Anointing Oil

Biblical Text

The anointing oil is first described in detail in Exodus 30:22-33. God commands Moses to make "an oil of holy ointment" from the following ingredients:

• Five hundred shekels of pure (liquid) myrrh
• Two hundred fifty shekels of sweet cinnamon
• Two hundred fifty shekels of sweet calamus
• Five hundred shekels of cassia
• One hin of olive oil

This oil was to be applied to the following:

• The tent of meeting (the tabernacle) and the ark of the covenant
• The table, the lampstand, and the altar of incense
• The altar of burnt offering and the laver
• Aaron and his sons

The purpose of the anointing was to set these apart as holy and dedicate them to God. The text forbids pouring the oil on the body of an ordinary person or making any oil by the same formula, warning that whoever does so "shall even be cut off from his people" (Exodus 30:32-33).

Bezalel carried out the actual preparation (Exodus 37:29). At the dedication of the tabernacle, Moses anointed the tabernacle and its furnishings with the oil and poured it on Aaron's head (Exodus 40:9-15; Leviticus 8:10-12). Thereafter the anointing oil was placed in the charge of Aaron's son Eleazar (Numbers 4:16). The high priest, as the one "upon whose head the anointing oil was poured," was required to observe special regulations (Leviticus 21:10-12).

Background

In the ancient Near East, oil was widely used for food, lamps, cosmetics, and healing. Pouring oil on a person or object signified that it had been set apart for a particular office or use. The Hebrew text calls this oil "the oil of holy anointing." The Korean term gwanyu is a Sino-Korean word understood to mean "oil that is poured and applied."

Scholars differ as to which modern plants correspond to the ingredients rendered as cinnamon, calamus, and cassia.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The anointing oil stands at the center of the biblical concept of anointing. Anointing was performed not only in installing priests but also in installing kings and prophets. The text does not state clearly, however, whether the oil poured on kings was always this anointing oil. Because the account of Solomon's accession states that the priest took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle and anointed him (1 Kings 1:39), some read this passage in connection with the anointing oil. The oil that "ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard" in Psalm 133:2 likewise recalls the consecration of the high priest.

The Hebrew word meaning "anointed one" is the source of the term Messiah, and its Greek equivalent is Christ. The New Testament says that Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power (Acts 10:38; Luke 4:18). It also states that believers "have an unction from the Holy One" (1 John 2:20, 27).

Interpretation and Points of Debate

Many Protestant interpreters read the anointing oil typologically as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Typology is an interpretive method that regards Old Testament institutions as foreshadowing New Testament realities. This reading rests on the New Testament's language of anointing; the text of Exodus itself does not identify the anointing oil with the Holy Spirit.

Interpretations that assign a spiritual meaning to each spice—such as "myrrh represents suffering"—are also common in preaching. These, however, are later allegorical interpretations that the text does not directly support. Accounts that the anointing oil made by Moses was preserved for a long time are known to come from later Jewish tradition and do not appear in the biblical text.

The anointing of the sick with oil in James 5:14 is generally regarded as distinct from the anointing oil of the tabernacle.

In the Korean Church

In preaching and worship music, the expression "the anointing" is widely used to refer to the Holy Spirit's bestowal of power. Some churches in the Pentecostal and charismatic traditions apply oil when praying for divine healing. The Anglican Church of Korea has a tradition of using holy oils in its liturgy.

At the same time, some hold that caution is warranted regarding the present-day use of oils modeled on the anointing oil, citing the prohibition in Exodus and its fulfillment in the New Testament.