What is the reference about Mary Magdalene anointing the feet of Jesus?

Answer 1

The New Testament never really talks of Mary Magdalene anointing the feet of Jesus. Yet there is a plausible way of saying that she did.

Mark chapter 14 says a woman brought an alabaster box of ointment and anointed Jesus at the house of Simon the leper, late in the mission of Jesus. We do not know who this woman was.

Luke 7:36-50 says a sinful woman anointed the feet of Jesus from an alabaster box of ointment at the house of Simon, a Pharisee. Although this was an entirely different Simon, the stories have the alabaster box of ointment in common. We do not know the sinful woman's name, but the implication is that she was a prostitute.

John 12:1-8 says that Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus anointed the feet of Jesus with ointment. The story is different and the timing is earlier than in Mark's Gospel, but we now have a name, Mary.

Pope Gregory the Great decided in the sixth century that Mary, sister of Martha must be Mary Magdalene and that she and the sinful woman were the same person. By this pious decision, Mary Magdalene not only anointed Jesus' feet, but became a prostitute and gained a sister, Martha.