Anoint
To place oil (typically, olive oil) that is consecrated and set apart for a special purpose upon the head or other important parts of the body or upon instruments of ceremonial worship. The term comes from the Hebrew word mashiach (Messiah) and the Greek word christos (Christ), both meaning “anointed one.” Throughout history, anointing has been used for the blessing of the sick, the formal ordination of priests, and the investiture of kings to their position. Joseph Smith received anew through revelation the ordinances of washing and anointing. At the time of their restoration, these rites were apparently original to him, although he claimed only to be restoring what was always a part of Christ’s Gospel. St. Cyril, writing in the third century, taught that Christians were called by that name because they had been “Christened” — in other words, the name of Christ is derived from being anointed or christened by oil, and those who followed Him (the Anointed One) should themselves become anointed.1
Among the ordinances Christ has given mankind, water is used to baptize and to wash. Consecrated oil is used to anoint and to bless. These are the ceremonial symbols of Christ’s love. His love cleanses. His oil anoints one to glory. These liquids signify the removal of sin and stains. They cleanse and renew one spiritually. They are symbols of the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of Christ. They signify holiness and spirituality. Both are preeminent symbols of love.2
According to Cyril, the washing is followed by the anointing, making every candidate, as it were, a Messiah or a Christ. These rites were once a part of the early Christian movement but had been lost by the time they were restored through Joseph Smith. Joseph was not inventing something; he was restoring what was lost.3
The biblical story of the holy oil began at Mount Sinai where Moses received detailed instructions for building the tabernacle. He was told to make a special type of incense that would be used only in the tabernacle, and he was told to make the holy anointing oil. The oil was perfumed with myrrh, cinnamon, aromatic cane, and cassia and could only be used in the tabernacle. Everything used for worship was anointed with this perfumed oil: the table for the bread offering, the seven-branched lamp, the altar of incense, the altar of sacrifice, and all the vessels for incense, wine, and cereal offerings. The high priests — Aaron and his sons — were also anointed. The oil was kept in the holy of holies, and the mystery of the oil, along with all the other mysteries of the holy of holies, was known only to the high priests. It was said that the Son of God, before He became incarnate, was anointed with oil from the wood of the Tree of Life, which is why He was called the Messiah, the Anointed One. He Himself anoints everyone who comes into His Kingdom, so that their light may shine, and they are filled with the Holy Spirit; they are given eternal life. The oil was the sacrament of Wisdom, the Tree of Life was the symbol of Wisdom, and this heavenly oil flowed from Wisdom into the Tree of Life. The oil did not just consecrate and illuminate the mind; it transferred the power to make other things holy. Anything that touched the oil became a source of holiness. The temple furnishings became most holy because they had been anointed, and anyone or anything that touched them became most holy. Any person anointed with the oil became a son of God, and he or she was restored to the state that Adam lost when he left the Garden of Eden.4
Before Adam was cast out of the Garden of Eden (into the world in which death would enter, and Adam would be obligated to succumb to that death), there was an anointing oil prepared in Eden itself that was designed to be used in order to help the Descendant of Adam who would come to crush the head of the serpent; once He was anointed, it would equip Him to come back from the grave and be resurrected. Subsequently, there was a line of followers who were entrusted not only with possession of the anointing oil that came from Eden, but with knowledge about the signs that would be given when the moment came for the oil to be delivered. So the oil for anointing was kept and subsequently delivered. And He was anointed — in preparation for His death and His burial and His rising again — with what had been set out and kept (originating in Eden), to be used in order to complete the process of qualifying Him to return again, to have strength in the loins and in the sinews, and the power to rise again from the dead and to lay hold upon all of the faculties of the immortal, physical body. He was anointed, at the end, with the oil that had been entrusted, originally, to Adam and handed down with an obscure, small body of believers (who were dying out and were older — and the last of their tradition, it seemed).5
King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon had his people take upon them the actual name of Christ (see Mosiah 3:2). How is one called by the name of Christ? Does one literally need to become a “Messiah” or a “Christ” or an “anointed one”? How does one become anointed? Is it through application of physical oil to the physical skin? Is that an anointing in the sense that Christ was anointed? Or is the physical anointing a symbol of another kind of anointing, another kind of christening? And if so, what does that entail? 6
The memorial of partaking of the sacrament (as described in 3 Nephi 8:7 CE) before the Father, when done right, results in the promise of Christ that you’ll have My Spirit to be with you. This is a covenant. This is the Lord promising. His word cannot fail. He is establishing the means by which all can have as their guide and companion His Spirit, His light, and His presence. This is more intimate than touching His side, hands, and feet. This is to have His Spirit within one’s touch at all times, to become an extension of Him, and to properly take upon His name. “For you are then, indeed, a Christian. He will christen or anoint you, not with the symbol of oil, but with the reality of His Spirit. This anointing is the real thing, of which the oil was meant only to testify.”7
1 The Second Comforter, 252.
2 Come, Let Us Adore Him, 289–290.
3 The Second Comforter, 253.
4 Margaret Barker, “The Holy Anointing Oil,” paper, 2008, 1, 3, 5; www.margaretbarker.com/papers/
5 “Keeping the Covenant” General Conference, Q&A Session transcript, Caldwell, ID, September 22, 2019, 13.
6 “Mosiah 3:16–17,” June 6, 2012, blog post.
7 “3 Nephi 18:11,” November 10, 2010, blog post.