Anointing
VIEW:28 DATA:01-04-2020
Anointing. Anointing in Holy Scripture, is either, I. Material with oil or II. Spiritual with the Holy Ghost.
I. Material.
1. Ordinary. Anointing the body or head with oil was a common practice with the Jews, as with other Oriental nations. Deu 28:40; Rth_3:3; Mic_6:15. Anointing the head with oil or ointment seems also to have been a mark of respect sometimes paid by a host to his guests. Luk_7:46 and Psa_23:5.
2. Official. It was a rite of inauguration into each of the three typical offices of the Jewish commonwealth.
a. Prophets were occasionally anointed to their office, 1Ki_19:16, and were called messiahs, or anointed. 1Ch_16:22; Psa_105:15.
b. Priests, at the first institution of the Levitical priesthood, were all anointed to their offices, Exo_40:15; Num_3:3, but afterwards anointing seems to have been specially reserved for the high priest, Exo_29:29; Lev_16:32, so that "the priest that is anointed," Lev_4:3, is generally thought to mean the high priest.
c. Kings. Anointing was the principal and divinely-appointed ceremony in the inauguration of the Jewish Kings. 1Sa_9:16; 1Sa_10:1; 1Ki_1:34; 1Ki_1:39. The rite was sometimes performed more than once. David was thrice anointed.
d. Inanimate objects also were anointed with oil, in token of their being set apart for religious service. Thus Jacob anointed a pillar at Bethel. (Gen_31:13; Exo_30:26-28.
3. Ecclesiastical. Anointing with oil is prescribed by St. James to be used for the recovery of the sick. Jas_5:14. Analogous to this is the anointing with oil practiced by the twelve. Mar_6:13.
II. Spiritual.
In the Old Testament, a Deliverer is promised under the title of Messiah, or Anointed, Psa_2:2; Dan_9:25-26, and the nature of his anointing is described to be spiritual, with the Holy Ghost. Isa_61:1. See Luk_4:18.
In the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth is shown to be the Messiah, or Christ, or Anointed, of the Old Testament, Joh_1:41; Act_9:22; Act_17:2-3; Act_18:4; Act_18:28, and the historical fact of his being anointed with the Holy Ghost is asserted and recorded. Joh_1:32-33; Act_4:27; Act_10:38. Christ was anointed as prophet priest and king.
Spiritual anointing with the Holy Ghost is conferred also upon Christians by God. 2Co_1:21. "Anointing" expresses the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit upon Christians who are priests and kings unto God.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
In Old Testament times, a common practice was to appoint priests, kings, and sometimes prophets to their positions by the ceremony of anointing. Holy oil was poured over the head of the person as a sign that he was set apart for the service of God. He now had the right, and the responsibility, to perform the duties that his position required (Exo_28:41; Num_3:2-3; 1Ki_1:39; 1Ki_19:16; 2Ki_9:3; Psa_18:50; Psa_28:8; Psa_105:15). (Concerning the everyday eastern custom of anointing the heads of visitors and guests see HOSPITALITY.)
Things as well as people could be anointed. Moses anointed the tabernacle and its equipment to indicate that they were set apart for sacred use (Exo_30:22-30). The oil used to anoint the priests and the tabernacle was prepared according to a special formula that was not to be used for any other purpose (Exo_30:26-33). Official anointing carried with it the authority of God, and therefore no one could lawfully challenge the appointment (1Sa_10:1; 1Sa_24:6).
Anointing was also associated with the gift of Gods special power, or the gift of his Spirit, for carrying out some specific task (1Sa_16:13). Originally, such anointing was a physical ceremony, but because of this spiritual significance, people began to use the word anoint solely in a spiritual or metaphorical sense. It symbolized the outpouring of Gods Spirit in equipping a person for Gods service (Isa_61:1; Act_10:38).
This usage of the word was later extended even further, so that the Bible could speak of all who receive the Holy Spirit as being anointed (2Co_1:21-22; 1Jn_2:20; 1Jn_2:27). Jesus was in a special sense Gods Anointed (Luk_4:18; Act_4:26-27; Act_10:38; see MESSIAH).
Concerning the practice of anointing in relation to such things as burial, massaging, healing and showing hospitality, see OIL; SPICES.
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
a-noint?ing: A distinction was made by the ancient Hebrews between anointing with oil in private use, as in making one's toilet (סוּך, ṣūkh), and anointing as a religious rite (משׁח, māshaḥ).
1. Ordinary Use
(1) 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 (Rth_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 (Psa_104:15).
(2) The practice was in vogue before David's time, and traces of it may be found throughout the Old Testament (see Deu_28:40; Rth_3:3; 2Sa_12:20; 2Sa_14:2; 2Ch_28:15; Eze_16:9; Mic_6:15; Dan_10:3) and in the New Testament (Mat_6:17, etc.). Indeed it seems to have been a part of the daily toilet throughout the East.
(3) To abstain from it was one token of mourning (2Sa_14:2; compare Mat_6:17), and to resume it a sign that the mourning was ended (2Sa_12:20; 2Sa_14:2; Dan_10:3; Judith 10:3). It often accompanied the bath (Rth_3:3; 2Sa_12:20; Eze_16:9; Susanna 17), and was a customary part of the preparation for a feast (Ecc_9:8; Psa_23:5). One way of showing honor to a guest was to anoint his head with oil (Psa_23:5; Luk_7:46); a rarer and more striking way was to anoint his feet (Luk_7:38). In Jam_5:14, we have an instance of anointing with oil for medicinal purposes, for which see OIL.
2. Religious Use
Anointing as a religious rite was practiced throughout the ancient East in application both to persons and to things.
(1) It was observed in Canaan long before the Hebrew conquest, and, accordingly, Weinel (Stade's Zeitschrift, XVIII, 50ff) 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, 383ff; compare Wellhausen, Reste des arabischen Heidenthums, 2nd ed., 125ff) and to believe that the ṣūkh or use of oil for toilet purposes, was of agricultural and secular origin, and that the use of oil for sacred purposes, māshaḥ, 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 (maccēbhāh), and claims, rightly it would seem, that from the first there was a distinct and consistent usage, distinguishing the two terms as above.
(2) The primary meaning of māshaḥ in Hebrew, which is borne out by the Arabic, seems to have been ?to daub? or ?smear.? It is used of painting a ceiling in Jer_22:14, of anointing a shield in Isa_21:5, and is, accordingly, consistently applied to sacred furniture, like the altar, in Exo_29:36 and Dan_9:24, and to the sacred pillar in Gen_31:13 : ?where thou anointedst a pillar.?
(3) The most significant uses of māshaḥ, however, 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 Jdg_9:8, Jdg_9:15; 1Sa_9:16; 1Sa_10:1; 2Sa_19:10; 1Ki_1:39, 1Ki_1:45; 2Ki_9:3, 2Ki_9:6; 2Ki_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, 1Sa_12:5; 1Sa_26:11; 2Sa_1:14; Psa_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.
(4) 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, meshı̄aḥ YHWH), which passed over into our language through the Greek Christos, and appears as ?Christ?.
(5) In what is known today as the Priestly Code, the high priest is spoken of as ?anointed? (Exo_29:7; Lev_4:3; Lev_8:12), and, in passages regarded by some as later additions to the Priestly Code, other priests also are thus spoken of (Exo_30:30; Exo_40:13-15). Elijah was told to anoint Elisha as a prophet (1Ki_19:16), but seems never to have done so. 1Ki_19:16 gives us the only recorded instance of such a thing as the anointing of a prophet. Isa_61:1 is purely metaphorical (compare Dillmann on Lev_8:12-14 with ICC on Num_3:3; see also Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebraischen Archaologie, II, 124).
Literature
Jewish Encyclopedia, article ?Anointing?; BJ, IV, ix, 10, DB, article ?Anointing,? etc.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
The practice of anointing with perfumed oils or ointments appears to have been very common among the Hebrews, as it was among the ancient Egyptians. The practice, as to its essential meaning, still remains in the East; but perfumed waters are now far more commonly employed than oils or ointments.
In the Scriptures three kinds of anointing are distinguishable:? 1. For consecration and inauguration; 2. For guests and strangers; 3. For health and cleanliness. Of these in order:
Consecration and Inauguration
1. The act of anointing appears to have been viewed as emblematical of a particular sanctification; of a designation to the service of God; or to a holy and sacred use. Hence the anointing of the high priests (Exo_29:29; Lev_4:3), and even of the sacred vessels of the tabernacle (Exo_30:26, etc.); and hence also, probably, the anointing of the king, who, as 'the Lord's anointed,' and, under the Hebrew constitution, the viceroy of Jehovah, was undoubtedly invested with a sacred character.
Fig. 40?Anointing
The first instance of anointing which the Scriptures record is that of Aaron, when he was solemnly set apart to the high-priesthood. Being first invested with the rich robes of his high office, the sacred oil was poured in much profusion upon his head. It is from this that the high-priest, as well as the king, is called 'the Anointed' (Lev_4:3; Lev_4:5; Lev_4:16; Lev_6:20; Psa_133:2). In fact, anointing being the principal ceremony of regal inauguration among the Jews, as crowning is with us, 'anointed,' as applied to a king, has much the same signification as 'crowned.'
As the custom of inaugural anointing first occurs among the Israelites immediately after they left Egypt, and no example of the same kind is met with previously, it is fair to conclude that the practice and the notions connected with it were acquired in that country. With the Egyptians, as with the Jews, the investiture to any sacred office, as that of king or priest, was confirmed by this external sign; and as the Jewish lawgiver mentions the ceremony of pouring oil upon the head of the high-priest after he had put on his entire dress, with the miter and crown, the Egyptians represent the anointing of their priests and kings after they were attired in their full robes, with the cap and crown upon their heads. Some of the sculptures introduce a priest pouring oil over the monarch.
2. The anointing of our Savior's feet by 'the woman who was a sinner' (Luk_7:38), led to the remark that the host himself had neglected to anoint his head (Luk_7:46); whence we learn that this was a mark of attention which those who gave entertainments paid to their guests. Among the Egyptians anointing was the ordinary token of welcome to guests in every party at the house of a friend; and in Egypt, no less than in Judea, the metaphorical expression 'anointed with the oil of gladness' was fully understood, and applied to the ordinary occurrences of life. It was customary for a servant to attend every guest as he seated himself, and to anoint his head.
3. It is probable, however, that the Egyptians, as well as the Greeks and Jews, anointed themselves at home, before going abroad, although they expected the observance of this etiquette on the part of their entertainer. That the Jews thus anointed themselves, not only when paying a visit, but on ordinary occasions, is shown by many passages, especially those which describe the omission of it as a sign of mourning (Deu_28:40; Rth_3:3; 2Sa_14:2; Dan_10:3; Amo_6:6; Mic_6:15; Est_2:12; Psa_104:15; Isa_61:3; Ecc_9:8; Son_1:3; Son_4:10; also Jdt_10:3; Susanna 17; Sir_39:26; Wisdom of Solomon 2:7). One of these passages (Psa_104:15, 'oil that maketh the face to shine') shows very clearly that not only the hair but the skin was anointed.
Anointing the Sick
The Orientals are indeed strongly persuaded of the sanative properties of oil; and it was under this impression that the Jews anointed the sick, and applied oil to wounds (Psa_109:18; Isa_1:6; Mar_6:13; Luk_10:34; Jam_5:14). Anointing was used in sundry disorders, as well as to promote the general health of the body. It was hence, as a salutary and approved medicament, that the seventy disciples were directed to 'anoint the sick' (Mar_6:13); and hence also the sick man is directed by St. James to send for the elders of the church, who were 'to pray for him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.'
Anointing the Dead
The practice of anointing the bodies of the dead is intimated in Mar_14:8, and Luk_23:56. This ceremony was performed after the body was washed, and was designed to check the progress of corruption. Although, from the mode of application, it is called anointing, the substance employed appears to have been a solution of odoriferous drugs. This (together with the laying of the body in spices) was the only kind of embalmment in use among the Jews [BURIAL].
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
I. Material.
1. Ordinary. Anointing the body or head with oil was a common practice with the Jews, as with other Oriental nations. Deu 28:40; Rth_3:3; Mic_6:15. Anointing the head with oil or ointment seems also to have been a mark of respect sometimes paid by a host to his guests. Luk_7:46 and Psa_23:5.
2. Official. It was a rite of inauguration into each of the three typical offices of the Jewish commonwealth.
a. Prophets were occasionally anointed to their office, 1Ki_19:16, and were called messiahs, or anointed. 1Ch_16:22; Psa_105:15.
b. Priests, at the first institution of the Levitical priesthood, were all anointed to their offices, Exo_40:15; Num_3:3, but afterwards anointing seems to have been specially reserved for the high priest, Exo_29:29; Lev_16:32, so that "the priest that is anointed," Lev_4:3, is generally thought to mean the high priest.
c. Kings. Anointing was the principal and divinely-appointed ceremony in the inauguration of the Jewish Kings. 1Sa_9:16; 1Sa_10:1; 1Ki_1:34; 1Ki_1:39. The rite was sometimes performed more than once. David was thrice anointed.
d. Inanimate objects also were anointed with oil, in token of their being set apart for religious service. Thus Jacob anointed a pillar at Bethel. (Gen_31:13; Exo_30:26-28.
3. Ecclesiastical. Anointing with oil is prescribed by St. James to be used for the recovery of the sick. Jas_5:14. Analogous to this is the anointing with oil practiced by the twelve. Mar_6:13.
II. Spiritual.
In the Old Testament, a Deliverer is promised under the title of Messiah, or Anointed, Psa_2:2; Dan_9:25-26, and the nature of his anointing is described to be spiritual, with the Holy Ghost. Isa_61:1. See Luk_4:18.
In the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth is shown to be the Messiah, or Christ, or Anointed, of the Old Testament, Joh_1:41; Act_9:22; Act_17:2-3; Act_18:4; Act_18:28, and the historical fact of his being anointed with the Holy Ghost is asserted and recorded. Joh_1:32-33; Act_4:27; Act_10:38. Christ was anointed as prophet priest and king.
Spiritual anointing with the Holy Ghost is conferred also upon Christians by God. 2Co_1:21. "Anointing" expresses the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit upon Christians who are priests and kings unto God.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
In Old Testament times, a common practice was to appoint priests, kings, and sometimes prophets to their positions by the ceremony of anointing. Holy oil was poured over the head of the person as a sign that he was set apart for the service of God. He now had the right, and the responsibility, to perform the duties that his position required (Exo_28:41; Num_3:2-3; 1Ki_1:39; 1Ki_19:16; 2Ki_9:3; Psa_18:50; Psa_28:8; Psa_105:15). (Concerning the everyday eastern custom of anointing the heads of visitors and guests see HOSPITALITY.)
Things as well as people could be anointed. Moses anointed the tabernacle and its equipment to indicate that they were set apart for sacred use (Exo_30:22-30). The oil used to anoint the priests and the tabernacle was prepared according to a special formula that was not to be used for any other purpose (Exo_30:26-33). Official anointing carried with it the authority of God, and therefore no one could lawfully challenge the appointment (1Sa_10:1; 1Sa_24:6).
Anointing was also associated with the gift of Gods special power, or the gift of his Spirit, for carrying out some specific task (1Sa_16:13). Originally, such anointing was a physical ceremony, but because of this spiritual significance, people began to use the word anoint solely in a spiritual or metaphorical sense. It symbolized the outpouring of Gods Spirit in equipping a person for Gods service (Isa_61:1; Act_10:38).
This usage of the word was later extended even further, so that the Bible could speak of all who receive the Holy Spirit as being anointed (2Co_1:21-22; 1Jn_2:20; 1Jn_2:27). Jesus was in a special sense Gods Anointed (Luk_4:18; Act_4:26-27; Act_10:38; see MESSIAH).
Concerning the practice of anointing in relation to such things as burial, massaging, healing and showing hospitality, see OIL; SPICES.
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
a-noint?ing: A distinction was made by the ancient Hebrews between anointing with oil in private use, as in making one's toilet (סוּך, ṣūkh), and anointing as a religious rite (משׁח, māshaḥ).
1. Ordinary Use
(1) 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 (Rth_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 (Psa_104:15).
(2) The practice was in vogue before David's time, and traces of it may be found throughout the Old Testament (see Deu_28:40; Rth_3:3; 2Sa_12:20; 2Sa_14:2; 2Ch_28:15; Eze_16:9; Mic_6:15; Dan_10:3) and in the New Testament (Mat_6:17, etc.). Indeed it seems to have been a part of the daily toilet throughout the East.
(3) To abstain from it was one token of mourning (2Sa_14:2; compare Mat_6:17), and to resume it a sign that the mourning was ended (2Sa_12:20; 2Sa_14:2; Dan_10:3; Judith 10:3). It often accompanied the bath (Rth_3:3; 2Sa_12:20; Eze_16:9; Susanna 17), and was a customary part of the preparation for a feast (Ecc_9:8; Psa_23:5). One way of showing honor to a guest was to anoint his head with oil (Psa_23:5; Luk_7:46); a rarer and more striking way was to anoint his feet (Luk_7:38). In Jam_5:14, we have an instance of anointing with oil for medicinal purposes, for which see OIL.
2. Religious Use
Anointing as a religious rite was practiced throughout the ancient East in application both to persons and to things.
(1) It was observed in Canaan long before the Hebrew conquest, and, accordingly, Weinel (Stade's Zeitschrift, XVIII, 50ff) 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, 383ff; compare Wellhausen, Reste des arabischen Heidenthums, 2nd ed., 125ff) and to believe that the ṣūkh or use of oil for toilet purposes, was of agricultural and secular origin, and that the use of oil for sacred purposes, māshaḥ, 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 (maccēbhāh), and claims, rightly it would seem, that from the first there was a distinct and consistent usage, distinguishing the two terms as above.
(2) The primary meaning of māshaḥ in Hebrew, which is borne out by the Arabic, seems to have been ?to daub? or ?smear.? It is used of painting a ceiling in Jer_22:14, of anointing a shield in Isa_21:5, and is, accordingly, consistently applied to sacred furniture, like the altar, in Exo_29:36 and Dan_9:24, and to the sacred pillar in Gen_31:13 : ?where thou anointedst a pillar.?
(3) The most significant uses of māshaḥ, however, 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 Jdg_9:8, Jdg_9:15; 1Sa_9:16; 1Sa_10:1; 2Sa_19:10; 1Ki_1:39, 1Ki_1:45; 2Ki_9:3, 2Ki_9:6; 2Ki_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, 1Sa_12:5; 1Sa_26:11; 2Sa_1:14; Psa_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.
(4) 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, meshı̄aḥ YHWH), which passed over into our language through the Greek Christos, and appears as ?Christ?.
(5) In what is known today as the Priestly Code, the high priest is spoken of as ?anointed? (Exo_29:7; Lev_4:3; Lev_8:12), and, in passages regarded by some as later additions to the Priestly Code, other priests also are thus spoken of (Exo_30:30; Exo_40:13-15). Elijah was told to anoint Elisha as a prophet (1Ki_19:16), but seems never to have done so. 1Ki_19:16 gives us the only recorded instance of such a thing as the anointing of a prophet. Isa_61:1 is purely metaphorical (compare Dillmann on Lev_8:12-14 with ICC on Num_3:3; see also Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebraischen Archaologie, II, 124).
Literature
Jewish Encyclopedia, article ?Anointing?; BJ, IV, ix, 10, DB, article ?Anointing,? etc.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
The practice of anointing with perfumed oils or ointments appears to have been very common among the Hebrews, as it was among the ancient Egyptians. The practice, as to its essential meaning, still remains in the East; but perfumed waters are now far more commonly employed than oils or ointments.
In the Scriptures three kinds of anointing are distinguishable:? 1. For consecration and inauguration; 2. For guests and strangers; 3. For health and cleanliness. Of these in order:
Consecration and Inauguration
1. The act of anointing appears to have been viewed as emblematical of a particular sanctification; of a designation to the service of God; or to a holy and sacred use. Hence the anointing of the high priests (Exo_29:29; Lev_4:3), and even of the sacred vessels of the tabernacle (Exo_30:26, etc.); and hence also, probably, the anointing of the king, who, as 'the Lord's anointed,' and, under the Hebrew constitution, the viceroy of Jehovah, was undoubtedly invested with a sacred character.
Fig. 40?Anointing
The first instance of anointing which the Scriptures record is that of Aaron, when he was solemnly set apart to the high-priesthood. Being first invested with the rich robes of his high office, the sacred oil was poured in much profusion upon his head. It is from this that the high-priest, as well as the king, is called 'the Anointed' (Lev_4:3; Lev_4:5; Lev_4:16; Lev_6:20; Psa_133:2). In fact, anointing being the principal ceremony of regal inauguration among the Jews, as crowning is with us, 'anointed,' as applied to a king, has much the same signification as 'crowned.'
As the custom of inaugural anointing first occurs among the Israelites immediately after they left Egypt, and no example of the same kind is met with previously, it is fair to conclude that the practice and the notions connected with it were acquired in that country. With the Egyptians, as with the Jews, the investiture to any sacred office, as that of king or priest, was confirmed by this external sign; and as the Jewish lawgiver mentions the ceremony of pouring oil upon the head of the high-priest after he had put on his entire dress, with the miter and crown, the Egyptians represent the anointing of their priests and kings after they were attired in their full robes, with the cap and crown upon their heads. Some of the sculptures introduce a priest pouring oil over the monarch.
2. The anointing of our Savior's feet by 'the woman who was a sinner' (Luk_7:38), led to the remark that the host himself had neglected to anoint his head (Luk_7:46); whence we learn that this was a mark of attention which those who gave entertainments paid to their guests. Among the Egyptians anointing was the ordinary token of welcome to guests in every party at the house of a friend; and in Egypt, no less than in Judea, the metaphorical expression 'anointed with the oil of gladness' was fully understood, and applied to the ordinary occurrences of life. It was customary for a servant to attend every guest as he seated himself, and to anoint his head.
3. It is probable, however, that the Egyptians, as well as the Greeks and Jews, anointed themselves at home, before going abroad, although they expected the observance of this etiquette on the part of their entertainer. That the Jews thus anointed themselves, not only when paying a visit, but on ordinary occasions, is shown by many passages, especially those which describe the omission of it as a sign of mourning (Deu_28:40; Rth_3:3; 2Sa_14:2; Dan_10:3; Amo_6:6; Mic_6:15; Est_2:12; Psa_104:15; Isa_61:3; Ecc_9:8; Son_1:3; Son_4:10; also Jdt_10:3; Susanna 17; Sir_39:26; Wisdom of Solomon 2:7). One of these passages (Psa_104:15, 'oil that maketh the face to shine') shows very clearly that not only the hair but the skin was anointed.
Anointing the Sick
The Orientals are indeed strongly persuaded of the sanative properties of oil; and it was under this impression that the Jews anointed the sick, and applied oil to wounds (Psa_109:18; Isa_1:6; Mar_6:13; Luk_10:34; Jam_5:14). Anointing was used in sundry disorders, as well as to promote the general health of the body. It was hence, as a salutary and approved medicament, that the seventy disciples were directed to 'anoint the sick' (Mar_6:13); and hence also the sick man is directed by St. James to send for the elders of the church, who were 'to pray for him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.'
Anointing the Dead
The practice of anointing the bodies of the dead is intimated in Mar_14:8, and Luk_23:56. This ceremony was performed after the body was washed, and was designed to check the progress of corruption. Although, from the mode of application, it is called anointing, the substance employed appears to have been a solution of odoriferous drugs. This (together with the laying of the body in spices) was the only kind of embalmment in use among the Jews [BURIAL].
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
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