In Part One we studied what the “anointing” is not in regard to the Bible’s meaning. In this second segment of our study on the anointing of Messiah, and ours in Him, we will consider the Greek “word set” of chrio (“to anoint”), the noun chrisma (“anointing”) and the noun Christos (“anointed one”) found in the New Testament. You may readily see that the derivation for our English word “Christ” comes from the last Greek word--Christos.

To understand the Hebraic meaning regarding the anointing, all Greek words referring to any use of “anointing” are abandoned for this one peculiar set of words based on the verb chrio. Associations of “anointing” with perfumes for a living or dead person, leather lubrication, painting a house, repelling insects, salving sore muscles, flavoring occultic potions are forsaken in our quest for the biblical meaning in regard to the Messiah.

Yeshua (Jesus) Became the Anointed One

In the life and ministry of Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth, the single word that distinguishes Him from all other persons in history before his time are the words “anoint” and its noun, “Anointed One” in reference to the Holy Spirit. All who were anointed before Him were anointed with oil, not the Spirit of God.

Yeshua (Jesus) is uniquely the “Anointed One,” standing apart from all other human beings before and after. His anointing of the Holy Spirit is wonderfully shared with those who put their faith in Him for salvation and life, . We who believe in and receive Him as our Lord and Savior partake of his spiritual anointing!

The study of the anointing merits our best study effort to learn, and, if necessary, correct our view of the anointing so we may live in the fullness of the measure of the Anointed One as Yeshua (Jesus) intends.

Before we do our word study, we do well to distinguish Yeshua’s (Jesus’) life on earth in two parts:

• His pre-anointing years (first 30 years)
• His anointed years (last three and half years)

Though He was fully God and fully human all the time, before his anointing He did no preaching, teaching or healing. Nor did He perform miracles. Why? Because He couldn’t. He wasn’t anointed yet. He gave up his anointing in heaven when He humbled Himself to be be born in flesh. He would not receive his anointing back until He began his ministry at about thirty years of age.

In his pre-anointing years, Yeshua (Jesus) grew astute and wise in the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings. These are the books that comprise what Gentiles call today the Old Testament or, better said, the Old Covenant of Scripture. When merely a lad, He astonished Torah scholars with his superior knowledge of God’s Word. Knowledge of Scripture or of God’s ways doesn’t make one anointed, though.

Immediately after his baptism in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit came down from heaven upon Him (cf. Matthew 3:17) and anointed Him. Only then did the Holy Spirit indwell Him. At this very moment through the divine act of his Father above, He was made the Anointed One. Yeshua (Jesus) verifies this in his statement in Luke 4:17-21: “The Spirit of the LORD is on me because He has anointed me …”

The Bible clearly teaches that only after Yeshua’s (Jesus’) anointing did He preach, teach, heal, cast out demons, perform miracles, do signs and wonders and redeem us from our sins. Only then. Not before. The New Testament writers understood this to be the case. Their writings reflect it truthfully. It takes the anointing of the Spirit to do healings and miracles and to preach and teach with the authority of the kingdom of heaven, nothing less if it is to have eternal value.

Everything Turns on the Anointing of Yeshua (Jesus)

Yeshua’s (Jesus’) anointing is the linchpin of the Gospels from which everything before and after is linked. It is the swivel for life and godliness (cf. 2 Pt. 1:3). Without it the Old Covenant of Scriptures would not be “filled up” in Him, his atonement enacted, his resurrection vouchsafed or his mission accomplished.

The gospel of eternal salvation turns on the anointing of Yeshua (Jesus). The acts of Yeshua (Jesus) for salvation, restoration, deliverance and empowerment of the church are a result of his anointing. Through the awesome filling of his life with the Holy Spirit Father God authorized and empowered him to introduce the kingdom of God on earth and demonstrate its arrival with power signs.

The four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John had nothing to say about Yeshua (Jesus) teaching with authority or doing miracles before his anointing—because He didn’t do any. Observe, though, how no Gospel writer ignored the occasion of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) anointing at the Jordan River (Mt. 3:16-17; Mk. 1:10-11; Lk. 3:21-22; Jn. 1:32-34). It was pivotal to everything about Him.

Let us look at the Greek New Testament’s word choices for “anoint” and “anointing” used to describe the anointing of Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth.

Remember What His Anointing Is Not

In Part One of this article we studied the first and second “word sets” of the following list of Greek words. To refresh your memory, here are the three “word sets” again beginning with the verb and followed by is noun or nouns:

• aleipho ("to anoint"); aleimma (anointing)
• murizo ("to anoint"); muron (ointment)
• chrism ("to anoint"); chrisma (anointing), Christos (anointed one)

We've shown that the first two “word sets” of aleipho and murizo are inferior to Yeshua’s (Jesus’) anointing and were rejected by the those New Testament writers who wrote in Greek as well as the earliest Greek translators of the New Testament. They are sorely inappropriate to describe Yeshua (Jesus) as the only one and true Messiah. Like the Jewish sages before who translated the Hebrew Old Covenant of Scripture into the Greek language (the Septuagint), the authors of the New Covenant of Scripture clearly chose to speak of the Messiah in a highly specialized, restricted sense. Only the words chrio, chrisma and Christos allowed for this careful qualification and distinction.

While this last “word set” from chrio may mean to smear or to rub, like the other two word sets, unlike the others it also means to pour oil, approximating the Hebrew word “to pour” [mashach]. This distinction is important. As we shall learn, to anoint in the mind of the Hebrew writers of the Bible was “to pour” oil, not “to rub” or “smear,” contrary to what modern Hebrew-English lexicons state. For example, in Exodus 29:7 we read: “Then you shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him.” This is the uniqueness of the word mashach from all the other Hebrew words for “anoint”—and there are several.

The Greek word chrio permits this distinction. If we did not know that the Hebrew word underlying the word chrio meant “to pour,” we would still be confused by this Greek word since it also means “to smear.” We cannot underestimate the value of finding the Hebraic meaning underlying every Greek word—to discover the Vorlage. From this “word set” we get the terms pour out and outpouring of the Spirit—to pour the oil of heaven, the Holy Spirit, upon the heads of the new recipients and into their hearts.

We do well to toss out the first two Greek “word sets” already discussed from our frame of reference about the anointing of Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth. Out goes the verb aleipho and its noun aleimma, and the verb murizo and its noun muron. We studied the wrong Greek words first so we can testify of their inferiority and peel them back like outer husks to get to the kernels of truth. We shouldn’t build spiritual teachings off them as far as the true anointing of Messiah goes. They are unworthy of the Anointed One. Rather, we should stay with the third Greek “word set” used by the translators of the Septuagint (Old Testament Greek translation symbolized by LXX) and the Greek version of the New Testament to describe the divine anointing.

The Best Choice of Words for the Anointing

Though we do not have original Hebrew and/or Aramaic source manuscripts of the Gospels and likely some of the letters of the New Testament written by eyewitnesses of the Anointed One, we do see the extreme care the Greek translators of the Hebrew and Aramaic portions of the New Testament gave in choosing the best of the three “word sets” for “anoint” available in ancient Greek. For example, earliest historical records attest that Matthew was written in Hebrew before being rendered in Greek as we have it today. Likely the primary source writings of all four Gospels were in Hebrew or in Aramaic, its cousin. The Vorlage, or undertext of the first 15 chapters of the Book of Acts appears to be Semitic. The books of Hebrews, Revelation and the letters of Peter and James appear to be originally written in Hebrew or in Aramaic. The undertext is conclusively Semitic.

These earliest Greek translators of the New Testament used the closest parallel word for the Hebrew understanding of the anointing and the Anointed One. The Hebrew verb mashach (“to anoint”) best corresponds cross-language with the Greek word chrio (“to anoint”). The Hebrew noun mashiach (“Messiah,” or “Anointed One”) corresponds best to the Greek word Christos from which we get our English title for Yeshua as the “Christ.”

What this clear preference of terms does, in effect, is eliminate all other Greek word choices to explain Yeshua’s (Jesus’) anointing. This is crucial for our understanding even as it was for the church in the first century. If you want to know what the anointing of Yeshua (Jesus) is like you've got to view and understand it only in the most restricted terms of the Hebrew words mashach and Mashiach and figure the proximity of meaning in the Greek words chrio, chrisma and Christos.

Give it to Us in Plain English

Translating the Bible from its earliest languages—Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek—into another language like English is a most arduous but blessed task. Having once worked in the shadow of some of the best translators in the United Bible Societies, they receive my highest admiration. My basic complaint with most Bible translators, however, is that they tend to neglect translating the word Christ, a shortened form of the Greek word Christos, into English as Anointed One, leaving it basically intact in its Greek form. As such the word “Christ” becomes a loanword from the Greek language with no dynamic equivalence in English.

Do you see that Yeshua’s (Jesus’) holy title of Mashiach, or in Greek, Christos, wasn't translated into English. Rather than our English Bible translators interpreting it into clearly understood words, they inserted into our language as a technical loanword from Greek. Obfuscation resulted. The powerful truth about our Lord's anointing, and our subsequent anointing in Him, was masked behind the Greek word Christos.

This decision to naturalize the word Christ into English severely weakens the richness and power of understanding the anointing of Yeshua (Jesus). Lamentably, we have a technical word for the holy title of Yeshua (Jesus) for which we have no other natural, corresponding reference in our English language. It leads to fuzzy thinking about our Lord and his anointing. Further, it contributes to all sorts of strange notions about the nature and character of the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

We should learn at least a little of the Greek language to know what the word Christ means. Most people don't know Greek, and most believers are not going to learn it. So unless we break out into the sunlight of discovery we're going to be kept in the shadows of truth about the anointing. This is why we should pull back the shadowy drapes of confusion to let the sunshine of truth spill into our hearts about the Lord’s anointing and our anointing in Him.

No Loanword for the Greeks Though

The writers and first translators of the Greek New Testament refer to Yeshua (Jesus) 532 times by using the Greek titleChristos for the Hebrew word Mashiach that is rendered into English as “Messiah.” They could have imported the original Hebrew word Mashiach into Greek as a loanword, too. Unlike English translators, they refused the temptation. Too many Greeks would not understand the biblical meaning if the word Mashiach (Messiah) was not translated properly. We, too, should have been so careful when we translated the English Bible from the Greek. The point is that 532 times our English Bibles should say Anointed One instead of Christ in order to draw attention to the Lord’s title and function.

It was significantly valuable to translate the word Mashiach as accurately as possible into Greek for the Greek-speaking world to make Yeshua’s (Jesus’) anointing conspicuously unique such that only He is “the Anointed One.” No loanwords were used. Thus, the best, most dynamic equivalent word in Greek for Messiah was chosen—Christos.

Let me ask you a question. What is the best, most dynamic equivalent word for Mashiach and Christos in English? Of course. It is Anointed One.

A Case in Point

Notice the literary care the Greek translator of the apostle John takes to make sure his Greek readers do not misunderstand the Hebrew word Messiah. He writes of Andrew summoning Simon Peter: “We have found the Messiah (Mashiach) . . .” Then he adds a clarification for the Greek readers, “. . . that is, the Christ (Christos)” (John 1:41). The translator of John’s Gospel into Greek painstakingly explained the dynamic equivalence of Messiah so his Greek readers understood Yeshua (Jesus) better. In the same way, our English translators should render the Greek word Christos as the “Anointed One.”

Lack of knowledge, passion or diligence to translate the Hebrew title Messiah or its Greek equivalent Christ into corresponding English as “Anointed One” for our English Bibles has led well-meaning believers into fuzzy, indefinite or mistaken understandings of the anointing.

The Disconnection of the Word “Christ” to “Anointing”

Regrettably, such pains to translate the word Christos into English were largely ignored throughout the history of English Bible translations. We got, instead, the now revered Greek loanword Christ for the holy title and function of Yeshua (Jesus). Many English-speaking believers, as a result, give little thought to the full meaning of his title Christ as “Anointed One” unless someone who knows points it out. Fact of the matter is that many Bible readers assume the word Christ to be a second name for Yeshua (Jesus) instead of a title.

Thankfully, although Christos (“Anointed One”) is seldom, if ever, translated into English in the New Testament, the word chrisma (“anointing”) usually is. Sometimes it is rendered as the word “unction,” but is best stated as “anointing.”

All this creates a series of problems that may misguide the reader of the New Testament:

• the title Christ may not be linked to its directly corresponding words in Greek for “anointing” or, where it exists in some Bible versions, “unction.”
• likely, the meaning and importance of the Lord’s anointing will be missed or neglected.
• without knowing it, our understanding of the Lord’s anointing may result in misinterpretation and misapplication if the true anointing (Hebrew mashach;Greek chrisma) of the Anointed One (Hebrew Mashiach; Greek Christos) is linked to the meanings of the other Greek words translated anointing—aleipho, aleimma, murizo and muron.
• our understanding of the anointing we have received from the Holy One becomes fuzzy in meaning, mystical, emotional or phenomenological—without the constant impact on our thinking and behavior the Lord intends.

Thus, we get an array of ways of talking about the anointing that are not on the mark. Yet the problem compounds further.

English-speaking countries sent more missionaries to the rest of the world in the past 200 years than any other linguistic group. They translated Bibles into the languages of their target audiences. In many cases, care was not given to translate the term Christos (“Anointed One”) into the primary languages. Many languages ended up with the word Christ as a technical loanword in their mother tongue just like in English. As a result, they have no other words in their language that correspond to give depth of meaning to the Lord's title and its implications for us who abide in Him through faith.

Draw a Circle Around the Title Christ

Here’s an exercise for you to do. Every time the word Christ appears in your New Testament, circle it. As you draw a ring around each occurrence, instead of saying the word Christ, mouth the English dynamic equivalence, “Anointed One.” Speak it aloud until is habitual. It may change your way of thinking and knowing about Yeshua (Jesus) and yourself.

You will be amazed at the frequency the anointing is emphasized of Yeshua (Jesus) and how central the teaching of the anointing is to the Scriptures. As said earlier, it becomes obvious that the linchpin of the Bible is the anointing of Yeshua (Jesus). It is the swivel between the Old and New Testaments. Likewise, it is the fulcrum between cold formality and hot, living faith.

Notice these typical expressions of Yeshua (Jesus) and the apostles:

• “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me . . .” (Yeshua (Jesus) to audience at Nazareth synagogue, Luke 4:18)
• “You are the Anointed One” (Peter's confession, Mt. 16:16)
• “What do you think about the Anointed One?” (Yeshua (Jesus) to Pharisees, Mt. 22:42)
• “But these are written that you may believe that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Anointed One” (Jn. 20:31)
• “God has made this Yeshua (Jesus), whom you crucified, both Lord and Anointed One” (Peter to Jerusalem crowd, Acts 2:36)
• “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Anointed One” (Acts 5:42)
• “You know . . . how God anointed Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power” (Peter to Gentile household of Cornelius, Acts 10:37-38)
• “This Yeshua (Jesus) I am proclaiming to you is the Anointed One” (Paul in Thessalonica, Acts 17:3)
• “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in the Anointed One Yeshua (Jesus) . . .” (Paul to Romans, Rom. 8:1)
• “You are in the Anointed One Yeshua (Jesus)” (Paul to Jewish/Gentile believers in Corinth, 1 Cor. 1:30)
• “But we have the mind of the Anointed One” (1 Cor. 2:16)
• “Now you are the body of the Anointed One” (1 Cor.12:27)
• “In the Anointed One we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God” (2 Cor. 2:17)
• “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that the Anointed One's power may rest on me” (2 Cor. 12:9)
• “And you also were included in the Anointed One when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation” (Eph. 1:13)
• “God made you alive with the Anointed One” (Col. 2:13)
• “As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him” (1 Jn. 2:27)

Having crossed the threshold of the Greek language, let's go further into the richness of the words anoint and anointing, past the English and Greek of the Gentiles to the mother lode language of divine truth—Hebrew. To proceed, we must go back to the Hebraic taproot of our faith. If we stay in only the Greek and English world of ideas, we likely will hold a lesser view of Yeshua (Jesus)’ anointing and miss the fullness of the anointing we received in Him.

Much of the ambiguity and misuse of the word anointing is owed to four sources:

• failure to know the ancient Greek context and culture in which the words “anoint” and “anointing” are used in relationship to the Messiah
• the indistinction or blurring of the Greek words for “anoint,” “anointing” and “Anointed One” in our English language New Testament
• failure to know the ancient Hebrew context and culture in which the words “anoint” and “anointing” are used in relationship to the Messiah
• the indistinction or blurring of the Hebrew words for “anoint,” “anointing” and “Anointed One” in our English language Old Testament (the subject of this chapter)

To discover the nature and function of the anointing you have in the Anointed One, you should learn its patterns and promises from God's revelation in history, especially from Judaism's covenantal roots in the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament).

First, you should remind yourself that everything about the true anointing stems out of heaven's eternal sanctuary and priesthood. It both preexists and outlasts creation. It is one of heaven's realities revealed in patterns and shadows on earth, “filled up” in Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth and then made our own personal experience through faith in the Lord Yeshua (Jesus).

Almighty God revealed to Moses the exact patterns of the heavenly sanctuary for anointing priests in ancient Israel. These patterns, or shadows, point to ultimate fulfillment in the anointing of our Lord Yeshua (Jesus) when he began his earthly ministry as Messiah—the Anointed One.

The apostle Paul clearly saw the difference between Old Testament patterns and their reality in Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth. He wrote of these patterns: “These are a shadow for the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in the Anointed One” (Col. 2:17) who was, is and is to come.

The Jewish Query: Was He Anointed?

For the Jewish world of the New Testament era the begging question was whether Yeshua (Jesus) was the Anointed One or not according to the Scriptures. To the Jew the Hebrew Bible was the main source for this judgment, even if his miracles, healings and resurrection were obvious and accepted as authentic.

Miracle workings weren't enough proof. To many Jews, even Yeshua’s (Jesus’) resurrection from the dead wasn't enough proof of his Messiahship. After all, Elijah the prophet had raised the dead centuries before. Furthermore, Elijah went to heaven without dying. So how was Yeshua (Jesus) better than this prophet who raised the dead but did not die himself? How could He be distinguished from a false Messiah, for example?

Clearly Elijah was not the Messiah. He was a forerunner. The Bible said so. Therefore, the question remained—was Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth anointed by the Holy Spirit? This was the question the high priest Caiaphas asked Yeshua (Jesus) at his judgment (Mt. 26:63). Everything rode on answering that solitary question. If He wasn't anointed by the Spirit, He wasn't Messiah. If He was anointed in the fullness of the Torah’s teachings, then He was the Messiah. All his miracles and wonders would bear witness to this truth.

The testimony of the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings (the Old Testament) was all that really mattered to traditional Jewish people. The apostles' teachings more than able met the challenge on the basis of the Old Testament—the Bible of Yeshua (Jesus), the apostles and their disciples.

Out of their love for the Torah, they showed Scriptural proofs of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) Messiahship. They went even further. They demonstrated the proofs of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) anointing. They, too, claimed to have received his anointing by saving faith in Him. They could validate their testimony through power demonstration. So they healed the sick, performed miracles and did signs and wonders among the people—just like Yeshua (Jesus) did. They were living proof of his anointing in them.

Overcoming Pagan Imaginations

For the Gentile world, the questions were quite different. The Bible was irrelevant to them. Most had never heard of the Torah, the Writings and the Prophets. They didn't have a Bible, didn't know such a book existed and staked their spiritual relationship with their "gods" on other values.

To them it wasn't a question of whether Yeshua (Jesus) was anointed or not, as it was for the Jews. The Gentiles were convinced about anointings. They anointed just about anything, moving or standing still. They anointed trees, cattle, stones, the sick, warriors, pagan priests, kings, property owners, freed slaves and inanimate gods of their temples.

Sure, they reasoned, they can add Yeshua (Jesus) to their list of anointed deities. It was a cinch to accept Him as one among the deities. But they were repelled at the idea that Yeshua (Jesus) was the only and unique Anointed One. Paganism had a virtual apothecary of anointing oils for any and everything that ailed you, helped you or held promise. Why was Yeshua (Jesus) different, then?

Their main question was, therefore, different. Gentiles wanted to know what makes Yeshua’s (Jesus’) anointing superior enough to drop off idol worship, magic and demonic practices. The proof to them was not in the Torah but in power demonstration. Since Yeshua (Jesus) was not on earth to prove his anointing to them in person, He anointed his disciples with his same anointing to do his work. This purpose was not lost on Yeshua’s (Jesus’) followers. They knew they were anointed, too, by partaking of the anointing of the Anointing One at the time they believed and received the Holy Spirit. To convince Gentiles that Yeshua (Jesus) was the only Lord and Savior required releasing the power of the anointing within them through the working of miracles and healings.

Talking about Yeshua’s (Jesus’) miracles and power is not enough to persuade most pagans. They don't want history. History of God's workings without contemporary power demonstration tends to become mere myth, impractical and irrelevant. Yeshua’s (Jesus’) disciples had to show the work of Yeshua (Jesus) in themselves with attendant signs to their teaching and preaching if they were to be convincing.

It hasn't changed today. To take the gospel to unreached people groups, the gospel becomes convincing through power demonstration. Powerful teaching, preaching, healing, signs and wonders remain the demonstrations that convince pagan Gentiles to believe in our Lord. Evangelism with healings and miracles are essential components of the message of salvation. Without the anointing of Yeshua (Jesus) in us, all this is impossible.

Adding Yeshua (Jesus) as Another God

Being rooted in pagan imaginations, Gentiles are receptive to messages asking them to believe in other deities. They merely add another “god” to their pantheon of idols like kids adding new cards to their baseball card collection. Happily, they may be eager to add Yeshua (Jesus) to their list of gods for whatever divine service He may render to make their lives a bit more prosperous or healthier.

Pagan Gentiles are collectors of gods and religious superstitions. Believing in the exclusiveness of Yeshua (Jesus) as the only God is the hurdle to their conversion. To receive his life and salvation from sins, they must repudiate all other gods. His superior anointing revealed in his disciples is the fulcrum issue to distinguish Him as the only true God revealed in history.

Whether you are Jewish or a Gentile, the issue hangs on understanding and practicing the nature and attributes of the anointing. To the Jews it was a question of scriptural proof in fullness of the Torah. To the Gentiles it was proof through power demonstration. The anointing is not overtaxed by these two demands, for the anointing of Yeshua (Jesus) satisfies both. And it still does today, if you were wondering.

If we misunderstand, misstate and misinterpret the anointing, we dilute the expression of the gospel in Messiah, the Anointed One, including the mighty power of our acts of faith in Him. A mystical idea about the anointing tends to diminish the practical application of the anointing. An emotion-driven view of the anointing leads to bad teaching. A transcendental view of the anointing diminishes our self-understanding in the Anointed One and sense of spiritual value to the kingdom of God. A right view moves us towards excellence in conduct, knowledge, attitude, testimony and demonstration of spiritual power becoming of Yeshua (Jesus).

Yeshua (Jesus) Didn't Come As a Gentile Messiah

Nothing in the Gentile world prepares us for understanding the true anointing. Take a first century Gentile Christian without Jewish background, say a professor from the Greek university in Athens. If he were to try to express the true anointing on his own without the aid of the apostles’ teaching and the Old Testament, he was prone to gross error. He most likely would have subjected the truth about Yeshua (Jesus) and his anointing to a philosophical overhaul. Out of it would be a new kind of Yeshua (Jesus), maybe one seen as an avatar of Platonism. Christianity would have been syncretized or meshed with paganism.

Likely, the good professor would imagine an exotic Gentile “Christ” who conformed to the patterns of his Greek world, contrary to the revelation of God in history through the Hebrews. After all, the scholar would be working out his theology from his natural point of reference—pagan mythology and philosophy.

This tendency for Gentiles coming into the church to understand the Anointed One in their own philosophical image was a real threat to the purity of the early followers of Yeshua (Jesus). One such threat was a man named Cerenthus, a contemporary of the apostle John and erstwhile member of one of his churches. He drank his philosophical waters from the cultural cisterns of Socrates, Aristotle and Plato, spewing his twisted gospel at whoever would listen.

The Setting for John's First Letter

Cerenthus was an opponent of the apostle John and schismatic of the late first century church. He was big-time trouble. He disputed the veracity of the virgin birth, the nature of the anointing and the death of Yeshua (Jesus). He wormed his way into the churches and seduced many Gentile believers to his heretical persuasion. At the heart of his heresy were mythological teachings about the anointing of Yeshua (Jesus) and our own in Him.

John's first letter possibly was written to overcome Cerenthus’ baiting of Christians to switch from faith in Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth to his philosophical, mystic Christ.

Among most Jewish believers in Yeshua (Jesus), however, Cerenthus was seen through for what he was—a pagan at heart who clothed himself in the garb of Christianity. To our knowledge he never repented, ever clinging to his Greek mysticism about the Anointed One.

Wrongly, Cerenthus claimed Yeshua (Jesus) was born to Joseph and Mary as natural parents. Rightly, he credits Yeshua (Jesus) with divine favor by virtue of his heavenly anointing, thus enabling Him to work miracles. Wrongly, he postulates the anointing to be wholly and eternally separate from the humanity of Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth. To him it's a spiritual thing only. Flesh and blood humans can not be anointed, he argues. Never. Not Yeshua (Jesus). Not anyone.

Then how does Cerenthus explain the anointing? He says a so-called “Anointed One” descended in bodily form as a mythical being upon Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth. Before his death, he taught, this mythical presence ascended out of Yeshua (Jesus)' body, abandoning Him to die on the cross. Yeshua (Jesus), he taught, was merely a provisional container or carrier which the mythical “Anointed One” used. Yeshua (Jesus), therefore, was left forsaken, hanging on a cruel cross in a desperate act of futility, no good to Himself or anyone else. What was left was only fit to be buried and forgotten.

What utter foolishness was this deception. Yet many Gentiles, dependent on Greco-Roman philosophy and mythology for their worldview, embraced the heresy. You readily see how a spurious, heathen-based idea about the anointing was the hinge, in this case, for misunderstanding the nature of Yeshua (Jesus) and the saving gospel. If you get the anointing wrong, you endanger the truth of who Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth is—the Anointed One risen from the dead and ascended into glory. How you understand the anointing becomes a filter for the body of truth.

John considered this teaching so off-base and ludicrous—this self-styled remaking of Yeshua (Jesus) into a Gentile Christ—that he labeled it as belonging to the spirit of antichrist (cf. 1 Jn. 4:1-3). But he reminded the faithful that they have the true anointing resident and alive in them to teach them all truth (1 John 2:20, 27).

What is the Anointing?

If the anointing is not temporary, if it is not a spiritual experience that comes and goes, ebbs and flows, rises and falls, if it is not a matter of spiritual degrees, or a portal through which believers have special experiences, if it is not unique, or “special,” to every person’s spiritual calling and gifting, then what is the anointing of Yeshua (Jesus), the Anointed One, and the anointing of his body of believers?

What is the biblical meaning and experience of the anointing, but the reception of the Spirit of Messiah—the Anointed One—when we first believe and receive the Lord Yeshua (Jesus) into our lives with the confession of sins and repentance. Further, the anointing is the daily indwelling, renewing experience of the Holy Spirit in everyday life application. It is the presence, revelation and power of God within us who believe—the fundamental expression of the Holy Spirit’s work within the church. Last, the anointing of the Holy Spirit grants us freedom from the yoke of sin-based human spirituality to live free, righteously, fully and joyfully in the Messiah—the Anointed One. We receive authentic spirituality with its eternal life value.

We Did Not Receive a Gentile Anointing

Recall again the three main sets of words for “anoint” and “anointing” in the Greek language of the pagans? They were the verbs aleipho, murizo and chrio with corresponding nouns, aleimma, muron and chrisma. The first two sets of words—aleipho and aleimma, and murizo and muron--we discovered are so mundane, variable, temporal, all-purpose and associated with magic that the writers and Greek translators of the New Testament refused to use them to describe the anointing of Yeshua (Jesus), as well as our own in Him. They were misleading, dangerous words.

Wary of these misleading Greek words, the writers and translators of the Greek New Testament clearly differentiated the anointing of the Holy Spirit from every other anointing, limiting its definition to the words chrio (“to anoint”), chrisma (“anointing”) and Christos (“Anointed One”). The gospel advanced on a tightly controlled vocabulary sufficient to cross-culturally teach and proclaim the Messianic gospel to Gentiles. All other possible words and attributes for “anoint” and “anointing” were discounted in respect to the anointing of Yeshua (Jesus).

If not for the over-arching care of the first translators of the New Testament to use Christos as the only acceptable Greek word for Messiah, we Gentiles may be calling our Lord something inferior like the Aleimma or the Muron. It would make no sense whatsoever, of course. It would make the gospel another gospel, playing to the temporal, ambiguous, off-on, mythical notions Gentiles carelessly attribute to the anointing. Our understanding would be twisted and uprooted from its Hebraic soil.

Let’s be wary of speaking of the anointing of the Spirit loosely, ambiguously and without clarity of meaning. We did not receive an anointing based on Gentile concepts. Our anointing is embedded in God's vocabulary with ancient Israel. It is enacted in the Jewish Messiah, the Anointed Savior of the world. Too much is at stake for us and other believers in Yeshua (Jesus) to get it wrong. What we say and how we say it does matter. Someone is always listening and learning from us, right or wrong.