Clement of Rome’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, the earliest Christian writing known for a long time after the New Testament, says, “Let us be imitators of those who in goatskins and sheepskins went about proclaiming the coming of Christ. I mean the prophets Elijah, Elisha, and even Ezekiel.” So John the Baptist was just following type—following the men who went around in goatskins and sheepskins proclaiming the coming of Christ, i.e., in a state of humility and repentance.
Another new discovery, the Armenian Revelation to Peter,79 talks about a community of saints up in the mountains that he visited. A community of them was transfigured, but they all wore sheepskins and coats of skin, which signified that they were already dead to things of this world. Theophylactus says that James the brother of the Lord wore only one garment all his life, and it was a garment of repentance. Also a very strict Nazarite, he never cut his hair, even when he was a very, very old man. He wore no wool, but only linen. “Why did you come to the desert?” (Jesus had said the same thing about John the Baptist). Was it to see a man in soft garments? No. Kings and the great ones wear soft garments, and they will not be able to know the truth (cf. Luke 7:24-25 [Luke 5:17]). It is the raiment of repentance.
Noah exhorted the righteous, says the book of Jubilees, to cover their shame.80 According to the Book of Adam, it was commanded that they hide the shame of their flesh, for it had been so commanded in the heavenly tablets.
In order to do this, Adam had what is called “the garment of mortification,” like the ihram, which Muslims use in the same way. Being very valuable, Adam’s garment was handed down from father to son.
The Plot & the Anointing at Bethany (Tuesday; the Anointing, Friday)
While the rulers meet in Caiaphas’s palace to decide how to kill him, a woman in Bethany breaks an alabaster box over his head; he calls it a good work, done beforehand for his burial.
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Note. All four Gospels are here. The Joseph Smith Translation removes Judas’s bargain from this day in Mark: it reappears on the night of the supper.
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
1And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, 2You know that after two days is the Passover, and then the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified.
3Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4and consulted, that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him. 5But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there should be an uproar among the people.
6Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 7there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat at meat in the house. 8But when his disciples saw it, they some saw this, they had indignation, saying, Unto what purpose is this waste? 9For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor. 10When Jesus understood it, he When they had said thus, Jesus understood them, and he said unto them, Why trouble you the woman? For she has wrought a good work upon me. 11For you have the poor always with you, but me you have not always. 12For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial she has poured this ointment on my body for my burial, and in this thing that she has done, she shall be blessed; 13for truly I say unto you, wherever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, this thing that this woman has done shall also be told for a memorial of her.
14Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests 15and said, unto them, What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. 16And from that time, he sought opportunity to betray him Jesus.
1After two days was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him Jesus by craft and put him to death. 2But they said among themselves, Let us not take him on the feast day, lest there should be an uproar among the people.
3And Jesus being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at a meal, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious. And she broke the box and poured the ointment on his head. 4There were some among the disciples who had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? 5For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence and been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.
6And Jesus said unto them, Let her alone; why do you trouble her? For she has wrought a good work on me. 7You have the poor with you always, and whenever you desire, you may do them good; but me, you have not always. 8She has done what she could, and this which she has done unto me shall be had in remembrance in generations to come, wherever my gospel shall be preached, for truly she has come beforehand to anoint my body for the burial. 9Truly I say unto you, wherever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, what she has done shall be spoken of also, for a memorial of her. And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them. And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him.
1Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. 2And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill him, but they feared the people. 3Then entered Satan into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. 4And he went his way and spoke with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him unto them, 5and they were glad and covenanted to give him money. 6And he promised them, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.
1Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was (who had been dead, whom he raised from the dead). 2There they made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. 3Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. 4Then says one of his disciples (Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son who should betray him), 5Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor? 6This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money bag, and stole from what was put therein. 7Then said Jesus, Let her alone, against the day of my burying hath she kept this for she has preserved this ointment until now, that she might anoint me in token of my burial. 8For the poor always you have with you, but me you have not always.
9Many people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there, and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead. 10But the chief priests consulted, that they might put Lazarus also to death 11because by reason of him, many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus.
The Rebuke at Bethany, and the Elect Lady
Judas Was Rebuked and Immediately Betrayed His Lord
Writing from Kirtland to the scattered Saints in 1834, Joseph Smith and the elders summed up Judas in a sentence that follows this section’s own order: first the rebuke, then the betrayal. John names Judas as the one who complained of the ointment and was answered, “Let her alone”; Matthew goes straight from the anointing to Judas at the chief priests; and “Satan entered into him” is Luke’s phrase for the same moment (Luke 22:3).
Letter, “The Elders of the Church in Kirtland, to Their Brethren Abroad,” 22 January 1834 · published in the Evening and Morning Star, April 1834, 152 (History of the Church 2:23; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 67)
From apostates the faithful have received the severest persecutions. Judas was rebuked and immediately betrayed his Lord into the hands of His enemies, because Satan entered into him. There is a superior intelligence bestowed upon such as obey the Gospel with full purpose of heart, which, if sinned against, the apostate is left naked and destitute of the Spirit of God, and he is, in truth, nigh unto cursing, and his end is to be burned. When once that light which was in them is taken from them, they become as much darkened as they were previously enlightened, and then, no marvel, if all their power should be enlisted against the truth, and they, Judas like, seek the destruction of those who were their greatest benefactors.
What “Elect Lady” Means
Joseph is not recorded preaching on the anointing itself. He did define the title “elect lady,” on the day he organized the Relief Society. He read it out of 2 John and out of the revelation to Emma, and glossed it twice: elected to preside, and elected to a certain work.
Minutes, 17 March 1842, organization of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, “Lodge Room,” Red Brick Store · Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, pp. 8–9; also History, 1838–1856, vol. C-1, p. 1295 (History of the Church 4:552–53) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗President Smith read the Revelation to Emma Smith, from the book of Doctrine and Covenants; and stated that she was ordain’d at the time, the Revelation was given, to expound the scriptures to all; and to teach the female part of community; and that not she alone, but others, may attain to the same blessings.—
The 2d Epistle of John, 1st verse, was then read to show that respect was then had to the same thing; and that why she was called an Elect lady is because, elected to preside.
A Very Strict Nazarite, He Never Cut His Hair
Nibley, working through the early accounts of the desert saints and the raiment of repentance, records a Nazarite vow kept in the family of Jesus, by his brother James, all his life.
Nibley is reporting Theophylactus on James the Just; the vow is the Nazarite vow of Numbers 6.
The Oil That Made Kings and High Priests
Barker, who went to Armenia to watch the holy oil blended and consecrated, sets out what that oil was for: it anointed kings and high priests alike, and the one anointed with it was called a son of God.
The oil anointed the kings as well as the high priests. The Davidic king was anointed and given great power. He was called a son of God. In Psalm 89 we read of the newly anointed one: “He shall cry to me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God and the Rock of my salvation.’ And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.”
The oil did not just consecrate and illuminate the mind; it transferred the power to make other things holy. Anything that touched the oil became a source of holiness… Any person anointed with the oil became a son of God, and was restored to the state that Adam lost when he left the Garden of Eden.