LXX Song of Songs 1:12

Septuagint

10 How are thy cheeks beautiful as those of a dove, thy neck as chains! 11 We will make thee figures of gold with studs of silver. 12 So long as the king was at table, my spikenard gave forth its smell. 13 My kinsman is to me a bundle of myrrh; he shall lie between my breasts. 14 My kinsman is to me a cluster of camphor in the vineyards of Engaddi.

John 12:1

New Testament

3 Then Mary took three quarters of a pound of expensive aromatic oil from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus. She then wiped his feet dry with her hair. (Now the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil.) 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was going to betray him) said, 5 “Why wasn’t this oil sold for 300 silver coins and the money given to the poor?” 6 (Now Judas said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money box, he used to steal what was put into it.) 7 So Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She has kept it for the day of my burial.

 Notes and References

"... it is argued that the anointing of Jesus at Bethany (Jn 12.1-8) is intentionally evoking Song 1.12: ‘while the king was at his table, my perfume gave forth its fragrance.’ The resonances are based on the Septuagintal text rather than occurring at the level of the Hebrew text. This is perfectly plausible. Suffice to note that in the Septuagint the Greek term for perfume is νάρδος (LXX Song 1.12). This is the same term used to describe the perfume or nard with which Mary anointed Jesus at Bethany. The other shared term in the two verses is the word ὀσμή, for ‘fragrance’ or ‘odour’. These two words that are in common do not occur in direct sequence, but have a number of intervening words between them. Thus the terminological connection is not strong. However, on the basis of these two verbal parallels it is claimed that, ‘[i]n John 12:3 an allusion to Song 1:12 portrays Jesus as the bridegroom-Messiah facing crucifixion’ (McWhirter 2006: 79). While the anointing in John’s Gospel may have some messianic overtones, although the text presents this as proleptic preparation for burial, in Song 1.12 the perfume is perhaps metaphorical of an alluring fragrance ..."

Foster, P. Echoes without Refernce: Critiquing Certain Aspects of Recent Scholarly Trends in the Study of the Jewish Scriptures in the New Testament (pp. 96-111) Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Vol. 38, No. 1, 2015

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