SAN BEDA COLLEGE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF LITURGY

ANOINTING IN THE
OLD TESTAMENT
A Research Paper for the Course on the
Anointing of the Sick

BY

BRYAN B. ALBIA
 ANOINTING IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

I. INTRODUCTION

Illness and suffering have always been among the gravest problems
confronted in human life. In illness, man experiences his powerlessness, his
limitations, and his finitude. Every illness can make us glimpse death. Illness can
lead to anguish, self-absorption, sometimes even despair and revolt against God. It
can also make a person more mature, helping him discern in his life what is not
essential so that he can turn toward that which is. Very often illness provokes a
search for God and a return to him.1

Suffering, whether physical, spiritual or psychological, is time and again an

occasion when many question the existence of God, or at the very least whom this
God is who allows suffering, in particular the suffering of the innocent.

God, throughout the Old Testament, helps us to understand what he will

fully reveal in the New Testament regarding suffering. We now know that God the
Father has sent the Son to give us the Holy Spirit through the sacraments, one of
which is referred to as anointing of the sick.

This paper then aims to understand the term “ANOINTING” in the scriptures
particularly in the Old Testament because the researcher wanted to know why
there is little mention from the Old Testament when it comes to the study of the
sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and that most of the scriptural texts that
are being used and presented are coming from the New Testament. The researcher
does not intend to make a liturgical or biblical theology of the sacrament of the
Anointing of the Sick out of this endeavor but just wanted to present the ideas

1
CCC nos. 1500-1501.

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 ANOINTING IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

coming from the scripture from this practice since the ancient times. Likewise, this
work will focus more on the basic understanding of the term and from that, the
researcher then will try to trace the connections to the way we understand
anointing today.

II. CONTENT

To anoint is to pour or smear with perfumed oil, milk, water, melted butter
or other substances, a process employed ritually by many religions. People and
things are anointed to symbolize the introduction of a sacramental or divine
influence, a holy emanation, spirit, power or God. It can also be seen as a spiritual
mode of ridding persons and things of dangerous influences, as of demons
believed to be or to cause disease.2

To establish then the word “anointing” in the scriptures, the term refers to
two things: (a) HEALING and (b) CONSECRATION.

a. HEALING

There is little mention of healing related to bodily ailments or restoration to

good health through the use of oil in the Old Testament. The use of oil is not only
associated with medication but it is also closely connected to washing or cleansing
and that by anointing also meant the use or application or putting on of perfume
to look and smell good.

2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anointing.

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 ANOINTING IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Healing then is understood in the Old Testament as CLEANSING, that is,

being clean and fit or maintaining one’s health in good condition through proper
grooming or being presentable both bodily and spiritually. As a means of soothing
the skin in the fierce heat of the Palestinian climate, oil seems to have been applied
to the exposed parts of the body, especially to the face. The practice is older than
David, and runs throughout the Old Testament.

"Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes,
and go down to the threshing floor; but do not make yourself known to the man until
he has finished eating and drinking.” (Ruth 3:3)

“So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his
clothes; and he came into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he came to his
own house, and when he requested, they set food before him and he ate.” (2 Samuel
12:20)

“Then the men who were designated by name arose, took the captives, and
they clothed all their naked ones from the spoil; and they gave them clothes and
sandals, fed them and gave them drink, anointed them with oil, led all their feeble
ones on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their
brothers; then they returned to Samaria.” (2 Chronicles 28:15)

“Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful
heart; for God has already approved your works. Let your clothes be white all the
time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the woman whom you
love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this
is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun.…”
(Ecclesiastes 9: 7-9)

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 ANOINTING IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

“From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it, only
bruises, welts and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil.”
(Isaiah 1:6)

"Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love;
so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and
entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine, declares the Lord
GOD. Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed
you with oil. I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise
skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk.…”
(Ezekiel 16: 8-10)

b. CONSECRATION

In the book of Exodus, it mentions different kinds of oil and that the one
mentioned as anointing oil is the one used to be applied to the body for
consecration and not for healing. The recipe for anointing oil is found in Exodus
30:23-24; it contained myrrh, cinnamon and other natural ingredients. There is no
indication that the oil or the ingredients had any supernatural power. Rather, the
strictness of the guidelines for creating the oil was a test of the obedience of the
Israelites and a demonstration of the absolute holiness of God.

“oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,”
(Exodus 25:6)

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Among the Hebrews, the act of anointing is not only for cleansing and
healing but also of with the “Holy anointing oil” was significant in consecration to
a holy or sacred use: hence the anointing of the high priest and of the sacred
vessels.

"The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, that in them they
may be anointed and ordained.” (Exodus 29:29)

"You shall make of these a holy anointing oil, a perfume mixture, the work of
a perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil. “ With it you shall anoint the tent of
meeting and the ark of the Covenant, and the table and all its utensils, and the
lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense…” (Exodus 30: 25-27)

Anointing oil, mentioned 20 times in Scripture, was used in the Old

Testament for pouring on the head of the high priest and his descendants and
sprinkling the tabernacle and its furnishings to mark them as holy and set apart to
the Lord. Three times it is called the "holy, anointing oil," and the Jews were strictly
forbidden from reproducing it for personal use.

"You shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘This shall be a holy anointing oil
to Me throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on anyone’s body, nor shall
you make any like it in the same proportions; it is holy, and it shall be holy to
you. Whoever shall mix any like it or whoever puts any of it on a layman shall be cut
off from his people.’” (Exodus 30:31-33).

Later, Kings and Prophets were given the right to partake in this ritual as
well.

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In the Old Testament, someone who was anointed by God for special service
to God had oil poured or smeared on him. For instance, Saul, and later David, was
anointed with oil by the prophet Samuel when God revealed He had chosen him to
be king of Israel. When King Saul rebelled against God and tried to kill David, David
refused to harm him because Saul was "the Lord's anointed".

“So he said to his men, "Far be it from me because of the LORD that I should
do this thing to my lord, the LORD'S anointed, to stretch out my hand against him,
since he is the LORD'S anointed." (I Samuel 24:6)

To be anointed by God is not only to be picked, but also to be empowered

by Him for the task or position to which He has called you. The Hebrew word
"Messiah" and the Greek word "Christ" both mean "the Anointed."

There are two distinctions: Messiah (capitalized) and messiahs (or salvific
figures). The Old Testament and late Judaism knew of a gallery of salvific figures
who were expected to appear at the time of God's definitive intervention on behalf
of Israel e.g., Elijah, the prophet like Moses, perhaps the Suffering Servant, the Son
of Man, the Anointed Priest, etc. These figures can loosely be called messianic. -
But the capitalized Messiah is best confined to a precisely delineated concept,
namely the anointed king of the Davidic dynasty who would establish in the world
the definite reign of Yahweh.3

3
The expectation of the Messiah appears in post-exilic Judaism (although in the OT Messiah is not used as a title
in the sense we are using it). From the frequency and spontaneity with which the question of the Messiah
appears in the NT (Mk 8,29; 14,61; Jn.1,20; 4,25) and also from the evidence of post biblical Jewish writings we
are safe in assuming that the expectation of the Messiah was very common in late intertestamental Judaism and
could perhaps be called a national hope. However, not all Jews expected the Messiah. In the first century A.D.
many lost faith in the Davidic dynasty, which had not ruled for 500 years; and there are late Jewish books that
treat of eschatological questions without ever mentioning the Messiah. Moreover, even those who did hope for
the Messiah did not necessarily confine their hopes to the Messiah. Often the expectation of the Messiah was

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Anointing was a sign of Israel's coming Redeemer. The prophet Isaiah,

looking forward in time by the Spirit of God, saw One through Whom "the yoke [of
Satan's oppression] shall be destroyed because of the anointing" (Isaiah 10:27). The
word destroyed means absolutely corrupted beyond use, destroyed, no good for
(the devil's) use.

III. CONCLUSION

The Old Testament as a whole is seen as the prophecy of a messiah as God

promised Adam and Eve before they were sent away from the Garden after their
fall to heal the broken relationship – friendship between God and man. The
prophecy or the promise in the Old Testament came into fulfillment when the
Second Person of the Blessed Trinity took on flesh and is expressed in the New
Testament.

Looking through the books of the Old Testament as a whole, the prevalent
theme “healing” is expressed through anointing (cleansing and staying fit and
proper bodily and spiritually) with and through the help of the “anointed ones” as
mediums of God’s salvific action.

accompanied by some of the other expectations mentioned above; at Qumran the sectarians awaited the
coming of the Prophet, of the Davidic Messiah, and of the anointed Priest.
Indeed there may have been an amalgamation of the figure of the Messiah with other salvific figures, e.g.,
the Suffering Servant, or the Son of Man, into one composite figure. Certainly, this happened in the Christian
description of Jesus, but the evidence is quite uncertain for determining whether this happened in pre-Christian
Judaism. In particular, the Christian must be warned that, while the late Jewish hope of the Messiah was highly
idealized almost to the point of making the Messiah a figure of superhuman abilities, there was no expectation
of a Divine Messiah in the sense in which Jesus is professed as Son of God. (UST Faculty of Sacred Theology
Reviewer Volume 1.)

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As the New Testament unfolds, God continues to heal the wounded nature
of man by taking the form of man. And just as He incarnated, He is the Messiah “the
Anointed One” and at the same time “the remedy” the one who will bring healing
to the wounded nature of man and to the wounded friendship between God and
His people.

Anointing then from the beginning is always in harmony of the thought of

being pure, of being clean – of being closely united with God just as the priests
clean and wash themselves before they appear in the presence of the Holy of
Holies and just as men fix themselves before they face other people mindful of
their bodily and spiritual disposition, so too today, the message of the Old
Testament still reminds us of our disposition, of our bodily and spiritual health
especially in the presence of God.

Another thought about anointing in the Old Testament worthy to be noted

is that it implies also that anointing is a blessing, a gift. A blessing and a gift to be
given the opportunity to cleanse one’s self and to bring this anointing, this gift to
others just as men received anointing through Baptism that made us children of
God, Anointing of the Sick helps to be more conscious of the effects of the first
anointing received in Baptism – forgiveness of sin (cleansing and healing) and
becoming children of God (anointed ones).

The Old Testament accounts gives us a clearer understanding of God’s

healing and care for man. It gives us a picture of the root why up until now, God’s
healing hand continues to move and work through the anointed hands of the
priests.

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IV. BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Books
 Catechism of the Catholic Church
 New American Bible
 UST Sacred Theology Bachelor’s Degree Reviewer Vol. 1

B. Internet Sources
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anointing.

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