According to the Gospel of John, the Passover began on the next Friday evening (13.1; 18.28; 19.31,42), and so the anointing must have taken place on the Saturday evening preceding.

In many languages “festival” must be added whenever a reference is made to the Passover. The full phrase may be “a festival for celebrating the passing over” or “… the passing over of the angel.”

For the first mention of this Bethany, see 11.1.

The home of Lazarus (so also New English Bible; Goodspeed “where Lazarus … was living”) is literally “where Lazarus was” (many translations). New American Bible translates “the village of Lazarus.” Lazarus is specifically identified as the man he had raised from death. In some languages it is better to treat this clause as a separate sentence, for example, “Jesus had raised this man Lazarus from death” or “… had caused him to live again.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .