Alabaster

Alabaster appears in UPDV in the form of an "alabaster cruse" — a sealed container of costly ointment broken open to anoint Jesus.

The Cruse of Ointment

In Bethany, at the house of Simon the leper, a woman approached Jesus at table with a sealed flask: "And while he was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat to eat, there came a woman having an alabaster cruse of ointment of pure nard very costly; [and] she broke the cruse, and poured it over his head" (Mr 14:3). The cruse is the vessel; breaking it is the act. The ointment poured is "pure nard, very costly."

A second scene uses the same vessel earlier in the gospel record. At a Pharisee's table, a woman came in carrying the same kind of flask: "And look, a woman who was in the city, a sinner; and when she knew that he was sitting at meat in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster cruse of ointment" (Lu 7:37). The vessel passes from the city woman's hands to Jesus' feet, where she weeps, wipes, kisses, and anoints. Both scenes name the same kind of container — alabaster — and in both the contents are released onto Jesus' person.