The Practice of Anointing in the Ancient World

In the ancient Near East, the ritual of ceremonially covering a person or object with scented oil or another liquid symbolized a transfer of sanctity from a deity to that person or object; it was thus considered a sacramental or consecrating act (McCarter, I Samuel, 178). However, ancient peoples also performed non-ritual anointings, which included rubbing their shields with oil or applying oil to their bodies for cosmetic or healing purposes (Hamilton, “Anointing,” 1255a).

Several ancient Near Eastern cultures in addition to the Israelites practiced ritual anointing. For example, the Amarna letters speak of kings in Syria and Palestine being anointed as vassals of the Egyptian pharaoh. Although the Egyptians did not anoint their pharaohs, they did anoint high officials (de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 104). The Hittites anointed their kings with “the holy oil of kingship”—a ritual that became part of the king’s official title (e.g., “Tabarana, the Anointed, the Great King”; de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 104). In Mesopotamia, great men and rulers often had a statue or inscribed stone made in their honor, which their successors were to anoint (Dalley, “Anointing in Ancient Mesopotamia,” 20–21). This seems to have been a means for the anointer to both honor the dead and to incur some of the blessing of the gods associated with that person’s life.