Today the skillful narrator of Luke presents a story that has parallels in all the other gospels (Mark 14:3-9; Matthew 26:6-13; John 12:1-8), yet stands on its own as a uniquely Lukan tale. Scholars argue over the relatedness of all these stories. Some see two genuinely different episodes lying behind the accounts known as "The Anointing at Bethany" and "The Woman Who Was a Sinner." Others posit that originally there was only one tradition which took on various forms when it made the transition from oral to written form.

Luke's story differs in a significant number of ways from all the other "anointing" texts. Luke's narrative takes place at the beginning of Jesus' Galilean ministry not as it does in Mark, on the night before Jesus' death. The story's location in Luke enables the startling…