1. See J. K. Elliott, “The Anointing of Jesus,” ExpTim 85 (1974): 105–7; Dodd, Historical Tradition, 162–73.
2. For a discussion of the phrase, see C. F. D. Moule, An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959), 74.
3. See e.g., Michaels, John, 663.
4. Cf. Aquinas, John, 2:261.
5. Brant, John, 179.
6. See Malina and Rohrbaugh, John, 207–8. There is no evidence to suggest that this was the Jewish meal called the Habdalah, ceremonially performed at the end of the Sabbath.
7. Reinhartz, “From Narrative to History,” 179.
8. BDAG 666.
9. BDAG 818.
10. Keener, John, 2:863.
11. J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1930; repr., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997), 377; BDAG 597.
12. Neyrey, John, 210.
13. Brown, John, 1:451.
14. J. F. Coakley, “The Anointing at Bethany and the Priority of John,” JBL 107 (1988): 241–56 (247–48).
15. Ibid., 248.
16. Susan Miller, “Exegetical Notes on John 12:1–8: The Anointing of Jesus,” ExpTim 118 (2007): 240–41.
17. Polybius, Histories 26.1.12–14.
18. J. Edgar Bruns, “A Note on Jn 12, 3,” CBQ 28 (1966): 219–22.
19. Lincoln, John, 338.
20. Keener, John, 2:864.
21. Charles H. Cosgrove, “A Woman’s Unbound Hair in the Greco-Roman World, with Special Reference to the Story of the ‘Sinful Woman’ in Luke 7:36–50,” JBL 124 (2005): 675–92.
22. See Bultmann, John, 415; Hoskyns, Fourth Gospel, 414–15; Aquinas, John, 2:265.
23. Moloney, “Can Everyone be Wrong?,” 524.
24. Dominika A. Kurek-Chomycz, “The Fragrance of Her Perfume: The Significance of the Sense Imagery in John’s Account of the Anointing in Bethany,” NovT 52 (2010): 334–54 (esp. 342–44). Cf. David S. Potter, “Odor and Power in the Roman Empire,” in Constructions of the Classical Body, ed. James I. Porter (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002), 169–89.
25. As Michaels notes regarding Judas, “His abrupt question is conspicuously not introduced by ‘Lord’ or ‘Rabbi’ ” (John, 669).
26. Keener, John, 2:864. While the value of the perfume might suggest that the Bethany family had some wealth, the gift is still nearly beyond description.
27. Cf. Moloney, John, 357.
28. See Augustine, John, 50.13.282.
29. Lincoln, John, 339.
30. Calvin, John 11–21, 28.
31. Cf. Barrett, John, 415.
32. Augustine, Teaching Christianity, 1.3–4.107.
33. Ibid., 1.28.118.
34. Ibid., 1.37.122.