Having almost broken a bottle of olive oil this morning as I was bringing the shopping in, I realise and wonder something about the use of συντρίβω in Mark 14:3. It raises some issues of understanding and assumption:
ἦλθεν γυνὴ ἔχουσα ἀλάβαστρον μύρου νάρδου πιστικῆς πολυτελοῦς· καὶ συντρίψασα τὸ ἀλάβαστρον, κατέχεεν αὐτοῦ κατὰ τῆς κεφαλῆς.
Taking συντρίβω to mean “break”, and assuming that “breaking” was the way she got the oil out, and understanding the aorist to mean an action completed prior to the pouring, wouldn’t there have been chips of alabaster in the oil that that Mary poured on Jesus head?
If there was instead a two-step process, such as like after the oil had been poured onto a cloth or into a dish, she then smashed the alabastron, that would only leave pieces of the shattered vessel on the floor (perhaps), rather than in the oil?
Reading a story describing the image of a woman smashing an alabastron into little pieces above Jesus head to get the oil out is not without issues that cause my eyebrows to rise. How much force would be required to break a vessel with her hands and wouldn’t the shattered fragments cut her hands? Would breaking it into pieces in the air required a tool of some kind?
If συντρίβω was taken to be referring to the lid (stopper) and the vessel rubbing together (perhaps in a turning motion) as the alabastron was opened, then, that might be a less striking way of letting the contents flow out (“be poured down”).
The obvious need in the story is for the oil contained in the vessel to get out, but breaking it might not be a viable way of getting it out to be used safely and conveniently.
Does the archaeological record of the Levant contain many smashed alabastrons?
