Simon the Leper
Simon the Leper hosted Jesus at a dinner in Bethany shortly before the crucifixion, presumably a man Jesus had healed of leprosy at some earlier point, since active lepers were excluded from ordinary community life. During the meal, a woman - identified in John's Gospel as Mary of Bethany - anointed Jesus's head and feet with a costly alabaster jar of pure spikenard, provoking indignation from onlookers who thought it wasteful. Jesus defended her, declaring that she had anointed his body in preparation for burial and that her act of devotion would be told wherever the gospel was preached. Simon's house, quietly offered as the setting for this act of extravagant worship, became the backdrop for one of the most memorable scenes in the final days before the cross.
Biography
- Era
- New Testament
- Nationality
- Jewish
Did You Know?
Simon is called 'the leper' while hosting a dinner party - under the law an active leper could not host anyone, so the nickname almost certainly preserves a healing.
The anointing at his house was worth three hundred pence - a full year's wages poured out in a single act.
Jesus promised the anointing at Simon's table would be told 'wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world' - a prophecy fulfilled every time the story is read.
Key Chapters
Key Passages
The Anointing at Bethany
Mark 14:3-9
Held in Simon's house, this anointing becomes an act Jesus says will be remembered wherever the gospel is preached, prefiguring his burial.
3nd being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.