John 12

John 12
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John 16:14-22 on the recto side of Papyrus 5, written about AD 250.
Book	Gospel of John
Bible part	New Testament
Order in the Bible part	4
Category	Gospel

John 12 is the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that John composed this Gospel.

Events recorded in this chapter refer to the following locations:

This chapter can be grouped (with cross references to other parts of the Bible):

The narrative suggests that Jesus and His disciples travelled to Bethany from Ephraim, where Jesus had been staying to avoid the Jewish leaders who were plotting to kill him (John 11:53-54). He dined with Lazarus, Martha and Mary, a family well-known to Jesus (John 11:1-3). This family group had been introduced to the readers of John's Gospel in chapter 11, with Mary being described in John 11:2 as "that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair", the event recounted in John 12:3.

Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

Judas Iscariot, described as "one of [Jesus'] disciples" and "Simon’s son, who would betray Him", said, “Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii (Greek: δηναρίων τριακοσίων ) and the money given to poor people (or the poor)?” The New International Version, New King James Version and New Living Translation all equate this amount to a year's wages. In Mark 14:5 the oil is also valued at three hundred denarii; in Matthew 26:9 it could have been sold for "a high (but unspecified) price". Charles Ellicott computes that, since in John 6:7, two hundred denarii would purchase food for 5,000, three hundred denarii would have fed 7,500 people.