Some have denied that the O. T. knows of any distinction between ‘oil’ and ‘ointment;’ and this on the very insufficient grounds that the Septuagint renders שֶׁמֶן sometimes by μύρον (
In later times there was a clear distinction between the two, and one which uttered itself in language. A passage in Xenophon (Conv. ii. 3, 4) turns altogether on the greater suitableness of ἔλαιον for men, of μύρον for women; these last consequently being better pleased that the men should savour of the manly ‘oil’ than of the effeminate ‘ointment’ (ἐλαίου δὲ τοῦ ἐν γυμνασίοις ὀσμὴ καὶ παροῦσα ἡδίων ἢ μύρου γυναιξί, καὶ ἀποῦσα ποθεινοτέρα). And on any other supposition our Lord’s rebuke to the discourteous Pharisee, “My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment” (
Some have drawn a distinction between the verbs ἀλείφειν and χρίειν, which, as they make it depend on this between μύρον and ἔλαιον, may deserve to be mentioned here. The ἀλείφειν, they say, is commonly the luxurious, or at any rate the superfluous, anointing with ointment, χρίειν the sanitary anointing with oil. Thus Casaubon (Anim. in Athenoeum, xv. 39): ‘ἀλείφεσθαι, proprium voluptuariorum et mollium: χρίεσθαι etiam sobriis interdum, et ex virtute viventibus convenit:’ and Valcknaer: ‘ἀλείφεσθαι dicebantur potissimum homines voluptatibus dedidi, qui pretiosis unguentis caput et manus illinebant; χρίεσθαι de hominibus ponebatur oleo corpus, sanitatis caussâ, inunguentibus.’ No traces of such a distinction appear in the N. T.; thus compare
A distinction is maintained there, but different from both of these; namely, that ἀλείφειν is the mundane and profane, χρίειν the sacred and religions, word. Ἀλείφειν is used indiscriminately of all actual anointings, whether with oil or ointment; while χρίειν, no doubt in its connexion with χριστός, is absolutely restricted to the anointing of the Son, by the Father, with the Holy Ghost, for the accomplishment of his great office, being wholly separated from all profane and common uses: thus see
1 Compare what Plutarch says of Lycurgus (Apoph. Lac. 16): τὸ μὲν μύρον ἐξέλασεν, ὡς τοῦ ἐλαίου φθορὰν καὶ ὄλεθρον. Compare too Virgil (Georg. ii. 466): ‘Nec casiâ liquidi corrumpitur usus olivi.’
[The following Strong's numbers apply to this section:G1637,G218,G3464,G5548.]
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