While almost all of the works in this vault use Victorian translations, due to the only English translation of this commentary being in copyright, it was machine-translated (by Claude, 2026) from the public-domain Latin. It has not been checked by a human translator.
Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, written about 353–356, before his exile to the East. Chapter 29: On the woman who came to Jesus in the house of Simon the leper, having an alabaster box of very precious ointment.
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Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and the rest. It is not for nothing that, at the very time of the Passion, a woman poured precious ointment on the head of the Lord as He sat at meat; and then that the disciples were angry, and said that it ought rather to have been sold for the use of the poor; and then that the Lord both approved what the woman had done, and promised that the memory of this work would be eternal, together with the preaching of the Gospel; and lastly that after this Judas broke out to sell His salvation.
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This woman is a prefiguring of the people of the Gentiles, which in the Passion of Christ gave glory to God. For she anointed His head: and the head of Christ is God. For ointment is the fruit of good work. And because of its care of the body it is most pleasing to the female sex. So she poured out all the care of her body, and the whole affection of a precious mind, for the honour and praise of God. But the disciples, as so often, are moved by eagerness for the salvation of Israel: it ought to have been sold for the use of the poor. But this woman was not carrying the ointment about for sale. And by a prophetic impulse they called those lacking faith “the poor”: as though this faith of the Gentiles ought rather to have been bought for the salvation of this needy people. The Lord said to them that there was plenty of time in which they could have care of the poor; but that salvation could be given to the Gentiles only by His own commandment, the Gentiles who were buried with Him when the ointment of this woman was poured upon Him: because regeneration is given only to those who have died with Him in the profession of baptism. And therefore wherever this Gospel shall be preached, her work shall be told: because, Israel ceasing, the glory of the Gospel is preached by the faith of the Gentiles. And kindled by this jealousy, profane Israel, in the person of Judas, is stirred with all hatred to blot out the name of the Lord.