3.85. All those who are
baptized in water receive a delightful perfume, whereas the One who baptizes,
it is he who has the perfumed oil. (Evagrius’s Kephalaia Gnostika: A
New Translation of the Unreformed Text from the Syriac [trans. Ilaria L. E.
Ramelli; Writings from the Greco-Roman World 38; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2015], 193)
The One who baptizes is Christ,
whose name, ܐܚܝܫܡ
(the Syriac equivalent of Greek Χριστός, “the anointed one”), has the same root
as ܐܚܫܡ, here
employed for “oil” (cf. Greek χρῖσμα). This oil is perfumed, and from its
perfume the baptized receive their own perfume. The oil is also referred to in
KG 3.43. Origen too used the Christ-oil-anoint wordplay to indicate that all
Christians are anointed by Christ with his perfumed oil. (Ibid., 193)
