BibleProject - "Christ" Is Not a Name – Anointed E1

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

The title most often applied to Jesus is “the anointed one”—that’s what the Greek word “christ” means! But what is the practice of anointing? What does it signify, and who gets anointed? The practice of anointing people with oil is a theme we can trace throughout the entire story of the Bible. In this episode, Tim and Jon start a brand new theme study all about anointing.View more resources on our website →Timestamps Part one (00:00-21:48)Part two (21:48-36:43)Part three (36:43-49:12)Part four (49:12-57:23)Referenced ResourcesInterested in more? Check out Tim’s library here.You can experience our entire library of resources in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS“On the Moon” by SwuM“Issa Vibe” by Sam Stewart“On My Way (alt. version)” by Sam StewartShow produced by Cooper Peltz with Associate Producer Lindsey Ponder, Lead Editor Dan Gummel, and Editors Tyler Bailey and Frank Garza. Mixed by Tyler Bailey. Podcast annotations for the BibleProject app by Hannah Woo.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Today on the podcast, we begin a brand new theme study, all about the practice of anointing people with oil. Sounds a little obscure, but we pick this theme because it's the title applied the most to Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus, the Christ, meaning Jesus, the anointed one. It's a Greek word, Creo, which when you talk about a person who has been poured or smeared with oil, the title of that figure is Christos, which is the title, Christ. And that is a Jewish Greek way of describing an ancient Israelite practice of pouring oil on certain people in places.

And the Hebrew word for that is masach. And what you call someone who's had oil smeared or poured over them is masachach from which we get the word masaya. In the Hebrew Bible, the people anointed with oil were priests, prophets, and kings. To be the anointed one means you have this ritual where you have the oil placed on your head. And it marks a person or a place as a portal between heaven and earth. And with the kings, the priests and the prophets, you get this image of a portal of God's rule for the king, a portal of God's presence through the priest, a portal of God's presence through the priest,

a portal for God's word and purpose through the prophet. All those heavenly realities are brought to earth, so to speak through this one who's marked by the oil. Why couldn't priests, prophets, and kings be anointed with water, or wine, or something else? What makes oil so special? Well, if you've been listening to the podcast for any amount of time,

it won't surprise you that oil has to do with the Garden of Eden. This is all about the Garden of Eden and the Garden Plants. And oil becomes a symbol of the abundant, restorative, heavenly life of God, the infinite, inexhaustible life and power of God in the heavens that can touch down here on earth through these Representative people who get the oil poured on them. The oil becomes itself the symbol of the liquid life of God that touches down here on earth. Today Tim Mackie and I dive into the theme of the anointed. I'm John Collins and you're listening to Bible Project Podcast. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Okay. Hey Tim. Hey John. Hello. Hey we are starting a new set of conversations around a new theme.

Yes we are. Yeah this will be a little shorter than normal. We're not going to be as thorough with this theme in our conversations. Yep. But we're going to dive in deep when we want to. And the theme is, the theme for this series of conversations is drum roll. Everyone actually knows by the time they've gotten to this part of the... It's true, because it's like part of the name of what you click on But I'm still so much suspense. Uh the anointed the anointed one or anointing Hmm the anointed the anointed one the anointing yeah

What we are going to meditate on is Moments in the biblical story where someone gets oil in the biblical story where someone gets oil poured on their head, or when an object gets oil poured on top of it. Yeah, that's a very specific thing to care about. Yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, maybe we need to take a few moments to make a case for why this is a worthy, being categorized as a biblical theme. Because over the years, what we have tried to do in our theme videos is let the biblical authors set the agenda. So it's good to come to scripture with our questions and our felt needs and try and see what, you know, the biblical authors

have to say, they might overlap with that. But what we're trying to do in this project is listen how to hear the biblical authors on their own terms, what they care about in their time and culture and way. You're telling me that you haven't been a situation in your life where you were trying to put oil on you and you're like, you know, I got to figure out, I mean, doing this the way the Bible wants me to do it. Yeah. Well, you know what's interesting is, unless you grow up in a church community. That's true. Some traditions do.

Yeah. Yeah, we're in a Warren synagogue, you know, Jewish community. Okay. Very practices. So, I did grow up. My parents follow Jesus, and they did. They hadn't been following Jesus very long before I was born. But when I was six, seven years old, I got this really rare virus that attacked my spinal

cord. Yeah, it was like an autoimmune thing, really, really rare thing. And my little growing spinal cord started eating itself. Like, you know, my immune system was attacking it. And I couldn't walk for about four or five months. Wow. A little boy. And I have just a few vivid memories of that experience. One was going to the doctor and getting a spinal tap. Yeah, that's not really, I've had this. Holy cow. Wow, so that's a vivid memory.

Another memory I have is after, I don't know, a month or two, my parents brought me to church. My dad would just carry me around. Our family was a part of a house church at that time. So I remember everybody coming around me to pray for me at this one gathering and somebody had a little bowl of oil. And they like, dip their finger in the oil and made the cross in my forehead and they prayed for me.

And what's really astounding is that my pediatrician, at least as my mom, I don't remember a lot of these details, my mom tells the story, the pediatrician said it could be like a year if things go well before I'm able to have full use of my legs again. And I think by within month four, I was able to start walking again. And it was maybe a month or so after that prayer meeting. And then by month six, it's like it never happened. And the pediatrician was just astounded.

So anyway. So that was your experience with oil? That was my first, yeah. I have an anointing. I actually haven't thought about that for a really long time. But somehow when you just said that, that's an early memory I have. And it involves getting anointed and then prayed for that the healing power of God would heal my spinal cord.

And I had a remarkably rapid healing that surprised all the doctors involved. Yeah, and that interesting. Yeah. Is anointing with oil also a Catholic church thing? Yes, I mean, it's an ancient Christian thing that's mentioned even in the Apostolic writings. And so it's a practice that has spread

into all branches of the Christian tradition, Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant. Really, there wasn't any prayer. Prayer, because that's in the New Testament too. We would pray. No, prayer, but praying for people and anointing them smearing a little oil on there. Never once. Four heads.

Really? No, I remember actually I worked for a Christian bookstore when I was a senior in high school. And I think it was the first time I encountered like I know we tingle whale. Cause they sold it. At the Christian book. Yeah, cause they sold little piles of it. And I just was like, what, what do you do with this?

Well, it probably had some corny logo on it too. Oh, I was just gonna remember. Yeah. Okay, so these are modern reverberations of this practice, right? Yeah. In current Christian practice, and in the Christian tradition, it has roots and stories and poems that we're going to look at in the Hebrew Bible, but in the New Testament, actually, I think if you follow through, this will be the last time that the actual practice is mentioned.

It's in the letter of James. That's why I was surprised that your church didn't do it because it's in the Bible. If you're a Bible church, which for most probably means a new testament Bible church, they were against it. And maybe it happened without me being aware, but I never encountered it. Yeah, check this out. James chapter five verse 14. Is anyone among you sick?

He should call for the elders of the church. They should pray over him, anointing him. That means smearing or wiping him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in trust will restore the one who was sick. Cool. Now, this is embedded in a paragraph that has a lot more nuance than how that sounds, just ripping it out of context. But my point is, this is a practice rooted in early Christianity of praying, prayer, and

anointing to ask for the healing love of God to come and meet his suffering, hurting people. That's a thing. And so this practice has different variations in almost all strands of Christianity that I'm aware of. So anyway, that makes sense of why you came across it in the bookstore. Right. And it was in direct response to this passage. Yes. Or why my parents had people in their house church pray for me. Makes a police house. Yeah.

So we're at the end of the chain here. Yes. Why would you do this? Well, yeah. Besides the fact that the Bible is telling you, this is a thing you do. Yeah. What does it mean? What does it mean?

Where did the practice come from? Mm-hmm. Yep. So that's one way into this question and what you find. If you go from here in James and start going backwards, you'll find that all the trails lead you back to a particular word for a night or smear with oil. It's a Greek word, Creo, which when you talk about a person who has been poured or smeared with oil, the title of that figure is kristas, which is the name christ, or excuse me, the title christ.

And that is a Jewish Greek way of describing an ancient Israelite practice of pouring oil on certain people in places. And the Hebrew word for that is masach. And what you call someone who's had oil smeared or poured over them is masach'yach, from which we get the word masaya. Okay. Say this back. Yeah, yeah.

So say this back. Yeah. There's a word in Greek. Well, let's start with Hebrew. Oh, okay. I was going backwards. Yeah, you're going backwards. Okay, that's backwards.

Yeah. So James would have been using the word to annoyed Crio. He actually uses a synonym of it, a lafo. But it means the same. It means to put a thick dense oil liquid on someone. Okay. So to put oil on someone, there's a word in Greek. There's actually a couple words. A couple words in Greek. One is Crio. Yeah. And then if you are someone who has had that's done to you, you're a Christos. Yeah, Christos. And that's where we get the word Christ. So it's called Jesus, the Christ is say Jesus, the one who's been anointed with oil. Correct. Jesus, the anointed one. Jesus, the anointed one. And anointed one, I don't have a lot of categories for, but when you say Messiah, that's another very familiar term.

And you're saying that in Hebrew, the same idea has the Hebrew word Mishyach, which we get the word Mishyach. So to be the anointed one in Hebrew is to be the Mishyach. The anointed one in Greek is to be the anointed one and Hebrews to be the Mishyach, the anointed one in Greek is to be the Christos. Either way, it's the same idea. The same idea, different vocabulary. Different vocabulary. The one anointed. And to be anointed or to be the anointed one means I'm someone who had oil poured on me specifically my head. Right. But I'm imagining for a very specific purpose.

Yeah, oh yeah, it's fully loaded with tons of symbolism. Yeah, which we'll talk about. Yeah. Would you, I mean, if you were walking down the street and someone spilled some oil on you on accident, you'd be like, oh, I'm shiocked. No, I'm a cuck. That's a good question.

Yeah, you probably would probably use the word poor or spill there. Okay. So, Krio and Mashach, these verbs, Krio, Greek, Mashach Hebrew, is referring to a ritual. So this is a sacred ritual. Okay. So, which is like what happened to me in that church gathering or what the oil was being sold for in your Christian book store? It's for a special ritual.

It's not just for like, well, I could use it to put on someone's head or I could use it to like fry up some... Mishiyak your fries. You had to do something like that, yeah. It's not that. It's specific oil used for a sacred ritual purpose, for things that are connected to the presence of God in some way. Okay.

I'm as very general. It has way more specific symbolism that we're going to explore. So we are going to release a video exploring this theme in the storyline of the Bible. And we've actually already written the script for that video. And real time, that's what we're talking right now, it's in production. And so what we're doing now, that we've written the script, is kind of taking what we learned. And then some of the notes that I put together and kind of ssessioning our way through them. That's the mission.

So one way to start this conversation is just to start with the unique and odd practice once you step back and think of it of pouring oil on someone's head as something that's like cosmically full of meaning. You know, like, okay, but what's that for? Another way to get at this is to notice that the name of Jesus, the name that he's typically known

or called by actually has this word anointed one built into it. And it's a title, not a name. Well, exactly, exactly. So Jesus Christ. Jesus the Christ. Jesus Christ. Well, I'm just saying the way people normally say his name is Jesus Christ. Jesus the Christ. Jesus Christ. Well, I'm just saying the way people normally say his name is Jesus Christ. Only when you're cussing. What? No, I follow Jesus Christ. Do you see that? I usually say I follow Jesus. Yeah. But Jesus Christ. I feel like I only hear the full thing. This is fascinating. This is fascinating. Okay, isn't that wild?

It's what, yeah. No, but is that what you hear when you read the New Testament? Oh, no. First Corinthians chapter 1, verse 1, Paul called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Do you hear the cuss word? No. No.

So when you're reading in the Bible, it doesn't feel like the cuss word phrase, but you're just saying in normal speech, if you say I follow Jesus, if I say I follow Jesus Christ, that sounds funny. It does sound a little odd, because I mostly hear I follow Jesus. But when you just say Jesus Christ. It just sounds like a kind. Yeah, that's a, yeah, there's a whole thing to meditate on right there. So what's interesting about the phrase Jesus Christ is the way that it sounds in English is as the way that an English or Western culture

we structure personal names, which is your given name, and then your family name. And usually we don't include the middle name. I call you John Collins. And you call me Tim Mackey. Actually, I call you John. All right. If I'm talking to someone else about you, I'll clarify John Collins. So what's interesting is that I think in the run of the middle American culture and because this name has become a cuss word or a cuss phrase, that it's widely assumed that Christ is just like Jesus' last name, like his family name, born to Joseph Christ. Joseph is a Merry Christ. Joseph is a Merry Christ, had a son, Joseph Christ. Joseph Mary Christ. Joseph Mary Christ?

At a son, Jesus Christ. And I think most people, after they follow Jesus or while figure out that that's not the case, I don't know when that became particularly clear to me, but it was connected with me coming to understand the fact that Christ was not a name, that it's a title. So that's just, that's the main point of this whole last 10 minutes of conversation. Christ is not a name that it's a title. So that's just, that's the main point of this whole last

10 minutes of conversation. Christ is not a name. It's a title. And it's a title connected to an ancient practice, yes, pouring oil on someone. Yep. For a very specific meaning. You got it. So what's interesting is here, we'll just sample the way the phrase gets used in the New Testament. So let's just turn to the Gospel of Mark chapter 1 reads the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ the Son of God. So it's the Greek words Jesus Jesus name and Greek and Christ else Jesus Messiah. So what's interesting is in the New Testament, predominantly when the phrase Jesus Christ is used, the word thah is not put in front of Christ.

Jesus the Christ, or it happens occasionally, but because of the lack of the word thah, it's very easy to feel like they're using it as a family name. But you get other instances, like later on in Mark, where Jesus asks his disciples, like who do people say that I am? And they say, ah, you're someone who say John the Baptist or Elijah. And Jesus says, but who do you all say that I am?

And Peter answers, you are the Christ. And there, in English, reflecting the fact that they're in Greek, the word tha is in front of it. So it's very clearly a title. So essentially, what I think what we need to do in our minds is supply that word tha mentally, every time you see the word. Because it always retained its nuance of meaning as a title, not a family name.

So, here's an interesting example. In John chapter 1, Jesus is cruising around Galilee, and he's started to recruit his crew, his little discipleship crew. And when he gets to Andrew, he goes and finds his brother, Simon, and says, we have found the Messiah. And then John interrupts the story. And he whispers in your ear, the narrator speaking in your ear and says, translated into Greek, it means crystals. So what's the word he uses first? Yeah, so when you quote Simon's speech, he spells the Hebrew word, Machiach with Greek letters.

Oh, so he transliterates. He transliterates Machiach into Greek letters, messias. And then John, which is in your ear, says, yeah, and that translated into Greek means crystals. So the biblical authors have not forgotten that this is a title. And I guess that's maybe that's not that big of a deal to make the point. But mentally for me, I just started saying Jesus Messiah to because in English it just sounds like a last name.

Just the way it works Christ does. Yeah, in my- But Messiah doesn't. Messiah doesn't. So I've gotten into the habit of just, when I see the phrase Jesus Christ, or Jesus Christos, just say, Jesus, Macias, or Jesus Messiah,

which just begs the question of, well, so what does that mean? And it reminds you of what it means. Yeah, what does that mean to be the Messiah? What does it mean? So first, we're going to explore its meaning in multiple steps of the conversation. But maybe let's get out of this way. Let's do a quick survey of who or what gets oil poured on them or it in the storyline of the Bible. And it's actually a fairly limited number of people and places and just working through that list itself can I think get us closer.

Let's take an inductive approach before we dial in or give a dictionary definition. Let's just see if we can begin to track with the meaning based on who or what gets anointed. So now a little tour of people who get oil poured on their head in the storyline the Bible. You probably know the first one, because it's fairly common. If you're an average follower of Jesus, you've gone to church gatherings for a while and heard the Bible taught. You probably know of one main category of people. Oh, priests. Oh, oh, interesting.

Yes, yes, yes to priests. Not very many. But it is, yeah, it is mentioned. Okay. Wait, the first group of people in the Bible. The first group of people in the Bible. The first group of people in the Bible. I know I did with the oil. Our priests. That's right.

Yeah, that's right. And the most numerous group of people who get oil poured in the head in the Bible would be kings. These kings. Yeah, that's right. And then maybe one time, a prophet. So let's start with priests since they come first. So in, when Moses is up on Mount Sinai in the midst of the lightning storm, seeing the

heavenly temple and getting the blueprints for the tabernacle, there's a whole two-hole chapters about the humans and the dress that they're going to have who are going to work in and around this sacred tabernacle when it's finally built on the land down below. And by humans you mean the priests. The priests, exactly right. The people who are going to work in tabernacle and how they're supposed to dress. That's part of the the vision that Moses is getting outside. You got it.

Yep. Exodus chapter 29 is all about the special clothes, the shiny, glimmering, brilliant, colorful clothes that Aaron's going to wear. It's Moses' brother. And he gets a special garment, this golden chest piece with all these jewels and shoulder pieces and tassels and robes. Then, chapter 29, verse 6, you will set a turban on his head and put a holy crown on the turban, and you shall take the oil of anointing, and you shall pour it out on his head, and

anoint him. Notice the pouring and and anoint him. Notice the pouring and the anointing are separate steps. So you pour, and then as you pour, there's like a smearing, or a... Oh. You're waving your hand at me. Yeah, I am.

If I pour it oil from my vantage point, yeah, I'm pouring oil on you. And then I'm... And then you're rubbing it in. Yeah, I'm rubbing, I'm kind of wiping it on your forehead. Okay. Yeah, that's the idea. And then you shall bring his sons and their robes and do the same to them. So this is the first figure in the Bible who gets called that. And then when the ritual actually happens is in Leviticus chapter, when Moses does all of this.

Oh, interestingly, he sprinkles the oil on seven times and denotes the altar. We'll talk about that in a minute. And then he puts some of that oil on Aaron's head. So he's the first one. And after that point, he's called the Masj and after that point he's called the Machia. Aaron is. An anointed one. He's called by two titles, the priest, or the high priest,

Al-Kohen-Aga-Dol, the great priest, or the anointed one. So that's the priest. Next are kings. And so priests come first in the storyline of Israel, and then it's only much later in the story. Joshua leads them into the land of Canaan. They establish themselves. They are constantly getting defeated by the nation, hostile nations around them, and so God raises up delivers for them by empowering them with a spirit. delivers for them by empowering them with the Spirit. But it's after many cycles of this that eventually the people come to their prophetic leader at the time, Samuel, and say, listen, we want a king. And so the first king that Israel chooses as a guy named Saul, and what we're told is that Samuel, the prophet, actually here, will speed the story.

So, one day before Saul's arriving, the Lord had revealed to Samuel this, saying, about this time tomorrow, I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin and you shall, Mashaach, him, to become a leader. And numeric and standard has prints. Whenever I see the word prints anywhere, I just think of medieval prints as wearing those like poofy sleeve type shirts and with like feathers in there. You know what I'm saying?

What's the, why is it translated prints here in New N.A. Well, it's the word for chieftain or leader, English standard version. Yeah. Why wouldn't it be king? I mean, this is Saul becoming king. Yeah, yeah, and he will. Okay. After he undergoes this, but he would not guide, which is a more general title, New American Standard,

anoint him as ruler, that's NIV. Yeah, it's interesting, interesting word, chief, leader, but you're right, the word prince very specifically means son of the king, at least for us is in English, yeah, and that's not what this word means in Hebrew. That's why it's a bit misleading. Yeah, okay. So that's an aside, you kind of paused on that word. That's right. So you shall annoying him to become a leader over my people Israel, and he will deliver. So here it's God setting aside one out of the many, and marking them as a deliverer. It's coronation. Yeah, that's right. So Samuel does, he gets a flask of oil out the next day and he pours it on his head, he kissed him and said,

hasn't Yahweh anointed you to be a ruler over his inheritance? So that's Saul. After Saul blows his chance at being his's leader, that's a whole story. David is the next king who's anointed. And what's interesting about the story of David is when he gets anointed, an additional thing happens. So, in 1 Samuel 16, verse 13, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David in the middle of his brothers, who they thought they were going to get oil poured on their heads.

Yeah, one of them, David's the youngest of all brothers. Yep. And when the oil gets poured on his head, the spirit of Yahweh rushed mightily upon him from that day onward. So that's very significant connection, as we're going to see, for the meaning of this ritual. The connection of oil and spirit. Oil and spirit. Yeah, liquid and spirit.

Because as liquid is clearly a symbol of something, and what is it a symbol of? And here in the story of David, it's associated some way in the coming down of the oil on his head is associated with the coming upon him by the Spirit. The other king who's mentioned, who gets anointed before they become king, officiallyially, as a king named Jehu, he was a king up in the Northern tribes, we've never talked about Jehu ever, I think in the history of the project. Jehu? Jehu.

So these Saul, David, and Jehu get anointed before they publicly become king. There are three kings that get anointed by prophets at their like inaugural ceremonies, that's Solomon, then two kings from the line of David later on, Joe Ash and Jehoaz, and book a second king. And what's interesting is all three of the kings that get anointed before they become king publicly, it's all by prophets who were specifically instructed

by Yahweh to go do it. So it's like a secret anointing or a little, maybe a private anointing. Before the public one, which is more of the coronation. Exactly. Yeah. So, at least we can put together, somehow this anointing is God's way of setting apart or marking someone. And what priests do is they represent the presence of God to people, and they represent people to God, so they're like mediating figures between the divine and the human.

And kings are also portrayed in a similar role in the Bible. We might think of kings, just mainly of rulers, but in the biblical story, they're very much mediators between God and the people, but not in the sacred space, but more out in the day-to-day affairs of leading the people. So God will hold the kings accountable for what the people do, and the people often hold the king accountable for what he's doing in relationship to God.

So there's a commonality. We begin to kind of isolate the profile. The commonality being that anointing someone is setting them apart as a leader to... There's a representative of some kind. They represent the people. Well, in a leadership capacity. I guess the king is more of a leader than a priest.

Is that why you're... Just a different kind of leader. Different kind of leader. Yeah, I mean, I guess the high priest is a leader in the tabernacle or temple. So, you're right, you're a leader. But the reason why their leadership role matters and is not just like an operations role, is there some representative function they play?

Because there's other elders and tribal chieftains or whatever. Yeah, that's right. There are leaders too. Yeah, that's right. But the priest and the king represent all of the people to God in a unique way. Yeah, represent. What do you mean by the word represent?

Represent. Oh, I get it. So there's a group of people that's in a covenant relationship with in the storyline of the Bible, and all of those people stand in a covenant obligation, and they've said yes to the terms of the covenant. These are the laws of the Torah and so on. But the primary mediator representative figure of the people in the life and function of Israel and the story of the Bible is two key figures and then a third, we'll talk about in a second, and one of them is the king.

So God will hold the king accountable for what the king allows or doesn't allow the people to do. God will hold the priest accountable as a representative of all of the people. And this is explored in the Torah where there are in Numbers chapter 18 and 19 where if the people defile the land or do something terrible or break the terms of the covenant, God will hold the high priest accountable in his household. That's representative. Okay. There's an accountability. Yeah.

There's also a, almost like a delegation of like, instead of God talking to everyone, you can just go directly to that person. God will address the king or the priest when he wants to address the people. So a representative role. So there's a third category of people that's associated with anointing, but it's not very common, and that's profits. So there's actually only one time that a profit is supposed to be anointed to mark the beginning of his career as a prophet

when Elijah is about to retire, though not fully, but he's going to appoint a successor. God tells him, go find this young guy, Alisha, and anoint him. And it's not clear that he ever did that. He does go meet Alisha, but it's never said whether he pours oil on his head or not, so that's interesting. But I just just complete that list, priests, kings, and prophets. And all of these figures are figures who represent some part of Yahweh to the people, whether the priest is God's presence, the king represents God's authority and rule, and prophets represent God's purpose and word.

They speak the word of God to the people. So all of them are in this role to be an anointed one, is to be somebody who brings what is from God and is heavenly realm and mediating it to people here on the land. And then vice versa, that an anointed one is somebody who represents the people on the land before God and his heavenly realm in some way. So that's where we're at so far. Does that feel fairly clear or intuitive?

It's a bridge. Yeah, a bridge. But it's a person bridging together the divine and the human. And the human. Or another way to say that is they are bridges between heaven and earth. Or a gate. A gate between heaven and earth. And where this really began to take on significance for me, I feel like my light bulb moment happened a number of years ago when I paid attention to the handful of places that get anointed with oil in the Bible. Because typically, when you think of the anointed one,

it refers to a person, but to really get the meaning of what anointing means, you have to look at these places. The first practice of anointing in the Bible happens not to a person, but to a pile of rocks. Or actually to one big rock, you know, among some other rocks. And this is a story of Jacob, who was fleeing from his brother and his father in the book of Genesis, chapter 28. It's a fascinating, fascinating story. Shall we read it? Oh yeah. I'm Genesis 28 verse 10. And Jacob went out from Baer Shiva and he went to Haran and he encountered the place. The place.

And he stayed the night there because the sun had gone down. And so he took some stones of the place and he set his head rest and he lay down in that place. It's very clearly like... Something about the place. Something about this place, yeah. Is that a normal thing? Do you just stone, sleep on? Mm-hmm.

Sounds uncomfortable. You know, it does, but, you know, in Egypt, have you ever seen these ancient Egyptian headrests? Oh man, they're this little pillar. And then it's a big. Oh, it cups your head? Yeah, it's a big U-shaped thing. And it's exactly sized,

so that if you're sleeping on your side, your head doesn't go down, doesn't go up. It's just straight. And, yeah, I've actually seen some modern pillow makers trying to recreate versions of this, because I think it actually is really good for your client. It's not cushion. I feel like you just need a little cushion there.

I like the idea of the structure. It's a saddle cushion. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so there you go. So, the fact that it's a stone for the headrest is also of symbolic importance for the. Because the stone's about to get anointed. Yeah, you'll see.

You'll see. So, now he's sleeping. His, you know, state of consciousness is made more vulnerable to perceiving. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes ramp or stairway, but a stair, stair ramp. There's some driveways are like this, you know, like it has the ramp for the tires, but in the middle of stairs to walk. Oh yeah, I've seen this. That's on us as imagine. I don't know.

Okay. Yeah. Su-Lam, people debate these things if it's actually a proper stairway or a ramp, but it amounts to the same thing. Now, it's head was in the skies. The head of this ramp on the land was up in the skies. Now, that's not the first time you've heard about something with its head up in the skies before. We're talking about Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel. Tower of Babel, Lon. Babel, Lon.

Yeah. They built the structure and its head within the skies. They built a city with a tower to make a name for themselves with its head in the skies. Yeah, this is exact same phrase. Okay. Yeah. So what the people of Babylon were striving to build? Hmm. Which was a gateway to heaven? A gateway to heaven. And in fact,

the word Babel or Babelon in the Semitic language in Akkadian means the gate of the gods. Bob Eel means gate of the gods. And Akkadian. Yeah, which is a cousin language. It's just a medical language. Cousin-Semitic language to, yeah, Ancient Hebrew. So just tuck that thought away. The Eel instead of L. Yeah, that's right. It's for God. Bob Eel. Bob Eel, the gate of the gods.

So what Jacob sees is a ramp going up into the skies, set on the land, but its head is up in the skies. And look, messengers of Elohim, God, we're going up and going down upon it. There's traffic between heaven and earth on this ramp. And look, Yahweh was standing on it. And then Yahweh has this long speech where he says to Jacob, repeating the promises that he made to Abraham and then to Isaac, his father, saying, the land that you were lying on, I will give it to you and to your descendants. And your descendants will be like the dust of the land you're going to break out to the

west, the east, the north, the south, and in you, all the families of the ground are going to find blessing, and also in your seat. Okay, that's classic promise to Abraham. Okay. I am going to go with you. I'll keep you wherever you go. I'll return you back to this ground. I will not abandon you until I've done what I've spoken to you. Bring you back to this ground. I will not abandon you until I've done what I've spoken to you.

Bring you back to this spot. Bring you back to this ground. Yeah. It's ground. Yeah. Like the odd amount. The land. Can I kill you? Oh, no, no, no. Jacob's fleeing and he's about to leave his homeland, the land of his family. Okay. But he's still technically in it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, he's on the border. Okay, but he's still technically in it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, he's on the border. He's on the border. Yeah, I see.

Yeah. He's running north, way from his brother. So Jacob woke up from his sleep and he said, surely Yahweh is in this place and I had no clue. This place. I didn't know it. This place. And Jacob was afraid and he said,

how terrifying is this place. And Jacob was afraid and he said, how terrifying is this place? This is none other than the house of Elohim. This is the gate of the skies. He found the secret temple. Yes, or it found him. Yeah. So the phrase house of Elohim is bait Elohim. He's going to call the name of this place bait L or Bethel Bethel L is short for Elohim. So house of God So he gets up in the morning and he took that stone that he used for a headrest and he said it up right now It's a pillar and he poured olive oil on its head, and he called its name Bethel House of L, and formerly the name of the place in the beginning was Almond Tree

or Luz. And then he makes a vow saying, if God will protect me, then I'm come back here and the stone that I have placed as a pillar, it will become the house of Elohim, and I will give to God a tenth of anything he gives to me. That's the story. Lose a city? Yeah, apparently it's in proximity to a... A city called Lose. A walled enclosure called Lose, which means almond tree. So everything in the

stories about the place. Yeah, the place. It's a place he doesn't recognize what its true significance is, and it's only when he falls asleep that he's open to see what's there and what he sees is that the portal between heaven and earth. And so his response is to poor oil, to unites it with oil. So surely this story is actually foundational for helping us understand the meaning of this simple, this ritual practice. Yeah. What we could deduce is that to poor oil on an object that's marking a place as I say this place is a bridge between heaven and earth. There's a connection here between heaven and earth. So anointed is to signify that place is connection to the divine. Now the place is in in some way, maybe. I mean, there's a stairway, so like,

Angelic beings got himself, there's access. Yep, so in some sense, the place is a mediator of the divine. Yeah, and specifically, he took a stone from the place. He used it as his head, rest. Then he has a dream about a ramp being set on the land with its head up in the skies. So his head is now on the ground. And he's dreaming of a ramp right there. On that rock, his head's on the rock, then the rock becomes a stairway leading up.

So the rock becomes the stairway? Well, he had a dream. His head is on this rock. Yeah, yeah, you can imagine that. And then in his head, he's all of a sudden seeing a dream. There's some connection between the rock, his head, the ramp, and its head. Got it. Up in the skies. And then when he says,

I'm going to take the rock that I use for a headrest and set it up as a pillar, then the thing on which his head rested, he turns upright, pointing up to the sky. And this was very common. The Hebrew word is Matséva for pillar. And these ritual stone pillars were very common. In fact, there are many that still exist today from the period of ancient Israel. Okay. That you can go to Israel and go see ancient temples and there'll be these Mazevot or Mazeva. Then it's not even that tall, it's maybe like 16 and 18 inches tall, like a rock. And often archaeologists will find rocks like this tipped over, but usually they'll have some sort of little ritual circle

of rocks placed around them. And let's say a wall collapsed and it got buried. And then they dig it up and they're like, oh, Matsuiva. So the rock that becomes the headrest becomes the ramp with its head in the skies become symbolized by the Rock for the headrest that he turns upright into a pillar And he poor he's anointing is

The stairway. Mm-hmm is what you're saying you connect all those ideas. Yeah, and he poured olive oil on its head On the head of the stairway on the head of the stone, which is a symbol of the stairway. Yeah, and he poured olive oil on its head on the head of the stairway on the head of the stone Which is the symbol of the stairway. Yeah, yeah, yeah head was in the skies Mm-hmm. Huh is there an idea then that The role of a king or a priest in the prophet is for their head to be in the sky Well, I think It just in this story, things being on the ground or things being low and things being high. Heaven and Earth, high and low. To be able to mediate between

heaven and earth, your feet are on the ground, but in some way your mind needs to be connected to the divine. Yeah. So if pouring oil on a place marks it as a portal with its feet on the ground, or in this case his head on the ground, but its head up in the sky, that becomes this really powerful narrative image of what is the masjihach, what is a person who is anointed. They must in some way play a similar role to this stone or this ramp that they are a person set aside in ritual spaces to be portals between heaven and earth. And we go back, think about the king, mediates God's heavenly rule here on earth. That's how humans are presented in page 1 of Genesis as images of God. So God's rules in heaven above, and he installs earthly rulers on the land below. Now we're not told, well, in the next conversation we'll go to the Garden of Eden story, because I do think there's an

annoying thing there that if you have eyes to see it, it's all over. Just the word is not used in the Garden of Eden story, but humans are portrayed as the archetypal anointed ones as the earthly representatives of God's heavenly rule. And priests are presented in the same way in the sacred space, and then prophets are a portal for the Word of God to come to earth. So it's very connected to the idea of being the image of God. Yeah, the image of God is a related idea for talking about someone as a representation of the divine. Yeah. Are they like adjacent ideas or are they like pretty much synonyms?

Well, to be the anointed one means you've had this ritual. We've got the oil placed on your head. And that doesn't happen with Adam and Eve. So what's right about this story is that it shows us the meaning of this practice, that it marks a person or a place as a portal between heaven and earth. And with the kings, the priests and the prophets, you get this image of a portal of God's rule for the king, a portal of God's presence through the priest, a portal for God's word and purpose through the prophet.

All those heavenly realities are brought to earth, so to speak through this one who's marked by the oil. In the same way that this place and this rock becomes a portal between heaven and earth, and that's what this whole story is about was Jacob. So that raises all these other questions about like what does that mean? To be a portal between heaven and earth? Yeah. Like what does that really mean? Yeah. I don't know if does that really mean? Yeah. I don't know if that's the question that comes to you.

Yeah, I mean, we've talked a lot about being the image of God. And so I guess I'm just assuming it means that, but instead of saying, because generally when we say, you're the image of God, we're talking about everyone. Everyone's role in representing God. Oh, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. Where to be an anointed one is more of a specific task of representing everyone's image of God.

Set apart, like the high priest, you know, and the kings are set apart from the many. Right. The question that lingers in my mind is, how is this connected to what James is telling church to do? When you experience, when you are seven and you are sick, like that had nothing to do with making you some sort of representative on behalf of them.

It was because you were sick and they wanted God's healing. That's right. So there's gotta be some sort of connection, and I don't fully appreciate it. Yeah, so where we'll go next? In the next conversation is about the symbolism of oil, specifically, and this oil of anointing, and there's a recipe for it in the book of Exodus. And the recipe itself has all kinds of important hyperlinks to the Garden of Eden, and this is all about the Garden of Eden and the Garden plants, and oil becomes a symbol of the

abundant restorative heavenly life of God, the infinite, inexhaustible life and power of God in the heavens infinite, inexhaustible life and power of God in the heavens that can touch down here on earth through these representative people who get the oil poured on them. And so somehow the oil becomes itself the symbol of the liquid life, liquid life of God that touches down here on earth. So this is what we'll explore. In the next steps of the conversation, but just to let the cat out of the bag, notice how oil and prayer are connected in that passage in James that we looked at. And so what is prayer? Prayer is asking for the release of God's heavenly purpose and power and life here on earth in specific people and moments. And so it's as if the oil and the prayer for healing or the God's power for healing are linked to symbols of each other.

So I think it is connected. You know, those people around me were praying that God's healing power would touch down on my spinal cord. And then I was able to walk months before any of the doctors thought I would be able to. It's just interesting, interesting turn of events. Yeah. Okay, well, we'll probably get to it later then, but there seems to be a step that happens between, because it seems like this ritual of anointing was specific for leaders. And then a few cases of places. Yeah, that's right.

And then at some point, the early Christians were like, let's actually use this for more than just appointing leaders. Yeah, totally. And how did that happen? And why? And it sounds like the next part, though, is to talk about the significance of what oil is. Yeah. Okay.

Yep. Oh yeah, dude. Because remember what Jesus' followers eventually come to be called in the book of Acts. They're called Nazarens, first in Jerusalem, and followers of the way. But once the followers of Jesus spread out and make the city of Antioch, their home base is in the book of Acts, they start being called Christianos, anointed ones, plural. So how is it that this practice of marking just one out of thousands comes to be democratized, to refer to everybody in a whole group of people,

like what's going on with that. So these are the mysteries that we will ponder as we go on. Okay. Well hey this is Dan, come with the podcast scene and I'm back with another employee outro. And in the studio today is a friend of mine. You want to introduce yourself? Yeah, my name is Anna and I live here in Portland, Oregon and I work on the global team. Have Bible Project. Well tell me in a little bit about what your day today is. Yeah, so I am the Spanish product manager.

So everything that we do for Bible Projects Spanish. I spend your own, I help with that. So we kind of work as a squad right now. So there's someone that's on the marketing team, someone that's on strategic relationships, someone that's on web, and my job is to kind of get everyone together to collaborate and coordinate and to make sure we're all on the same page.

And outside of the Bible project English channels, Spanish is the second largest, right? Yeah, we have over 800,000 subscribers on YouTube. Wow, so that was exciting. You'll be at a million here. We're hoping, yeah, maybe end of the year. Really? Yeah, that's kind of the projection. And this 23, a million on subs. Yeah, so it would be pretty cool.

Wow, tell me a little bit about your life outside of work. Outside of work, I have a dog. Okay, good. I was about to be a few. She doesn't mention this dog. I'm about to just throw the mic. I bring my dog to work almost every single day. Her name's Scout. And she's a golden retriever.

I like running. I run along the Portland bridges a lot, which is really fun. Does Scott run with you? She does actually, yeah. Yeah, she's gotten pretty good. She's gotten a little bit faster. You used to have like toer from mine. Not exactly, but she used to just get really distracted, I think. Now she knows, like, hey, we're on a run. This is what we're doing. Would you like to read our outro? I would, yeah. Our credits. Today's show came from our podcast team, including producer Cooper Peltz, an associate producer, Lindsay Ponder.

Our lead editor is Dan Gummel. Additional editors are Tyler Bailey and Frank Garza. Tyler Bailey, aka Tyler the creator. Also, mix this episode. And Hannah Wu did our annotations for the Bible Project app. Bible Project is a crowdfunded nonprofit. Everything we make is free because of your generous support. Thank you so much for being part of this with us. you