Someone asked,
What does the Bible say about anointing yourself with olive oil?
after a preacher used Matthew 6:16-18 as the basis of a sermon telling people to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Being anointed was a cultural act that had several meanings in the Bible. Most references to anointing with oil denote a ceremony that gave authority to a prophet, priest, or ruler. Oil symbolized the Spirit of God blessing the person with His presence, so the ceremony symbolized God giving the person gifts such as authority to mediate between men and God (priesthood), the ability to speak with God-breathed words (prophecy), or power, wisdom, skill, or discernment.
Cultures around the Mediterranean Sea practiced anointing with oil. It was part of grooming, similar to using gel to make hair stay in place. Some aromatic chemicals in plants dissolve in oil (and not in water), so oil might be perfumed. Omitting oil from grooming could indicate poverty, grief, or a religious reason for self-deprivation such as fasting.
It was also a health practice similar to applying hand or body lotion to skin and a medicinal practice similar to applying salve to a burn or cut. Here are two such references:
- The Good Samaritan came to a wounded man and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. (Luke 10:34, NASB) (Luke 10:34, NASB) The wine prevented infection and the oil promoted healing and reduced pain caused by exposure to the air.
- Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord… (James 5:14, NASB). The anointing here conveys the medical sense, rather than the ceremonial sense, as is commonly misunderstood — although the treatment is to be done in the name of the Lord and with prayer. Note in the following verse that any supernatural healing effect results from the prayer, not from the anointing.
The grooming and skin-care practices are referred to in several passages.
- You shall have olive trees throughout your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off [the trees without ripening]. (Deuteronomy 28:40, NASB) This was part of a warning that listed several ways Israel would suffer if the nation departed from serving the Lord.
- 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, NASB) The meaning here was like saying, “Put on your makeup to make yourself presentable and attractive.”
- In Matthew 6, Jesus talks about doing things out of sincere caring instead of to be seen and praised by others. Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father… (verses 16-18).
The Bible does command walking in the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit — that is, living in obedience to what God has already commanded in the scriptures. We are to walk in accordance with scriptural principles such as purity, honesty, love, service, and a thirst for more knowledge of, and deeper relationship with, God and each other. But we are to receive such things as gifts, in dependence on God, not to confer them on ourselves as though we had the authority to do so.
Copyright 2018, Richard Wheeler
