=12. Place uncertain=, probably Capernaum. At the house of Simon the Pharisee, while “at meat,” Christ’s feet are anointed by a woman who is called “a sinner,” Luke 7:36. Another anointing by a woman took place at a much later period, and perhaps a third just before his betrayal, John 11:2; 12:2. Anointing was very common in those days. The so-called alabaster-box was not necessarily of any one material, much less of the material known now as alabaster. The same Greek term is used by Herodotus[171] in exactly the same form used in Matt. 26:7; Mark 14:3; Luke 7:37, and the vessel might have been of marble, of glass, or metal.[172] Theocritus[173] writes of “golden alabasters filled with Syrian ointments.” It was customary to anoint the head and also the feet of a guest on certain occasions, and the alabastron was common among persons of means. There is therefore no sufficient reason to suppose that this anointing was so rare an instance that the several accounts in the Gospels refer to only one event. The other accounts besides that referred to at the beginning of this section are found in Matt. 26:6; Mark 14:3, which appear to describe one and the same occasion, shortly before his betrayal, and John 11:2; 12:2, which description is somewhat similar to that of the preceding Gospels. =13. Galilee.= Our Saviour makes visits with the twelve through Galilee the second time. Luke 8:1. This seems to have been in Galilee, judging from the context as compared with Matt. 12:46; Mark 3:31, and following verses in the next chapter. He seems to have visited extensively, as the Greek phrase, “city by city and village by village,” signifies. =14.= The following incidents are supposed to have taken place about this time and in the following order, all in Galilee: (1.) The healing of the demoniac, Matt. 12:22. A somewhat similar case occurred before, Matt. 9:32. In this passage the utterances of our Saviour define the solemnity of the office of the Holy Spirit in a most fearful sense, and again in Mark 3:28, 29. This healing is repeated, Luke 11:14. (2.) The scribes and Pharisees seek from him a sign to prove his authority, Matt. 12:38; repeated with additional remarks, Matt. 15:1; also Mark 8:11; and more urgently in John 6:31. It was in reply to one of these requests that Jesus announced that the sign superior to all others should take place after his death, for that after death he should rise again on the third day, Matt. 12:40, drawing from the history of Jonah an illustration of his own burial for three days only. (3.) The declaration that his true disciples were his nearest relatives, Matt. 12:46; Mark 3:31; Luke 8:19. (4.) Jesus takes dinner with a Pharisee and denounces the sect, Luke 11:37. (5.) Jesus instructs a multitude when he declares that whosoever shall confess him before men shall be confessed by him before the angels of God, Luke 12:1. =15. By the lake.= (1.) The parable of the sower, Matt. 13:3; Mark 4:2; Luke 8:4.