Among the perfumes mentioned in the Bible, spikenard holds a special place. It is not tied to Temple worship like incense, nor to the consecration of kings like the anointing oil. Instead it appears in two intimate and intense settings: the love poetry of the Song of Songs and the gesture of a woman who, a few days before the Passion, pours an extremely precious perfume over Jesus. Spikenard is the perfume of the gift without measure.
A plant of the high mountains
The nard of the ancients is generally identified with Nardostachys jatamansi, a plant of the valerian family that grows on the slopes of the Himalayas. From its roots and rhizomes an aromatic substance was obtained and mixed with oils to make ointments.
Its remote origin made spikenard extremely expensive in the Mediterranean. It arrived along long trade routes from India, and the Romans considered it one of the most refined perfumes. Pliny the Elder devotes a section of his Natural History to it, describing it among the most prized aromatic substances.
Spikenard in the Song of Songs
In the Song of Songs spikenard appears as the perfume of the beloved. "While the king was at his table, my nard gave forth its fragrance," says the bride. Further on, the lover describes the woman as an enclosed garden in which spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, myrrh and aloes grow.
In this poetry perfume is the language of desire and presence. Spikenard is not offered on an altar but spreads of its own accord when the beloved draws near. Jewish and Christian mystical traditions have read these verses as an allegory of the love between God and his people, or between Christ and the soul.
The anointing at Bethany
The most famous story in which spikenard appears is found in the Gospels. There are two main versions:
- Mark (chapter 14): in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman comes in with an alabaster jar full of pure nard, of great value. She breaks the jar and pours the perfume on Jesus's head. Some of those present protest that it could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor.
- John (chapter 12): the scene takes place in the house of Lazarus, and the woman is Mary, his sister. She takes a pound of pure, costly nard, anoints Jesus's feet and wipes them with her hair. The Gospel adds that the whole house was filled with the fragrance. The one who protests is Judas.
The Gospel of Luke tells a similar but distinct episode, set in the house of a Pharisee, in which a sinful woman anoints Jesus's feet with a fragrant ointment.
The words of Jesus
In both main versions Jesus defends the woman. In the Gospel of Mark he says that she has anointed his body beforehand for burial, and adds that wherever the Gospel is proclaimed, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.
This link is decisive for the symbolism of spikenard: the perfume of love also becomes the perfume of approaching death. What in the Song of Songs was a wedding feast is joined at Bethany to the foreshadowing of the Passion.
"Pistic nard"
The Greek text of the Gospels describes the nard with the adjective pistikos, whose meaning is debated. Many understand it as "genuine" or "pure", that is, unadulterated; others have seen in it references to place names or plant names. In the Latin and Italian tradition the expression "pistic nard" has survived in devotional language.
The broken jar: a symbolic reading
The detail of the broken alabaster jar, found in Mark, has drawn the attention of many commentators. Breaking the jar means giving up keeping even a part of the perfume. It is an irreversible, total gesture.
| Element of the story | Symbolic meaning |
|---|---|
| Precious nard | What one holds most dear |
| Broken jar | A gift without reserve |
| House filled with fragrance | Love spreading beyond the one who receives it |
| Anointing for burial | The union of love and death |
A traditional identification
At the end of the sixth century Pope Gregory the Great, in one of his homilies, identified the sinful woman of Luke, Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene as a single person. This reading influenced Western art for centuries, in which the Magdalene is often portrayed with a jar of ointment. The Eastern Churches, by contrast, kept these figures distinct.
In short
- Biblical spikenard is identified with a Himalayan plant, very costly in the ancient world.
- In the Song of Songs it is the perfume of love and of the beloved's presence.
- In the Gospels a woman anoints Jesus at Bethany with pure nard, provoking protests at the waste.
- Jesus links the gesture to his burial, uniting love and death in the symbol of perfume.
- Gregory the Great identified the woman with Mary Magdalene, shaping Western iconography.
