Thursday, January 27, 2022

Joseph Bickersteth Mayor (1828-1916) on the Gift of Healing and the Use/non-use of Oil in Early Christianity

  

In the church of Corinth (1 Cor. xii. 9) gifts of healing (χαρισματα ιαματων) are mentioned along with the other manifestations of the Spirit, but again nothing is said as to their mode of working. So too Irenaeus (ii. 32. 4) asserts that miraculous powers might still be witnessed in his day, αλλοι τους καμωοντας δια της των χειρων επιθεσεως ιωνται, but is silent as to the use of oil: Augustine in his long list of contemporary miracles (Civ. D. xxii. 8) only once mentions the use of oil. On the other hand Tertullian (ad Scap. 5) says Septimius Severus was cured with oil by the Christian Proculus; and in the Gospel of Nicodemus (c. 19) Seth, having asked for oil from the tree of life to heal his father Adam, is told that this is impossible, but that hereafter the Christ would come και αλειψει αυτον τω τοιουτω ελαιω και αναστησεται . . . και τοτε απο πασης νοσου ιαθησεται. We learn from Irenaeus (i. 31. 5, cf. August. Haeres. 16, Epiphan. Haeres. xxx. 2) that the Gnostic sects of the Heracleonites and Marcosians anointed the dying with the oil of water to protect them from hostile spirits in the other world. Chrysostom, Hom. 3 in Matt. (Migne Patrol. Gr. vol. 57, col. 384) magnifying the sanctity of the Church vessels generally, says those know how far our lamps surpass all others οιοι μετα πιστεως και ευκαιρως ελαιω χρισαμενοι νοσηματα ελυσαν, from which it is inferred that the oil for anointing the sick was taken from the lamps used in church, as is still the custom in the Greek Church . . .(Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James [3d ed.; 1910; repr., Alpha Editions, 2019], 170-71)