What we can learn from Mark 14:3-9 and Matthew 26:6-13 on the attitude of Jesus towards women with an application to the Reformed Church of East Africa

Abstract

As I read through Mark 14:3-9 and Matthew 26:6-13 on the woman who anointed Jesus was showing some sign of gratitude, humility, and love towards Jesus I began to wonder how such an understanding would affect the readers understanding of the story and women therein. I assumed that the authors had specific intention in the way in which they portrayed these women and wondered what “meaning” anointing they were intending for their audience to understand. For me the way in which these women are portrayed as prophets, or as disciples is very important, not only to the stories in which they appear, but to the roles that women were portrayed as enacting in earlier Christianity and by extension, the roles that are acceptable for them today. Therefore, I want to discover all of the possible meaning anointing might have had for the intended readers of the Mark and Matthew and the other two texts and by so doing, analyze the possible ways in which these women are being portrayed. The women’s actions can be 4 interpreted in various ways, which I assume will result in multiple possible interpretations from Mark 14:3-9 and Matthew 26:6-13 and its theological meanings, with varying degrees of likelihood. Other questions include; how does this implication (of anointing) affect the ways in which women are viewed in the bible and in reality.