Person · one of several with this name
Mary (sister of Lazarus)
The sister of Martha and Lazarus in Bethany, who sits at Jesus's feet to listen and, in John, anoints his feet with costly perfume.
See Luke 10:39, John 11:1, John 12:3.
A jar of perfume marks Mary of Bethany in the reading view: she anointed his feet with a pound of costly ointment of spikenard (John 12:3).
Mentioned in 11 verses across 2 books, first in Luke 10:39. The verses below are the ones linked to this person (the Theographic dataset, with our sourced corrections).
How artists have pictured her
2 works from different centuries and traditions. Each shows how its time and place imagined Mary of Bethany, not how she looked.
In the Bible
The first 10 of 11 verses, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Luke
- Luke 10:39
She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to His message.
- Luke 10:42
But only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”
John
- John 11:1
At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
- John 11:2
(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.)
- John 11:19
and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them in the loss of their brother.
- John 11:20
So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him; but Mary stayed at home.
- John 11:28
After Martha had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside to tell her, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.”
- John 11:31
When the Jews who were in the house consoling Mary saw how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
- John 11:32
When Mary came to Jesus and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
- John 11:45
Therefore many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him.
Events
Events the dataset lists Mary (sister of Lazarus) as taking part in. Dates follow its Ussher–Jones reckoning (one of several traditional counts), not established history.
- c. AD 29Jesus meets Martha and Mary
- c. AD 30Lazarus Raised form the Dead
- no dateMary Anoints Jesus
Dictionary
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. The entry is for the name and can describe more than one person who bore it. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.
Read Easton’s entry
Mary the sister of Lazarus is brought to our notice in connection with the visits of our Lord to Bethany. She is contrasted with her sister Martha, who was “cumbered about many things” while Jesus was their guest, while Mary had chosen “the good part.” Her character also appears in connection with the death of her brother (John 11:20, 31, 33). On the occasion of our Lord’s last visit to Bethany, Mary brought “a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus” as he reclined at table in the house of one Simon, who had been a leper (Matt. 26:6; Mark 14:3; John 12:2, 3). This was an evidence of her overflowing love to the Lord. Nothing is known of her subsequent history. It would appear from this act of Mary’s, and from the circumstance that they possessed a family vault (11:38), and that a large number of Jews from Jerusalem came to condole with them on the death of Lazarus (11:19), that this family at Bethany belonged to the wealthier class of the people.