Teks -- Mark 6:13 (NET)

6:13 They cast out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

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Robertson: Mar 6:13 - They cast out many demons and they anointed with oil

They cast out many demons and they anointed with oil ( exeballon kai ēleiphon elaiōi ).

Imperfect tenses, continued repetition. Alone in Mark. This is the only example in the N.T. of aleiphō elaiōi used in connection with healing save in Jam 5:14. In both cases it is possible that the use of oil (olive oil) as a medicine is the basis of the practice. See note on Luk 10:34 for pouring oil and wine upon the wounds. It was the best medicine of the ancients and was used internally and externally. It was employed often after bathing. The papyri give a number of examples of it. The only problem is whether aleiphō in Mark and James is used wholly in a ritualistic and ceremonial sense or partly as medicine and partly as a symbol of divine healing. The very word aleiphō can be translated rub or anoint without any ceremony. "Traces of a ritual use of the unction of the sick appear first among Gnostic practices of the second century"(Swete). We have today, as in the first century, God and medicine. God through nature does the real healing when we use medicine and the doctor.

Wesley: Mar 6:13 - They anointed with oil many that were sick

Which St. James gives as a general direction, Jam 5:14-15, adding those peremptory words, And the Lord shall heal him - He shall be restored to health: not by the natural efficacy of the oil, but by the supernatural blessing of God. And it seems this was the great standing means of healing, desperate diseases in the Christian Church, long before extreme unction was used or heard of, which bears scarce any resemblance to it; the former being used only as a means of health; the latter only when life is despaired of.

Clarke: Mar 6:13 - Anointed with oil many that were sick

Anointed with oil many that were sick - This is only spoken of here, and in Jam 5:14. This ceremony was in great use among the Jews; and in certain cases it might be profitable. But in the cases mentioned here, which were merely miraculous, it could avail no more of itself than the imposition of hands. It was used symbolically, as an emblem of that ease, comfort, and joy, which they prayed God to impart to the sick. For various examples of its use among the Jews, see Lightfoot and Wetstein on this place.

TSK: Mar 6:13 - cast // anointed

cast : Mar 6:7; Luk 10:17

anointed : Jam 5:14, Jam 5:15

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Poole: Mar 6:12-13 - Repent // And anointed with oil many that were sick

Ver. 12,13. They executed both the trusts which Christ had reposed in them, preaching the gospel, and by miraculous operations confirming the doctrine which they brought to be from heaven. John Baptist, and Christ, and the twelve all preached the same doctrine,

Repent that is, turn from your former sinful courses, which if men do not, Christ’ s coming will profit them nothing.

And anointed with oil many that were sick James directed this anointing with oil also in the name of the Lord. It is disputed amongst learned men whether this anointing with oil was the using of oil as a medicine, having a natural virtue, (for it is certain in that country there were oils that were of great natural force for healing), or only as sacramental and symbolical, signifying what they did was from that unction of the Spirit of Christ which they had received, not by their own power or virtue, and representing by anointing with oil, that is an excellent lenitive, the refreshing and recovery of the diseased. But it is not probable, considering that our Lord sent the disciples to confirm the doctrine of the gospel which they preached, that he should direct them in these operations to use means of a natural force and efficacy, which had at least much abated of the miracle; besides, James bids them anoint the sick with oil in the name of the Lord. So as they doubtless used oil as symbolical, testifying that what they did was not by their own power and virtue. Nor did the apostles always use this rite in healing. Peter and John used it not in their healing the lame man, Act 3:6 : In the name of Jesus Christ (say they) rise up and walk. He declareth the use of it, Act 3:16 , only to show, that Christ’ s name through faith in his name was that which made the lame man whole. So that it being both a free rite, which they sometimes used and sometimes not, and a rite annexed to miraculous operations, to declare the effect was from Christ, not from their power, in a miraculous and extraordinary, not in a natural and ordinary, way of operation, the necessity of the use of it still is very impertinently urged by some, and as impertinently quoted by others, to prove the lawfulness of ritual impositions.

Lightfoot: Mar 6:13 - Anointed with oil many that were sick

And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.   

[Anointed with oil many that were sick.] " The oil; therefore, was (saith the famous Beza) a symbol of that miraculous power, not a medicament whereby they cured diseases." But the Jews say, and that truly, such an anointing was physical, although it did not always obtain its end. But this anointing of the apostles ever obtained its end: "R. Simeon Ben Eliezer saith, 'R. Meir permitted the mingling of wine and oil, and to anoint the sick on the sabbath. But when he once was sick, and we would do the same to him, he permitted it not.' " This story is recited elsewhere; where for ' R. Simeon Ben Eliezer,' is ' R. Samuel Ben Eliezer.' Perhaps in the manuscript copy it was written with an abbreviation and thence came the ambiguity of the name.  

Let it be granted such anointing was medicinal, which cannot possibly be denied; and then there is nothing obscure in the words of Jam 5:14; "Let the elders of the church be called, and let the sick man be anointed by them, or by others present, that their prayers may be joined with the ordinary means."

Haydock: Mar 6:13 - With oil

It was usual for the Jews to prescribe oil as a proper thing to anoint the sick; but its virtue in the present instance, when used by the apostles, was not natural but supernatural, and was derived from him who sent them; because this unction always produced a certain and constant cure in those who were anointed. This miraculous gift of healing the sick with oil, which Christ conferred on his apostles, was a prelude or gradual preparation to the dignity to which he raised this unction, when he established it a perpetual rite in his holy Church. (Rutter) ---

With oil, &c. This anointing the sick, was at least a figure of the sacrament, which Christ was pleased to institute for the spiritual relief of persons in danger of death: and which is fully expressed by St. James, in his Catholic Epistle. Chap vi. The Council of Trent says this sacrament was instituted in St. Mark, and published in the Epistle of St. James. (Council of Trent, session xiv. canon 1.) (Witham)

Gill: Mar 6:13 - And they cast out many devils // and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them

And they cast out many devils,.... Which they had power given them to do; and this they did, in confirmation of their mission and doctrine, and for the benefit of miserable creatures, who were possessed by them; and to show their power over the devils, and as a prelude of what they were to be the instruments of, in casting Satan out of the souls of men, both Jews and Gentiles; and especially, in the ejection of him out of the Gentile world:

and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them. This they were doubtless directed to by Christ, as an outward sign of healing; but not as a medicine; otherwise there would have been no miracle in the cure: though it is certain, the Jews used anointing with oil medicinally in many cases, as the means of healing; but they did not always succeed, as the apostles did: on the day of atonement ^w,

"it was not lawful to "anoint" part of the body, as the whole body; but if a man was sick, or had ulcers on his head, he might anoint according to his usual way, and no notice was taken of it.''

Again ^x,

"a man may not anoint with wine, or vinegar, but he may anoint with oil: he that has a pain in his head, or has ulcers upon him, סך שמן, "he may anoint with oil", but he may not anoint with wine and vinegar: wine of the second tithe, which they mix, is forbidden to anoint with; oil of the second tithe, which they mix, is lawful to anoint with.''

And it is elsewhere said ^y, that

"R. Meir allowed of the mixing of oil and wine, לסוך לחולה, "to anoint the sick" on a sabbath; but when he was sick, and we sought to do so to him, he would not suffer us.''

But that oil was used by the apostles as a medicine for the healing of diseases, cannot well be thought; since oil, though it may be useful in some cases, it is not an universal medicine, which is proper to all; nor were the apostles instructed by Christ in the art of physic, but were possessed by him with extraordinary gifts, to cure the disorders of the body, for the confirmation of the Gospel, which they preached; and it is easy to observe, that healing the sick by anointing with oil, is joined with the extraordinary power of casting out devils; and it was the same power by which they performed the one, as the other; see Luk 9:1. Hence it appears, that this passage gives no countenance to the use of such a practice in our days; since these were apostles only, who used it, who were extraordinary persons, and whose office in the church was an extraordinary one, and is now ceased; and healing in this way, was by an extraordinary power bestowed upon them, which has ceased; and therefore the rite, or ceremony of anointing with oil, for such a purpose, should be of course discontinued; however, it cannot be supported by this instance, whatever countenance it may seem to have from Jam 5:14, for it must be owned, there is some difference in the passages: the persons that anointed here were apostles, there the elders of the church; the persons anointed there, were good people, the members of the church, but here any sort of persons, and chiefly, if not altogether unbelievers; the healing of them is ascribed to the prayer of faith in James, but here to the extraordinary power of the apostles, by anointing with oil; though it may be, the healing was equally miraculous in the one, as the other: but be this as it will, nothing can be concluded from hence, in favour of the sacrament of extreme unction, used by the Papists; who administer that to persons, just at the point of death, and that for the remission of their sins, and the saving of their souls; whereas oil was used by the apostles to sick persons, and for the recovery of their bodily health. But since these were extraordinary cures which they performed this way, why did they make use of oil at all, seeing the virtue of healing did not come from that, and they could as well have healed sicknesses without it, as with it? To which it may be replied, that they did not always make use of it; sometimes only words were expressed, sometimes only hands were laid on the sick, and sometimes the sick persons were healed by handkerchiefs and aprons taken from them; which show, that the "healing" virtue was not in the means, nor was it tied to any: moreover, this was only used as an outward sign of healing, and might have some spiritual significancy in it; it might show, that they were sent forth by Christ the anointed one, who is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows; it might be symbolical of the grace of the Spirit, which is often compared to oil, which they themselves were possessed of in a large measure, and which is communicated through the ministration of the Gospel; and it might be significative of the Gospel itself, which brings light and joy, health and comfort along with it, to the souls of men, which they were the happy messengers of.