Expert: Dr Don Howe - 2/25/2009

Question
Where did the practice of annointing with oil begin and what exactly is the purpose.

Answer
 Thank you for your question. Anointing with oil can be found in the O.T. and N.T. Oil was used for private use, medicinal use, and religious rites.
    The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia tells  us “distinction was made by the ancient Hebrews between anointing with oil in private use, as in making one’s toilet (cukh), and anointing as a religious rite (mashach).”
    As regards its secular or ordinary use, the native olive oil, alone or mixed with perfumes, was commonly used for toilet purposes, the very poor naturally reserving it for special occasions only (Ru 3:3). The fierce protracted heat and biting lime dust of Palestine made the oil very soothing to the skin, and it was applied freely to exposed parts of the body, especially to the face (Ps 104:15). The practice was in vogue before David’s time, and traces of it may be found throughout the Old Testament (see De 28:40; Ru 3:3; 2Sa 12:20; 14:2; 2 Chron 28:15; Eze 16:9; Mic 6:15; Da 10:3) and in the New Testament (Mt 6:17, etc.). Indeed it seems to have been a part of the daily toilet throughout the East.”
     Other secular use to abstain from the use of anointing oil as a token of mourning (2Sa 14:2; compare Mt 6:17), and to resume it a sign that the mourning was ended (2Sa 12:20; 14:2; Da 10:3; Judith 10:3). It often accompanied the bath (Ru 3:3; 2Sa 12:20; Eze 16:9; Susanna 17), and was a customary part of the preparation for a feast (Ec 9:8; Ps 23:5). One way of showing honor to a guest was to anoint his head with oil (Ps 23:5; Lu 7:46); a rarer and more striking way was to anoint his feet (Lu 7:38). In Jas 5:14, we have an instance of anointing with oil for medicinal purposes.”

      Besides secular and medicinal reasons, anointing with oil was used in religious rites. The history of the Jews of anointing with oil was first noted in Canaan.  Anointing with oil
was observed in Canaan long before the Hebrew conquest, and, accordingly, Weinel (Stade’s Zeutschrift, XVIII, 50 ff) holds that, as the use of oil for general purposes in Israel was an agricultural custom borrowed from the Canaanites, so the anointing with sacred oil was an outgrowth from its regular use for toilet purposes. It seems more in accordance with the known facts of the case and the terms used in description to accept the view set forth by Robertson Smith (Religion of the Semites, 2nd ed., 233, 383 ff; compare Wellhausen, Reste des arabischen Heidenthums, 2nd ed., 125 ff) and to believe that the cukh or use of oil for toilet purposes, was of agricultural and secular origin, and that the use of oil for sacred purposes, mashach, was in origin nomadic and sacrificial. Robertson Smith finds the origin of the sacred anointing in the very ancient custom of smearing the sacred fat on the altar (matstsebhah), and claims, rightly it would seem, that from the first there was a distinct and consistent usage, distinguishing the two terms as above.”
    The anointing of oil spoken as being reverent and sacred act. The most significant use of anointing of oil are “found in its application, not to sacred things, but to certain sacred persons. The oldest and most sacred of these, it would seem, was the anointing of the king, by pouring oil upon his head at his coronation, a ceremony regarded as sacred from the earliest times, and observed religiously not in Israel only, but in Egypt and elsewhere (see Jud 9:8,15; 1Sa 9:16; 10:1; 2Sa 19:10; 1Ki 1:39,45; 2Ki 9:3,6; 11:12). Indeed such anointing appears to have been reserved exclusively for the king in the earliest times, which accounts for the fact that "the Lord’s anointed" became a synonym for "king" (see 1Sa 12:3,5; 26:11; 2Sa 1:14; Ps 20:6). It is thought by some that the practice originated in Egypt, and it is known to have been observed as a rite in Canaan at a very early day. Tell el-Amarna Letters 37 records the anointing of a king.”
   “Among the Hebrews it was believed not only that it effected a transference to the anointed one of something of the holiness and virtue of the deity in whose name and by whose representative the rite was performed, but also that it imparted a special endowment of the spirit of Yahweh (compare 1Sa 16:13; Isa 61:1). Hence the profound reverence for the king as a sacred personage, "the anointed" (Hebrew, meshiach YHWH), which passed over into our language through the Greek Christos, and appears as "Christ".
     Jesus was the promised Deliverer is twice called the "Anointed" or Messiah (Psalms 2:2; Daniel 9:25,26), because he was anointed with the Holy Ghost (Isaiah 61:1), figuratively styled the "oil of gladness" (Psalms 45:7; Hebrews 1:9). Jesus of Nazareth is this anointed One (John 1:41; Acts 9:22; 17:2,3; 18:5,28), the Messiah of the Old Testament.

     Chuck, in the Protestant churches anointing with oil is not done very much, and when it done the sick person asks for it, but it does need to offered more often by ministers and elders.  Anointing a person is a very reverent act and is taken very seriously. But some charismatic churches have taken anointing with oil too far and using the practice so much that it looses it’s reverent meaning. The Catholic church practice the anointing of oil much more than Protestant churches.

    I hope this helps you in your understanding about anointing. The verses are there and you can do further study.

God Bless you today.

Dr Don Howe, RN, PhD, ThD.