All the gospels report the story of the anointing of Jesus’ feet. By the time the story is told by St. John the unnamed woman has become his good friend, Mary. Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair. In addition, the generic people complaining about the waste becomes the specific person of Judas who does so because he is a thief according to St. John. This is the way telling stories over multiple years (and generations) work. We like our stories to be personal. That tells us something about reading the Bible. Trying to get to what historically happened is not the point. We look for the spiritual meaning of an event.
