Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
An alabaster cruse of exceeding precious ointment (alabastron murou barutimou). The flask was of alabaster, a carbonate of lime or sulphate of lime, white or yellow stone, named alabaster from the town in Egypt where it was chiefly found. It was used for a phial employed for precious ointments in ancient writers, inscriptions and papyri just as we speak of a glass for the vessel made of glass. It had a cylindrical form at the top, as a rule, like a closed rosebud (Pliny). Matthew does not say what the ointment (murou) was, only saying that it was "exceeding precious" (barutimou), of weighty value, selling at a great price. Here only in the N.T. "An alabaster of nard (murou) was a present for a king" (Bruce). It was one of five presents sent by Cambyses to the King of Ethiopia (Herodotus, iii. 20).
She poured it upon his head (katexeen epi thv kefalhv autou). So Mark (Mark 14:3), while John (John 12:3) says that she "anointed the feet of Jesus." Why not both? The verb katexeen is literally to pour down. It is the first aorist active indicative, unusual form.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Matthew 26:7:
Mark 14:3
Mark 14:3
Luke 7:37
Luke 7:37
John 12:2
John 12:3
Revelation 18:13
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