In his post asking Ought we Anoint the Dying? Peter Leithart makes an excellent and important point about our suffering as members of Christ. However, he only parenthetically mentions that the verb in question in James 5 is not chrio but aleipho. By assuming that these words are interchangeable, I think he misses an important aspect of what is accomplished in this rite.

Many, “learned persons” (according to Calvin), including Jay Adams, suppose that this is a medicinal “rubbing with oil.” Others, including the also-learned Gary Ferngren, argue that the whole passage must be spiritually interpreted. Calvin, as mentioned, argues “that this anointing was a visible token of spiritual grace” and true physical healing, but that it was tied to the now ceased apostolic gift of healing. He does attempt to address the fact that it is the elders called for, as they are more likely to have the Spirit in greater measure. But James does not say to call for the ones with the gifts of healing, and this attenuates Calvin’s argument for cessation.

More importantly, we should look at the possible differences in chrio and aleipho. The Septuagint is an unreliable guide here, as the Seventy do not understand Christ as he presents himself throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. The true Seventy were sent by Christ (the anointed One) after the new Twelve had been sent (Luke 10). Both groups were sent out to bring Good News and healing as a new nation to a new world. According to Mark 6:13, they were to aleipho the sick, healing them. James is pointedly using this language, and I think, drawing on the differences in the Hebrew words as well.

In the Hebrew scriptures, the main word for anoint is mashach, from which we derive messiah. (There is another word occasionally translated anoint, suk, that usually refers to pouring out a libation, but occasionally is used of anointing after washing, as in sprucing up.) But deshen, to be fat, is translated anoint in Psalm 23:5, “You anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over.” Though not used often, it ranges in meaning from clearing away the fat ashes from the altar, to waxing fat, as we were satiated in the land of milk and honey, to fattening our souls and bones through trusting God (in Proverbs).

There is one other use in Psalm 20 that seems to bring together all these uses. Psalm 20 begins, “May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob set you on high. May he send you help from the holy place and from Zion may he support you. May he remember all your Tributes and your Ascension may he count as fat. Selah. May he give to you according to your heart and all your counsel may he fulfill.”

So deshen (and I argue aleipho) combine the idea of libation, sprucing up, fattening, and being acceptable to God. Mark and James are not using aleipho as an equivalent of chrio/meshach, but rather as a cognate of deshen (and perhaps suk). That neither spiritualizes nor medicalizes the action. It does not detract from Leithart’s point about recognizing the sufferer as one of Christ’s, or as sharing in Christ’s suffering. Rather, it identifies the source of the strengthening as the Ascension (offering) of Christ, filling us with the Spirit of Christ.

Robert Maddox is a medical doctor and an elder at Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church, Monroe, Louisiana.