Lets take a moment to look at Mary's costly gift to Jesus.
Mary Anoints Jesus at Bethany
12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
Here we find that Mary honors Jesus with a very costly gift. But how costly? Let us take a moment and be honest. We know that 300 can be a large number, but we mostly likely have no idea how much a denarii was worth in those days. Was it worth $300, or $3.00.
Our students also have no contextual way of understanding what a denarii was worth either. Does the full force of this text therefore become lost to history? Does the bible loose its effectiveness in this passage for all time? No.
This is an excellent opportunity for teachers of mathematics. This is one of those lessons were we can get two lessons for the price of one. Let me explain.
Conversion of units is something that your students need to know how to do. This passage has now given us math teachers the chance to teach our students two lessons.
1. Conversion of units to modern day monetary values.
2. The depth of Mary's gift to Jesus.
What is the best way to do the conversion? Well here is what I will propose. We know that in that day, 1 denarii could buy 20 loaves of bread. Assuming that 1 loaf of bread in Jesus' day is roughly the same size as a loaf of bread in our day, the teacher can now research with their students what the average cost of bread is in today's market. (An internet search can produce these results quite fast.)
For sake of argument, we will assume that the average cost of bread is $2.40 in today's market.
Therefore the conversion formula will be:
(300 denarii) x (20 loaves / denarii) x ($2.40 / loaf of bread) = $14,400
This means that if our assumptions are correct, Mary's honoring Jesus with the rare perfume was worth (in today's value) an average of $14,400.
The depth of Mary's gift, just became meaningful to your students, and hopefully they have also just seen how conversions of units can be used.
John Partridge
December 6th 2018
Comentários