John 12
Mary anoints Jesus's feet with costly perfume, the crowd welcomes him into Jerusalem on a donkey, and he announces that the hour has come — the Son of Man must be lifted up.
Summary
Six days before the Passover at a dinner in Bethany, Mary takes a pound of expensive ointment of pure nard and anoints Jesus's feet, wiping them with her hair. The house is filled with the fragrance. Judas Iscariot objects: why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor? John notes the theft that lies behind the complaint. Jesus answers: leave her alone; she has kept it for the day of my burial. The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. A large crowd comes, not only to see Jesus but Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead; the chief priests consider putting Lazarus to death as well because many Jews are going away and believing in Jesus because of him.
The next day the crowd that went out to meet Jesus hears he is coming to Jerusalem and takes branches of palm trees and goes out to meet him, shouting Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel! Jesus finds a young donkey and sits on it, as the scripture says: fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. John notes that the disciples did not understand these things at first, but remembered them after the glorification. Greeks approach Philip to see Jesus; the request triggers the announcement of the hour. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. A grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies; if it dies, it bears much fruit. Now is the judgment of this world; the ruler of this world will be cast out; I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. A voice from heaven says I have glorified it and will glorify it again. The chapter closes with reflection: despite the signs, many did not believe; even those who did believe were afraid of the Pharisees and did not confess it.
- John 1Chapter 1 falls into two distinct movements.
- John 2Chapter 2 contains the first two incidents of the public ministry, set in very different registers.
- John 3Chapter 3 divides into a dialogue and a testimony.
- John 4Chapter 4 is built around the longest conversation Jesus has with anyone in any of the four gospels.
- John 5Chapter 5 turns on a Sabbath healing that provokes the first sustained conflict with the religious authorities and generates a major theological discourse.
- John 6Chapter 6 is the longest in the gospel and the most demanding.
- John 7Chapter 7 is one of the most dramatic scenes of the public ministry, set during the week-long Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.
- John 8Chapter 8 opens with the pericope of the woman taken in adultery (verses 1–11), absent from the earliest manuscripts and widely understood as a later addition, but narratively powerful: whoever is without sin may cast the first stone.
- John 9Chapter 9 is the most novelistic chapter in John and a sustained piece of dramatic irony.
- John 10Chapter 10 follows directly from the expulsion of the man born blind in chapter 9 and develops two sustained metaphors.
- John 11Chapter 11 is the dramatic climax of the Book of Signs and the most fully narrated miracle in John.
- John 12Chapter 12 is the bridge between the two halves of the gospel.
- John 13Chapter 13 opens the Book of Glory and sets the scene for the Farewell Discourse that occupies chapters 14–17.
- John 14Chapter 14 is the opening movement of the Farewell Discourse and contains several of the most quoted passages in the gospel.
- John 15Chapter 15 moves through two large movements: the vine and branches discourse (verses 1–17) and the warning about the world's hostility (verses 18–27).
- John 16Chapter 16 continues the Farewell Discourse and moves through three phases.
- John 17Chapter 17 is the high-priestly prayer, unique in the New Testament: Jesus prays at length in the hearing of his disciples on the night of his arrest.
- John 18Chapter 18 covers the arrest, the hearings before Annas and Caiaphas, Peter's three denials, and the first half of the Roman trial before Pilate.
- John 19Chapter 19 covers the final stages of the trial and the crucifixion.
- John 20Chapter 20 narrates the resurrection in two stages across two distinct scenes.
- John 21Chapter 21 is often discussed as a possible appendix, since chapter 20 closes with a purpose statement that reads like an ending.