Bible Feet

[Shale]

In my long essay, "Feet and Other Objects of Desire" I commented that the sensuality of feet is engrained in our culture, back to the the Bible and I took passages out of The Gospel of John.

Well, I just came across a DVD of that very name, a movie made in 2003 by Visual Bible International. Here they visually illustrate those sensual foot scenes that have been a part of John's words for millenia.

Today, being rained in from the Nude Beach, I took the time to capture some of these scenes. I have captioned each pic. The two passages can be seen in The Gospel of John 12.3 that describes Mary Magdelene washes Jesus' feet and annoints them with an expensive oil and wipes them with her hair. (Yeah, really - that's in the Bible. Sometimes makes good reading)

[Shale]

Here is the final two shots from that series, Jesus feet annointed in oil and Mary wiping his foot with her hair.

[Shale]

The other is in chapter 13, where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples.

It was particularly appealing to those into rough dirty feet, because Daniel Karsh's feet looked like they'd been walking on dirty roads all day.

[ftlaudft]

Mary Magdalene?

[BootsMcGraw]

Mary Magdalene?
It was not Mary Magdelene. The Mary of John 12:3-11 was one of three siblings (Mary, Martha, and Lazarus) of whom Jesus was a good friend.

The rest of the story (with apologies to Andy Rooney):

Jesus had performed a miracle by restoring Lazarus back to life after succumbing to an illness. The trio of siblings later threw a party in Jesus' honor. While Martha was serving the guests and Lazarus was eating with them, Mary took time out to perform the custom of that time to annoint (apply oil to) Jesus' feet, but using a rather expensive perfume to do so.

It was considered an honor to your guests to annoint their feet upon arrival at your home, as everyone wore sandals and walked over dusty roads to get to their destinations. Usually the skin of one's feet was quite dried out after such a trek, and the annointing functioned much like the application of lotion does, today, restoring the skin back to its normal condition.

By using her hair to wipe Jesus' feet, Mary showed her humility and gratitude, perhaps to show others that no ordinary towel was good enough for this most special guest.

[tkdfeet]

Why to go Boots....I'm a little surprised that someone else listened in sunday school besides the preacher's kid!!! This board just keeps on making me proud to be one of the gang!!

with humble respect!!

[ftlaudft]

Thanks, Boots! Poor Mary Magdalene gets such a bum rap! Even the traditional churches keep telling the faithful she's a prostitute, with no evidence to support the claim! Why are they so mean to her?

At least the Nude Beach School of Theology has given us some juicy pix to ponder. For that we must be grateful! Thanks, Shale!

[BootsMcGraw]

...Poor Mary Magdalene gets such a bum wrap! Even the traditional churches keep telling the faithful she's a prostitute, with no evidence to support the claim!...
Again, that's the wrong Mary. Precious little was written about Mary Magdelene. The only truly descriptive words concerning her were written by the doctor Luke, chapter eight, verse two: "...and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdelene) from whom seven demons had come out...". It's unlikely she was a prostitute, since her malady was pronounced as demonic possession by Luke, a physician.

Mary Magdelene was definitely not the "woman who had lived a sinful life" of Luke 7:36-50 who poured perfume on Jesus' feet at a dinner party given by a Pharisee. This may or may not have been the Mary mentioned in John 12:2-8. The accounts are similar enough that both apostles were likely recalling the same event.

[Shale]

It's Sunday. Thanx for the Bible lesson guys. Who'd a thought there would be so many experts on this board :)

Somehow, apparently like most ppl, I thought Mary, sister of Lazarus was Mary Magdelene. And as Boots pointed out, between the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Luke, that association can be made. (BTW, I don't care if Magdalene was a pro, some of the kindest most generous ppl I've known were prostitutes)

So, I've been changing my original essay to just read "Mary, sister of Lazarus."

Still, whoever wrote this gospel seemed on two occasions to concentrate in great detail about the washing and annointing of feet (the point of my initial essay - which is on my Webpage).

Hmm sound like a kindred spirit perhaps?