Ointment

Ointment in scripture moves between two registers: the costly perfumed oils of trade, table, and toilet, and the holy anointing oil compounded for the sanctuary. The same word covers a caravan-load of myrrh from Gilead, a king's vial poured on a head, the alabaster cruse broken at Bethany, and the spices Mary Magdalene bought to dress a body. The materials are largely shared — olive oil as a base, with myrrh, cassia, calamus, cinnamon, nard, and aloes — but the use distinguishes them. Profane ointment perfumes the living and honors the dead; sacred ointment sanctifies the altar, the priest, and the king.

Trade Goods and Treasures

The aromatic ingredients of ointment travel as merchandise long before they appear in any liturgy. The Ishmaelite caravan that carries Joseph down to Egypt is "coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt" (Gen 37:25). Years later, Israel sends his sons back to that same Egypt with "a little balm, and a little honey, spicery and myrrh, nuts, and almonds" as a gift (Gen 43:11). The queen of Sheba arrives in Jerusalem "with a very great train, with camels that bore spices, and very much gold, and precious stones" (1Ki 10:2), and Hezekiah opens the royal treasury to the Babylonian envoys, showing them "the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armor" (2Ki 20:13). Spices and precious oil belong on the same shelf as silver and gold.

Cosmetic and Festal Use

Profane ointment is the fragrance of the living and the well-favored. In the women's quarters of Susa, the maidens prepared for King Ahasuerus undergo "twelve months ... six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors and with the things for the purifying of the women" (Esth 2:12). Naomi tells Ruth, "Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself, and put your raiment on you, and go down to the threshing-floor" (Ruth 3:3). The Preacher counsels his hearer in the same idiom: "Let your garments always be white; and don't let your head lack oil" (Eccl 9:8). The bride of the Song speaks the praise of her beloved as fragrance — "Your oils have a goodly fragrance; your name is oil poured forth; therefore the young women love you" (Song 1:3) — and is herself praised in the same terms: "How much better is your love than wine! And the fragrance of your oils than all manner of spices!" (Song 4:10).

The same fragrance can mark complacency. Amos indicts those "who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph" (Amos 6:6). Isaiah accuses Jerusalem of going "to the king with oil, and increased your perfumes, and sent your ambassadors far off, and debased yourself even to Sheol" (Isa 57:9). Ointment used to court favor with foreign powers is itself a form of self-debasement.

The Wisdom of Precious Oil

Two sayings in Ecclesiastes turn ointment into proverb. "A [good] name is better than precious oil; and the day of death, than the day of one's birth" (Eccl 7:1) — the most costly perfume ranks below reputation. "Dead flies cause the oil of the perfumer to gush forth a stench; [so] does a little folly outweigh wisdom and honor" (Eccl 10:1) — a small contamination ruins the most carefully compounded ointment, and the same calculus governs the moral life.

The Holy Anointing Oil

The sanctuary uses ointment by formula. Yahweh dictates the recipe to Moses: "You also take to you the chief spices: of flowing myrrh five hundred [shekels], and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty, and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin" (Exod 30:23-24). The result is "a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer: it will be a holy anointing oil" (Exod 30:25).

Its uses are spelled out as carefully as its formula. With it Moses is to anoint "the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the table and all its vessels, and the lampstand and its vessels, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt-offering with all its vessels, and the basin and its base" (Exod 30:26-28). "And you will sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatever touches them will be holy. And you will anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, that they may serve me in the priest's office" (Exod 30:29-30). The ointment is then fenced about with prohibitions: "This will be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your⁺ generations. On the flesh of man it will not be poured, neither will you⁺ make any like it, according to its composition: it is holy, [and] it will be holy to you⁺. Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on a stranger, he will be cut off from his people" (Exod 30:31-33).

The execution follows. Bezalel "made the holy anointing oil, and the pure incense of sweet spices, after the art of the perfumer" (Exod 37:29). Later the keepers of the sanctuary inherit the trade: "some of the sons of the priests prepared the confection of the spices" (1Chr 9:30). The daily ritual draws the oil into ongoing service — "every day you will offer the bull of sin-offering for atonement: and you will cleanse the altar, when you make atonement for it; and you will anoint it, to sanctify it" (Exod 29:36) — and the consecration of the sanctuary at its dedication: "Moses had made an end of setting up the tabernacle, and had anointed it and sanctified it, and all its furniture, and the altar and all its vessels" (Num 7:1). Sprinkling the altar "seven times" with the oil sanctifies it (Lev 8:11), and the same blended oil-and-blood sanctifies "Aaron, his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him" (Lev 8:30).

The priests are anointed with this oil from the head down: "you will take the anointing oil, and pour it on his head, and anoint him" (Exod 29:7). Sirach summarizes the moment for Aaron: "Moses consecrated him, And anointed him with the holy oil; And it became for him an eternal covenant, And for his seed as the days of heaven; To minister and to execute the priest's office for him, And to bless his people in his name" (Sir 45:15). The image is given a poetic figure in the Psalm of ascents: "It is like the precious oil on the head, That ran down on the beard, Even Aaron's beard; That came down on the skirt of his garments" (Ps 133:2).

The Anointing of Kings and Prophets

The same vocabulary, with a different vial of oil, designates the king. Samuel "took the vial of oil, and poured it on his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not that Yahweh has anointed you to be leader over his inheritance?" (1Sam 10:1). Of David, "Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on David from that day forward" (1Sam 16:13). Zadok "took the horn of oil out of the Tent, and anointed Solomon" (1Ki 1:39). Yahweh tells Elijah, "Jehu the son of Nimshi you will anoint to be king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you will anoint to be prophet in your place" (1Ki 19:16). The prophet's pupil performs the anointing of Jehu by the same word: "Take the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus says Yahweh, I have anointed you king over Israel" (2Ki 9:3). The boy Joash is brought out, crowned, given the testimony, and "they made him king, and anointed him" (2Ki 11:12). The people of the land take Jehoahaz "and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead" (2Ki 23:30).

Sirach gathers the practice into a single line about Samuel: "By the word of God he established the kingdom, And anointed princes over the people" (Sir 46:13). And of Elijah it says, "Who anointed kings for retribution, And a prophet to succeed in your place" (Sir 48:8). The horn of oil that runs from priesthood to kingship to prophetic office runs through the same compound substance.

Healing and Care

Ointment cares for the body it touches. Isaiah surveys a wounded nation: "From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes: they haven't been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil" (Isa 1:6). The Samaritan in the parable does what Isaiah's failed caretakers did not: he "bound up his wounds, pouring on [them] oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him" (Luke 10:34). The Twelve sent into the villages "anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them" (Mark 6:13). James extends the practice to the church: "Is any among you⁺ sick? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord" (Jas 5:14). The risen Christ counsels Laodicea to buy "eyesalve to apply to your eyes, that you may see" (Rev 3:18).

Oil as Joy and Gladness

A figurative use runs alongside the literal. The shepherd's table-host anoints his guest's head with oil (Ps 23:5). The royal Psalm hails the anointed king: "God, your God, has anointed you With the oil of gladness above your peers" (Ps 45:7). The psalmist of old age prays, "But my horn you have exalted like [the horn of] the wild-ox: I am anointed with fresh oil" (Ps 92:10). Reproof from the righteous becomes its own ointment: "let him reprove me, [it will be as] oil on the head; Don't let my head refuse it" (Ps 141:5). To the mourners of Zion the prophet promises "a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" (Isa 61:3). Zechariah's vision of the lampstand watches "two olive-branches, which are beside the two golden spouts, that empty the gold out of themselves" (Zech 4:12).

In the New Testament that figurative anointing carries doctrinal weight. "He who establishes us with you⁺ in Christ, and anointed us, is God" (2Cor 1:21). John writes, "you⁺ have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you⁺ know" (1Jn 2:20), and again, "as for you⁺, the anointing which you⁺ received of him stays in you⁺, and you⁺ don't need that anyone teach you⁺; but as his anointing teaches you⁺ concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you⁺, you⁺ stay in him" (1Jn 2:27).

The royal bridegroom of the Psalm wears the perfumes of the bride-chamber: "All your garments [smell of] myrrh, and aloes, [and] cassia; Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad" (Ps 45:8) — myrrh, aloes, and cassia are themselves three of the holy formula's spices, returned to the language of festal joy.

The Alabaster Cruse at Bethany

Two anointings in the Gospels turn on the cost of ointment. In Luke a woman of the city, "a sinner; and when she knew that he was sitting at meat in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster cruse of ointment" (Luke 7:37). In Mark a woman in Bethany comes to Simon's table "having an alabaster cruse of ointment of pure nard very costly; [and] she broke the cruse, and poured it over his head" (Mark 14:3). John names her as Mary: "Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment" (John 12:3). Both Synoptic and Johannine accounts record an objection. In Mark some "had indignation among themselves, [saying,] To what purpose has this waste of the ointment been made? For this ointment might have been sold for over 300 denarii, and given to the poor. And they murmured against her" (Mark 14:4-5). In John the objector is named: "Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, that should deliver him up, says, Why wasn't this ointment sold for 300 denarii, and given to the poor?" (John 12:4-5). The valuation is the same in both: a year's wages, broken over a head and feet.

Spices for Burial

The funeral use of ointment closes the circle. King Asa is laid "in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and diverse kinds [of spices] prepared by the perfumers' art" (2Chr 16:14). On the cross Jesus is offered "wine mingled with myrrh: but he did not receive it" (Mark 15:23). On the morning after the Sabbath, "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the [mother] of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him" (Mark 16:1). Spice-merchants, perfumers, royal embalmers, and a few women at dawn traffic in the same materials, for the same purpose: to honor the body that the ointment touches.