This post is part of a blog series called “Questions People Ask about the Holy Spirit” (#HSQuestions). You are still welcome to submit questions here.
What is the anointing? In some Christian circles you might hear someone say, “the worship was so anointed,” or “the pastor was really anointed today.” What do they mean?
But more importantly, how does the Bible speak of the anointing?
Given some elaborate teachings about “the anointing” that you can find on the internet, it might surprise you that the words “anoint,” “anointing,” and such are not that common in the New Testament. The Passion Translation has it 245 times, but hey…it’s not really a “translation.”[1] By contrast, even the KJV has it only 20 times. The ESV beats it at 22 times. The uninspiring NIV and NLT come in at a mere 11 times.
There are actually a few different Greek words in the New Testament that are translated as “anointing.” And “anointing” is almost always a verb—that is, it is typically an action that is done, rather than a “thing” that we have.
Getting Oily
Whenever the Greek verb aleipho is used in the New Testament (9 times), it is always used in a literal sense to put oil on a person.[2] For example, a believer might “anoint” sick people with oil when praying for them to be healed (Mark 6:13; James 5:14).
The Greek word epichrio, found 2 times in the NT, is used in a similar way to refer to a time when Jesus “anointed” a man’s eyes with spit and dirt as he healed him (John 9:6 and 11). Similarly, but in a metaphorical sense, in Revelation 3:18 Jesus tells the church in Laodicea to get “salve” to “anoint” their eyes so they can see (Greek = egchrio, used only once in the NT).
Usually when someone today says, “that person is really anointed,” they don’t mean that they have a lot of spit or oil on them.
Like Jesus
The Greek verb chrio is used more along the lines of the common use of the word “the anointing” today—in these instances, no literal oil was involved. The word is found only 5 times in the New Testament. Four times it refers to how God “anointed” Jesus with the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18; Acts 4:27 and 10:38; Heb 1:9).
Indeed, Jesus is the “Messiah” or the “Christ”—that is, the “anointed one”—because God anointed him with the Spirit. That is, God put the Spirit on him similar to how one might put oil on a person.
When Pentecostals and Charismatics speak of someone being “anointed” today, sometimes they have something like this in mind—they may be claiming that the Spirit is present empowering an individual for ministry, just like the anointing of the Spirit empowered Jesus (consider Luke 4:14, 18-19 and Acts 10:38).
“An Anointing” = ?
“Anointing” is only used as a noun or thing in 2 verses in the New Testament (Greek = chrisma).
And a few verses later…
The context of 1 John makes it clear that this “anointing” that “teaches us” what is “true” is the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit is the one who testifies to “truth” (4:6 and 5:6) and it is the “Spirit” who enables us to confess true faith in Jesus (1 John 4:2).
Who is Anointed?
Some Christian teaching might not give you this impression, but all believers have been “anointed” by God.
The only place chrio refers to Jesus’ followers (see above regarding Jesus) is in 2 Corinthians 1:21, where Paul says that God “anointed us” as he “gave us his Spirit in our hearts” (v. 22).
Crucially, Paul here implies that every believer has been anointed by God. And elsewhere, Paul explicitly states that all believers “are temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
Likewise, John affirms that all believers have “the anointing” (see 1 John 2:20 and 27, above), who is the Spirit, and that God abides in all believers by the Spirit (1 John 3:24 and 4:13).
Again, the reality is—at least according to the Bible—God has “anointed” all believers with the Holy Spirit. And “the anointing” God gives us is the Holy Spirit. There is no anointing distinct from this.
This does not mean that the Spirit works the same way in every Christian’s life—no. For example, there are (sort of) different gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4) and the Spirit “distributes them to each one, just as he determines” (12:11). At the same time, the spiritual gifts are not different “anointings”—again, the anointing is the Holy Spirit.
Expecting More Anointing to Fall?
The Bible never speaks of “the anointing falling” on someone.
Nevertheless, it is not entirely inconsistent with the Bible for us to do so, because the anointing is the Spirit. The Bible uses all kinds of imagery when speaking of the Spirit—God “fills” people with the Spirit (Acts 4:8, 31; Ephesians 5:18) and “pours” the Spirit on people (Acts 10:45; Titus 3:5-7). And, in a few places, the Bible uses imagery of the Spirit “falling” on people (Ezek 11:5; Acts 10:44, 11:15). Since the anointing is the Spirit, we could say the “anointing fell”—although the image breaks down a bit, as anointing oil doesn’t typically “fall.”
Likewise, the Bible never explicitly states that one can receive “more anointing” or that we should expect for God to anoint us more than once.
Nevertheless, again, it is not entirely inconsistent with the Bible for us to do so because the Bible does speak of the Spirit—who is the anointing—as filling believers who had already received the Spirit (Acts 4:8, 31; 13:52) and Paul implores the Ephesian Christians, who had already received the Spirit, to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 4:13). Since the Spirit can, in some sense, come in a greater measure, we might say the same thing about the anointing.
At the same time, we must be careful about speaking of “different levels” of anointing or of someone having a “special anointing,” as though one “anointing” is better than another. To reemphasize, this is because there is only one anointing—the Holy Spirit!
Moreover, we must not lose sight of the fact that the biblical emphasis is that every believer has been anointed by God.
Personally, rather than proclaiming that “the anointing fell again,” I’m satisfied with staying with the language of the Scripture, by affirming that God has anointed all believers with the Spirit, while also thanking God for how the Spirit is at work in different ways in those around me, such as through gifts of teaching, leading, or healing (1 Corinthians 12:6, 11, 28).
5 Surprises Regarding “the Anointing”
When the Bible speaks of believers (or even Jesus) being anointed, it is giving us an image of God placing the Holy Spirit upon us as though God is anointing us with oil. To summarize all I have said above, here are 5 surprises about “the anointing” from the New Testament:
- The Bible only speaks of followers of Christ being anointed by God in 3 verses.
- The anointing is not a feeling, a spiritual energy, or a gift—it is nothing other than the Holy Spirit.
- There are not different kinds of anointings—the only anointing is the Holy Spirit—but the Spirit might work in your life in different ways at different times.
- The biblical emphasis is that all Christians have already been anointed by God.
- The Bible never says the anointing falls on anyone or that God might anoint you more than once, though these ideas are not entirely inconsistent with the Bible.
The Anointed Pastor and Worship
At the end of the day, you are always safe to say that the worship leader was anointed or that the pastor was anointed—well, as long as they are truly Christians.
I’m not so sure that it works to say that “the worship,” a “song,” or even a “sermon” is anointed, though. Well, at least not if we are to remain biblical.
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You might also be interested in these posts:
- The Holy Spirit and Leadership: 7 Biblical and Theological Observations
- 3 Ways the Holy Spirit Works Among Non-Christians
- Myth #4: “The Spirit-Filled Life = Success and Victory”
Andrew K. Gabriel, Ph.D., is the author of Simply Spirit-Filled: Experiencing God in the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit as well as three academic books, including The Lord is the Spirit. He is a theology professor at Horizon College and Seminary and serves on the Theological Study Commission for the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. You can follow him on Facebook or on Twitter.[2] Similarly, in the Old Testament, someone would anoint priests with oil (Exodus 30:30) with the result that the priest would be “consecrated” or set apart for the Lord’s service. Likewise, when God chose a king, the king was anointed with oil (1 Samuel 10:1), with the result that the king was considered “the Lord’s anointed” (1 Samuel 24:6). In these cases, anointing was always tied to physical oil.
This is great, Andrew. Solid and useful teaching!
Thanks, Brad. That is my “special anointing.” 😉
As a Charismatic, who is wary of how our lingo tends to be unbiblical, I really appreciate your blog. You and the guys at Remnant Radio are amazing
Daniel, thanks for the encouragement.
I appreciate your thoughtful analysis, Andrew, and will be giving it some more careful thought.
Good study but could be further refine. 1. Should not define anointing sorely to Holy Spirit, because acc. to Luke 4:18, the Spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus because “he” (hou) anointed Jesus to… The pronoun “he” is in neuter referring to the Spirit, not the Lord. The Spirit is in the nominative. So the Spirit will anoints Jesus and the apostles to do the works of God and perform miracles according to the anointing received from the Spirit. 2. to say every believer is already anointed with the Holy Spirit. It is not a factual truth. It may be true to Paul concerning the believers in Corinth, and the readers of First John. But the cases in Act 8 & 19:1-7, Jude 19 prove this truth should be experienced by the believers, not to be hold or believe it is a statement truth.
Greetings Hilbert, and thanks for reading! Regarding 1., it seems that you have misunderstood the structure of the Greek in Luke 4:18. Pneuma is in the nominative case, but it not the subject of anoint. Moreover, there is no pronoun “he” in the Greek of 4:18 in connection with the verb “anoint” (neither masculine or neuter). Aside from the Greek, Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 61:1, and there the Hebrew makes it explicit that the subject of the act of anointing is the Lord, not the Spirit.
Under #2 you mention scriptures that don’t explicitly mention “anointing.” But I think the ideas expressed about the Spirit in those verses are taken into account in the the section titled, “Expecting More Anointing to Fall?” Take a look there again.
Thanks, Andrew. I truly appreciate the way you talk about the Holy Spirit.
I always appreciate the clarity and soundness of the teaching you bring to any topic. I was raised Baptist, but accepted Christ in a Pentecostal church in 1980. The subject of the anointing is something I remember from that earlier time in history as our Pastor was in his 70s and had been a Pentecostal preacher for most of his life. I remember in the ’90s, one person who would make a point that of ensuring others knew who they thought “had the anointing”, and it was never in reference to our pastor. Of course they left the church disgruntled. But now I can’t recall the last time I even heard anyone say that someone or some song was anointed. I appreciate now having a clear idea on what the anointing is.
Andrew, this is a very helpful reflection on ‘anointing.’ You unpack how a tradition has been built up in Pentecostal-charismatic traditions that technically have no real basis in Scripture, especially preaching.
The earliest reference to a preacher being anointed was in material from the pre-Pentecostal Welsh Revival. There might be some consolation knowing that it didn’t start with the Pentecostal movement. 🙂
Thanks, David. It seems we Pentecostals like to take words from the Bible and run with it!
Great explanation
I see that in Acts 10:38 God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Jesus said these works that He did we will do also. So we need the same anointing to do the same works. 2Cor 1:21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God. Jesus said when we are filled with the Holy Spirit we are endued with power. I see the manifestation of God’s power. Jesus said these works that I do bear witness. God raised up Moses to show His power Ex.9:16. If there is no power of God Manifesting, it is another spirit 2Cor 11:4