Greek translation of James 5:14-16

[corrgc]

Hello fellow Christians!

This morning I heard Pastor Jack Graham in Dallas giving a sermon on James, chapter 5. Two of his points were surprising.

First he mentioned that there are 2 Greek words for the English word - anoint. One relates to ceremonial marking of the holy Spirit - such as the anointing of kings in the OT. The other is medicinal. In this verse the sick person is to be anointed with “medicinal” oils to heal a person’s illness.

Also he mentioned that the word “sick” in 5:14 is better translated as “suffering”, which would suggest spiritual, or emotional sickness rather than mere physical ailment.

Can anyone with knowledge of the Greek comment on the accuracy of his statements.

Thank You!

A friend in Christ,

Corrgc

 

[anawim]

corrgc:

Hello fellow Christians!

This morning I heard Pastor Jack Graham in Dallas giving a sermon on James, chapter 5. Two of his points were surprising.

First he mentioned that there are 2 Greek words for the English word - anoint. One relates to ceremonial marking of the holy Spirit - such as the anointing of kings in the OT. The other is medicinal. In this verse the sick person is to be anointed with “medicinal” oils to heal a person’s illness.

Also he mentioned that the word “sick” in 5:14 is better translated as “suffering”, which would suggest spiritual, or emotional sickness rather than mere physical ailment.

Can anyone with knowledge of the Greek comment on the accuracy of his statements.

Thank You!

A friend in Christ,

Corrgc

I can’t answer your first one about annointing, but on the second one, about being sick {as-then-eh’-o}, it means:

1. to be weak, feeble, to be without strength, powerless 2) to be weak in means, needy, poor 3) to be feeble, sick

No matter what language you deal with, there is always more than one definition for a word. We can’t know which definition the original author meant. We need to look at the context.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

Hi Corrgc, does his church have female elders? If not, shall male elders give women rub downs?

Many churches like his do not believe that women should be elders.

 

[Pug]

I think it is fair to comment that chrio is more like the King usage (like Samuel and picking out David) than the other word, aleipho. But I am unclear that aleipho is strictly medicinal. It is used in other contexts. You put oil on your skin after a bath or before a feast you put it on your head, you refrain from it during mourning, you put oil on dead people, stuff like that. It almost seems physical.

It is interesting to see that it is a word like the chrio one that is used when Jesus puts stuff on the blind guy’s eyes and sends him to wash in the pool of siloam. The crying woman with the hair is the aleipho kind.

I am not a Greek scholar, though, and cannot be relied upon. I’m just offering comments. Perhaps a comparison with the LXX would be helpful to you.