Mark 14:9
Wherever the gospel is preached
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγέλιον euangelion · gospel
Original
Translations
And truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached in all the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
Truly I say to you, wherever this good news may be proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman did will also be spoken of—for a memorial of her.”
내가 진실로 너희에게 이르노니 온 천하에 어디서든지 복음이 전파되는 곳에는 이 여자의 행한 일도 말하여 저를 기념하리라 하시니라
진실로 내가 너희에게 이르노니, 온 세상 어디든지 이 복음이 선포되는 곳에서는 사람들이 그녀가 행한 이 일도 말하여 그녀를 기념하리라, 하시니라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Mark 14:1-11 as a whole
Did Christ pour out his soul unto death for us, and shall we think any thing too precious for him? Do we give him the precious ointment of our best affections? Let us love him with all the heart, though it is common for zeal and affection to be misunderstood and blamed; and…
Read the whole commentary →Church Fathers Mark 14:9
Bede: Observe, also, that as Mary won glory throughout the whole world for the service which she rendered to the Lord, so, on the contrary, he who was bold enough to reprove her service, is held in infamy far and wide; but the Lord in rewarding the good the due praise has passed…
Read the whole commentary →Wesley
Nothing on this verse itself.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
Mark sets this scene inside a story of betrayal. Between the plot to kill Jesus and Judas's bargain, the fragrance from a broken jar is promised to travel with the gospel into all the world.
And truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached in all the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
Mark 14:9Two days before the Passover, the chief priests and scribes "were looking for a covert way to arrest Jesus and kill Him" (Mark 14:1). At Bethany, in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman comes with an alabaster jar of pure nard: "She broke open the jar and poured it on Jesus’ head" (Mark 14:3). Some at the table scold her; the perfume could have been sold "for over three hundred denarii" (Mark 14:5), when a denarius was a labourer's pay for a day (Matthew 20:2): nearly a year's wages poured out in a moment. Jesus defends her: "She has done what she could to anoint My body in advance of My burial" (Mark 14:8). Straight after this verse, Judas goes to the chief priests. Mark binds plot, anointing and betrayal together so that each throws light on the others.
The noun is the subject of an aorist passive subjunctive, kēruchthē. Where Matthew says "in the whole world" (en holō tō kosmō), Mark says "into the whole world" (eis holon ton kosmon). In the Greek of the time eis often meant little more than "in," but the phrase still suggests a gospel on the move, going out into the world. In the previous chapter Jesus said the gospel "must first be proclaimed to all the nations" (Mark 13:10); here that same gospel is tied to His burial. Wherever it goes to the nations, the woman who prepared His body for the grave goes with it. "In memory of her" is eis , a word the New Testament uses only here, in Matthew's telling of the same saying, and at Acts 10:4.
The manuscripts differ on one small word. The text behind the KJV reads "this gospel," and the KJV and the LSV ("this good news") keep it; the older manuscripts, followed by the BSB, read simply "the gospel." "This gospel" points to the message Jesus is speaking of in that hour; "the gospel" names the whole message the church came to preach. They mean the same thing. The KJV's "shall be spoken of for a memorial of her" and the LSV's "will also be spoken of—for a memorial of her" stay close to the Greek; the BSB's "will also be told in memory of her" says it in plainer English.
In the Catena, Theophylact notices that "the Lord makes a double prophecy; one that the Gospel shall be preached over the whole world" Theophylact, the other that the woman's deed will be praised. Bede points out the contrast the story leaves behind: Mary won glory throughout the world for her service, while the one who was bold enough to reprove it "is held in infamy far and wide" Bede. The Fathers differed over whether she was the same woman as the one in Luke 7; Theophylact thought them different women, while Augustine held that the same Mary anointed the Lord twice. Matthew Henry closes with a sentence: "Those who honour Christ he will honour" Matthew Henry.
The gospel does not only remember great achievements. It remembers what one person could do. What others called a waste, Jesus called a beautiful deed.