What Does Mark 14:3 Mean in the King James?
And 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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The costly gift is not made by the breaking; the breaking uncovers what the vessel already holds.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the urge to equate intactness with value: the oil is costly before the vessel breaks, and its worth remains as it is poured over Jesus’ head. In Simon the leper’s house, disease and costly giving occupy the same room; neither cancels the other. What is precious becomes present through release.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief is that releasing something precious destroys its value; here, the oil’s worth precedes the breaking and remains in the pouring.
THE ROOT
συντρίψασα
syntripsasa
GROWS FROM
τριβ-
trib-
Rubbing or wearing down; with σύν, the verb means to crush or break into pieces.
“brake” in this verse is syntripsasa. The Greek carries the force of shattering, not simply taking off a lid. The woman does not add value to the oil; the vessel’s hold gives way, and its contents become present.
ALSO GROWS
tribō: Rub, wear down, or grind.
τρίβω
The base verb makes the break physical: the vessel is changed by pressure, not neatly opened.
syntrimma: Crushing, ruin, or fragments.
σύντριμμα
This related noun makes the result tangible: the container breaks into pieces as what it held is released.
κατέχεεν
katecheen
GROWS FROM
χέω
cheō
To pour or shed; καταχέω describes pouring over or down upon.
“poured” in this verse is katecheen. The sentence continues past the broken vessel and follows the oil onto Jesus’ head. Breaking is not the final action; it makes the pouring possible.
ALSO GROWS
ekcheō: Pour out.
ἐκχέω
This related verb carries the same movement outward, making the scene a full release rather than a small application.
chysis: Pouring or effusion.
χύσις
The noun keeps attention on the act of outpouring, not only on where the oil lands.
THE PATTERN
Breaking does not erase what is precious; it can bring into view what the vessel cannot create.
And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.THE THREAD
Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.The same Greek verb behind “brake” appears here for the fetters shattered by the man no one can tame. In Mark 14 the vessel breaks and releases oil; in Mark 5 the fetters break under force, the shared root holds the shattering together while the thing released changes.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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