair is not very easy except if one goes back to the oriental context in which Jesus is lying and not sitting. The title of Tissot’s painting refers to the gesture of Mary of Bethany in St John’s narrative.

This picture from the 18^th century creates a scene in a large space and a huge crowd but, be careful and look closely at the young woman = there are two different anointments

This is the other unction at Bethany; the woman pours perfume on Jesus’ head. One cannot mistake the scene since the woman is standing. Its representation is rarer.