Rivista Antonianum
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Summary — To re-read the pages of christian revelation with a feminine attitude is no mere fashion. John reveals a particular openess to the role of woman in the Church. Mary of Be­thany is one of the paradigmatic figures of the fourth Gospel. She is a disciple loved by Jesus, who repeatedly anointed Him with perfume. The vocabulary, almost identical with that of Luke regarding the anointing of the feet with perfume, appears to be intended to iden­tify Mary of Bethany with the sinner of Luke, whereas the rest of the narration is placed on the same lines of Matthew/Mark. That which the sister Martha has expressed in words (Jn 11, 27), Mary expresses in the presence of those sitting at table with the gesture: «Lord, I have believed that you are Christ, the Son of God, who comes into the world». Moreover, dealing with the anointing of the body-Temple of Jesus with perfume, John succeeded in a personal manner to reveal tu us — in the fullest sense of the term — that even a woman can touch the Temple, as the levitical priests, with alia the inherent implications.