The Meaning of Matthew 26:12 Explained

Matthew 26:12

KJV: For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

YLT: for she having put this ointment on my body -- for my burial she did it.

Darby: For in pouring out this ointment on my body, she has done it for my burying.

ASV: For in that she poured this ointment upon my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

For in that  she  hath poured  this  ointment  on  my  body,  she did  [it] for  my  burial. 

What does Matthew 26:12 Mean?

Study Notes

for my
Supply to prepare me.

Verse Meaning

Normally friends of the deceased would prepare the body for burial after death, but that was impossible in the case of criminals. [1] Mary may not have understood the full significance of what she was doing, but Jesus used the situation to remind His disciples of His coming crucifixion.

Context Summary

Matthew 26:1-13 - Love's Fragrant Ministry
How great the contrast between the plotting in the court of Caiaphas and the love-ministry of Bethany! Yet even there, a strain of needless sorrow was added to the cup of our Lord. While His foes were plotting His destruction, it became necessary for Him to speak on behalf of the devoted woman who was suffering criticism for His Name. It is probable that, of all people then living, Mary was the only one who had really entered into the meaning of the Lord's words and had realized the scenes of suffering that lay before Him. Through the succeeding hours the aroma of that ointment, lingering still on His person, must have sweetly reminded Jesus how dearly He was loved.
Mary is not named in this Gospel, perhaps because it was written during her lifetime and such a reference might have exposed her to suffering. But in the fourth Gospel she is named, because by that time the whole family had gone into the presence of Him whom they so devotedly loved. Do not be deterred by utilitarian calculations from the spontaneous expression of love to Jesus. [source]

Chapter Summary: Matthew 26

1  Jesus foretells his own death
3  The rulers conspire against him
6  The woman anoints his feet
14  Judas bargains to betray him
17  Jesus eats the Passover;
26  institutes his holy supper;
30  foretells the desertion of his disciples, and Peter's denial;
36  prays in the garden;
47  and being betrayed by a kiss,
57  is carried to Caiaphas,
69  and denied by Peter

Greek Commentary for Matthew 26:12

To prepare me for burial [προς το ενταπιασαι με]
Mary alone had understood what Jesus had repeatedly said about his approaching death. The disciples were so wrapped up in their own notions of a political kingdom that they failed utterly to sympathize with Jesus as he faced the cross. But Mary with the woman‘s fine intuitions did begin to understand and this was her way of expressing her high emotions and loyalty. The word here is the same used in John 19:40 about what Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus did for the body of Jesus before burial with the addition of προς το — pros to showing the purpose of Mary (the infinitive of purpose). Mary was vindicated by Jesus and her noble deed has become a “memorial of her” (εις μνημοσυμον αυτης — eis mnēmosumon autēs) as well as of Jesus. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Matthew 26:12

Mark 14:8 She hath anointed my body aforehand for the burying [προελαβεν μυρισαι το σωμα μου εις τον ενταπιασμον]
Literally, “she took beforehand to anoint my body for the burial.” She anticipated the event. This is Christ‘s justification of her noble deed. Matthew 26:12 also speaks of the burial preparation by Mary, using the verb ενταπιασαι — entaphiasai f0). [source]
John 12:7 Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this [ἄφες αὐτήν εἰς τὴν ἡμέραν τοῦ ἐνταφιασμοῦ]
This passage presents great difficulty. According to the reading just given, the meaning is that Mary had kept the ointment, perhaps out of the store provided for Lazarus' burial, against the day of Christ's preparation for the tomb. The word ἐνταφιασμοῦ is wrongly rendered burial. It means the preparation for burial, the laying out, or embalmment. It is explained by John 19:40, as the binding in linen cloths with spices, “as the manner of the Jews is ἐνταφιάζειν toprepare for burial,” not to bury. It is the Latin pollingere, to wash and prepare a corpse for the funeral pile. Hence the name of the servant to whom this duty was committed was pollinctor. He was a slave of the libitinarius, or furnishing undertaker. Mary, then, has kept the ointment in order to embalm Jesus with it on this day, as though He were already dead. This is the sense of the Synoptists. Matthew (Matthew 26:12) says, she did it with reference to my preparation for burial. Mark, she anticipated to anoint. The reading of the Received Text is, however, disputed. The best textual critics agree that the perfect, τετήρηκεν , she hath kept, was substituted for the original reading τηρήσῃ , the aorist, she may keep, or may have kept, by some one who was trying to bring the text into harmony with Mark 14:8; not understanding how she could keep for His burial that which she poured out now. Some, however, urge the exact contrary, namely, that the perfect is the original reading, and that the aorist is a correction by critics who were occupied with the notion that no man is embalmed before his death, or who failed to see how the ointment could have been kept already, as it might naturally be supposed to have been just purchased. (So Godet and Field.)-DIVIDER-
According to the corrected reading, ἵνα , in order that, is inserted after ἄφες αὐτὴν , let her alone, or suffer her; τετήρηκεν , hath kept, is changed to τηρήσῃ , may keep, and the whole is rendered, suffer her to keep it against the day of my burying. So Rev. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
But it is difficult to see why Christ should desire to have kept for His embalmment what had already been poured out upon Him. Some, as Meyer, assume that only a part of the ointment was poured out, and refer αὐτό , it, to the part remaining. “Let her alone, that she may not give away to the poor this ointment, of which she has just used a portion for the anointing of my feet, but preserve it for the day of my embalmming.” Canon Westcott inclines to this view of the use of only a part. But the inference from the synoptic narratives can be only that the whole contents of the flask were used, and the mention of the pound by John, and the charge of waste are to the same effect. There is nothing whatever to warrant a contrary supposition. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
Others explain, suffer her to have kept it, or suffer that she may have kept it. So Westcott, who says: “The idiom by which a speaker throws himself into the past, and regards what is done as still a purpose, is common to all languages.”-DIVIDER-
Others, again, retain the meaning let her alone, and render ἵνα , in order that, with an ellipsis, thus: “Let her alone: (she hath not sold her treasure) in order that she might keep it,” etc. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
The old rendering, as A.V., is the simplest, and gives a perfectly intelligible and consistent sense. If, however, this must be rejected, it seems, on the whole, best to adopt the marginal reading of the Rev., with the elliptical ἵνα : let her alone: it was that she might keep it. This preserves the prohibitory force of ἄφες αὐτήν , which is implied in Matthew 26:10, and is unquestionable in Mark 14:6. Compare Matthew 15:14; Matthew 19:14; Matthew 27:49. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
Note that the promise of the future repute of this act (Matthew 26:13; Mark 14:9) is omitted by the only Evangelist who records Mary's name in connection with it. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
[source]

John 12:7 Suffer her to keep it against the day of my burying [Απες αυτην ινα εις την ημεραν του ενταπιασμου μου τηρησηι αυτο]
This reading (ινα — hina tērēsēi purpose clause with τηρεω — hina and first aorist active subjunctive of τετηρεκεν — tēreō) rather than that of the Textus Receptus (just ινα — tetēreken perfect active indicative) is correct. It is supported by Aleph B D L W Theta. The απες — hina can be rendered as above after ενταπιασμος — aphes according to Koiné idiom or more probably: “Let her alone: it was that,” etc. (supplying “it was”). Either makes good sense. The word ενταπιαζω — entaphiasmos is a later and rare substantive from the late verb entaphiazō to prepare for burial (Matthew 26:12; John 19:40), and means preparation for burial. In N.T. only here and Mark 14:8. “Preparation for my burial” is the idea here and in Mark. The idea of Jesus is that Mary had saved this money to use in preparing his body for burial. She is giving him the flowers before the funeral. We can hardly take it that Mary did not use all of the ointment for Mark (Mark 14:3) says that she broke it and yet he adds (Mark 14:8) what John has here. It is a paradox, but Jesus is fond of paradoxes. Mary has kept this precious gift by giving it now beforehand as a preparation for my burial. We really keep what we give to Christ. This is Mary‘s glory that she had some glimmering comprehension of Christ‘s death which none of the disciples possessed. [source]
John 19:40 In linen cloths [οτονιοις]
Late diminutive for the old οτονη — othonē used for ships‘ sails, in N.T. here and Luke 24:12. Case here either locative or instrumental. With the spices Late word αρωμα — arōma for spices, from fumes. To bury Late verb, from ενταπια — entaphia (εν ταπος — en class="translit"> taphos) the burial preparations of all sorts (flowers, perfumes, etc.), in N.T. only here and Matthew 26:12. [source]

What do the individual words in Matthew 26:12 mean?

In pouring for this [woman] the fragrant oil this on the body of Me for burial of Me she did [it]
βαλοῦσα γὰρ αὕτη τὸ μύρον τοῦτο ἐπὶ τοῦ σώματός μου πρὸς ἐνταφιάσαι με ἐποίησεν

βαλοῦσα  In  pouring 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Active, Nominative Feminine Singular
Root: βάλλω 
Sense: to throw or let go of a thing without caring where it falls.
αὕτη  this  [woman] 
Parse: Demonstrative Pronoun, Nominative Feminine Singular
Root: οὗτος  
Sense: this.
μύρον  fragrant  oil 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Neuter Singular
Root: μύρον  
Sense: ointment.
τοῦτο  this 
Parse: Demonstrative Pronoun, Accusative Neuter Singular
Root: οὗτος  
Sense: this.
σώματός  body 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Neuter Singular
Root: σῶμα  
Sense: the body both of men or animals.
μου  of  Me 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 1st Person Singular
Root: ἐγώ  
Sense: I, me, my.
ἐνταφιάσαι  burial 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Infinitive Active
Root: ἐνταφιάζω  
Sense: to prepare a body for burial, by the use of every requisite provision and funeral adornment, that is, baths, vestments, flowers, wreathes, perfumes, libations, etc.
με  of  Me 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Accusative 1st Person Singular
Root: ἐγώ  
Sense: I, me, my.
ἐποίησεν  she  did  [it] 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: ποιέω  
Sense: to make.