When Yeshua was Anointed with Pistachio Oil

When Yeshua was Anointed with Pistachio Oil
By
James Scott Trimm


The books known as the “New Testament” were originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic and were later translated into Greek, Latin and other European languages.  We are, for the first time, making the original Hebrew and Aramaic source texts of the books of the Ketuvim Netzarim (the so-called “New Testament”) available online in interlinear format, keyed to Strong’s word numbers.  The purpose of the Hebrew/Aramaic New Testament Online Interlinear Project is to make this material easy for everyone to use, not only with Strong’s Concordance, but with many other books that are also keyed to these same word numbers.

There are some passages in the NT which do not make sense at all in Greek, but only begin to make sense when we look at them in Hebrew and Aramaic.  For example this word for “very precious/costly” found in both Mark and John:

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.
(Mk. 14:3 KJV)

Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
(Jn. 12:3 KJV)

In my last blog I explained how the Aramaic text reveals that that Simon was actually a jar maker or jar merchant (or potter) not a leper.  In this blog I want to show that the Aramaic reveals that the oil in question was actually “pistachio” oil.

Where the KJV has “very precious/costly” the Greek has: πιστικης pistikos (Strong’s Greek 4101) “genuine” (some versions have “very pure”.   But the Aramaic text of the Old Syriac version has פיסתקא (pistika) (both here and in Jn. 12:3).

Those who maintain a Greek origin of these books have supposed that the Aramaic of the Old Syriac (both here and in Jn. 12:3) is a transliteration from the Greek word for “genuine” into the Aramaic.  In reality the word pistikos in the Greek was simply a  transliteration of  the Aramaic word for “pistachio” into the Greek text.  In fact the Aramaic word : פיסתקא (both here and in Jn. 12:3)  also appears to refer to “pistachio” in the Talmuds (b.Gittin 69a; j.Demai 22b; j.Kila’im 27a; j.Ma’asorot 48)  Pisttachio oil was an oil used to treat anxiety and was commonly applied to the feet.

Thus the correct understanding of these passages is:

And while He was in Beit-Anyah, in the house of Shim’on the jar merchant, while
eating, a woman came who had with her an alabaster jar of ointment of pistachio, the
best, very costly: and she opened it and poured it on the head of Yeshua.
(Mk. 14:3 HRV)

And Miriam took an alabaster jar, of oil of nard of good pistachio; very expensive, and
anointed the feet of Yeshua and wiped His feet with her hair, and the house was filled by
the smell of the oil.
(Jn. 12:3 HRV)