Mary's Fragrant Offering
" Mary’s fragrant offering" the perfume of her worship and adoration poured out in a type of priestly ministry on the Son of God. This costly offering historically was also given to a daughter by her jewish parents for her dowery. On her wedding night the perfume was to be poured out upon the husband at the time of the marriage consummation. Mary's giving her very own dowery was a statement of complete love, devotion and obedience. Mary obeyed the Holy Spirit when directed to anoint Jesus by giving her best. She also was criticised by the church then as you may be now when giving Jesus your all. Do not stop obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit even when others speak evil against you. Offer forgiveness, love them and minister to God with your whole heart. That’s the "Mary" anointing boldly loving Jesus in abandon worship adoration and intercession. There is an anointing from the Lord being released into the body of Christ for this priestly ministry.
Spikenard and the history of the "Alabaster Box"
Spikenard is sometimes referred to as "Nard" in the botanical reference books. Also improperly known as spikenard (from Latin spica, head of grain, and nardi), this hardy herb, a member of the Valerian family, grows in the high altitudes of the Himalayas. The part of the plant growing underground has the appearance of a hairy fibrous spindle, and is rich in oil.
Because Nard was found in the Himalayas which is now called India, nard traveled great distances in the ancient world. The form it was exported was of a dry rhizome or oil phase extract, via Persia, under the name nardin. However, in 1975 a perfectly preserved terra-cotta distillation apparatus from about 3000 BC was found in Pakistan.
Though spikenard is now rare on the shelves of the western perfumer, because it
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s scent does not appeal to our western nose. The Name Spikenard stood for centuries as an evocation of the perfume of the lost Garden of Eden, and in literature, nard came to refer to any perfume, as long as it was costly and exquisite. Nard has intense, warm, fragrant, musky notes, similar to the aromas of humus. It exhibits a wide range of fragrances among the root-type perfumes and also enhances as a base other fragrances. In hebrew the root word of Nard means light or Nerd Nayrd an aromatic scent.
Pliny, in his Natural History, lists twelve species of nard, ranging from lavender stoechas and tuberous valerian to true nard
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Nardostachys jatamansi. Price lists dating from this period suggest that this pure nard, with which Christ was anointed at Bethany, might already have been produced by a form of distillation.
We have conducted studies on Spikenard with studies of the types of containers with which oil was carried during ancient times. Fragrant oil in ancient times was carried in what was called an "alabastron" a conical shaped container.Alabasrons from antiquity were originally carved of alabaster from Egypt and the perfume "Nard" came from India as the root it
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s self grows in the high altitudes of the Himalayan mountains.
By relating that it was contained in an alabaster flask (alabastron), Mark 14:3 and Matthew 26:7 further underline the precious nature of the nard given to Christ. It is also important to note that the only other place Spikenard is mentioned in the Song of Solomon 1:2; 4:13-14. Which nard is referred to in the Song of Songs, as a symbol of the intimate nature of the Bride
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s love. This is the point at which relations with her beloved are initiated. When the perfume of nard is named, the bride recognizes her beloved as such. This symbol of washing feet or in the case of Matthew's account, anointing the feet was a very humbling experience. When the newly wed wife would anoint her husband in the marrige bed she was making a statement of devotion and submission to him.
It was an extremely costly gesture to anoint with the Spikenard someone's feet as opposed to use this as a perfume. Which places great significance as to the relevance and meaning of Mary
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s offering. It is in the Gospels that nard becomes a symbol of our Bridegroom recieving his brides adoration and worship. This revelation becomes clear during the anointing of Jesus Christ at Bethany as well as His willingness to do what ever it takes to obtain His bride.
Another tradition in ancient times was to anoint the forehead of a guest that has come to a persons home. This was done as a general custom of welcome as well as to give the person
who might have traveled some distance a nice smell. The fragrant smell would cover the not so fragrant smell of the person from the journey. It was also the custom to wash the feet a guest. Remember that back then most of the roads and paths were dirt and would have been very dusty even dung from animals remained on roadways.
In the case of Matthew's account this "alabastron" or alabaster container had a seal at the top as would any other expensive material of the day. The "jar" or container had a lid which was closed by a seal. Sometimes the seal had a small piece of cloth (such as linen or cotton) over the opening of the jar, then the lid was placed on and next came the seal. Sometimes the seal was covered with waxy substance and twine or leather strap so that the lid would stay on firm, thus allowing the integrity of its contents to remain in tact.
Alabaster then, as well as now was only produced in a few countries in the world, Italy, Greece, India and China, with what was considered an inferior quality coming from Israel. Since the Spikenard perfumed oil was produced in ancient India it is reasonable to assume that the oil was imported in an alabaster container possibly came from the same country.
There is no historical data relating to oils ever being contained in a "box". All of the scholars that we have consulted agree that the term "box" should have been "jar" or something similar. We believe it was the seal which was broken, so that the precious perfume could be poured out. The breaking of the seal was a traditional method of opening a vessel during ancient times.
Think about this, if you broke a box and attempted to anoint someone, it stands to reason that you would have fragments of the broken box in the oil and would most likely cut or scratched the person with the sharp edges of the broken pieces. Again, there is no historical evidence of any "box breaking". However, we have scriptural references of pouring out of oil such as on Aaron's' beard.