Kim Paffenroth, «Jesus as Anointed and Healing Son of David in the Gospel of Matthew», Vol. 80 (1999) 547-554

Matthew handles his material in order to relate Jesus’ anointing, healing, and his title "Son of David". Matthew does this in order to present Jesus as the uniquely anointed "Christ", the Son of David who has come to heal, and who is in that respect (and others), greater than his father David.

tomb: "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the sepulchre". In Matthew’s story, even the characters themselves seem to know that Jesus has already been anointed and does not need to be so a second time⁸. These seemingly minor omissions result in Jesus’ anointing being doubly unique in Matthew: only Jesus is anointed, and he is anointed only once.

        But what of the reference to anointing that Matthew has added in the Sermon on the Mount, "...when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face" (Matt 6,17)? Because of his omissions, this is the only other reference to anointing in Matthew’s Gospel. With this addition Matthew has given a further implication to Jesus’ anointing at Bethany and has shown Jesus fulfilling his own commandment: his anointing is not only in preparation for his burial, but it is also in preparation for his fast that will follow the Passover meal (Matt 26,29 // Mark 14,25). Jesus had taught his followers to anoint themselves and "not be dismal looking" (Matt 6,16) when fasting, and he does the same, going to the cross and the grave anointed and without the outer signs of suffering. Further, the many ironies of the Passion narrative are accentuated with the detail of the anointing: acts such as anointing and washing that are usually preparatory to feasting and celebration are here made preparatory to fasting and death⁹. With the reader’s privileged perspective of having read Matt 6,17, she knows, just as Jesus does, what the woman’s actions indicate¹⁰.

2. Healing

        Now let us look at Matthew’s accounts of Jesus’ healing activities. First, Matthew seems much more interested in presenting Jesus as healing in general, rather than in presenting him in the more specific role of exorcist¹¹, which is much more typical of Mark’s portrayal of Jesus¹². There are nearly three times as many occurrences of the verbs qerapeu/w and i)a/omai in Matthew than in Mark, with Matthew showing a strong