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Against the Donatists
St Optatus of Milevis, tr. Vassall-Phillips, 1917
Book 4, In What Sense It Has Been Said: Let Not the Oil of the Sinner Anoint My Head
Also learn this, whose Word it is:
‘Let not the oil of the sinner anoint My Head.’1
For whose voice is this thou hast not understood? It is surely the voice of Christ, who had not yet been anointed, when He prayed that the oil of the sinner should not soil His Head. Thou hast said, without understanding, that David the Prophet feared the oil of the sinner.
The Psalmist had already been anointed by Samuel. There was then no reason why he should be anointed a second time. Consequently it is the voice of Christ, which says:
‘Let not the oil of the sinner anoint My Head.’
It is a prayer, not a command; the expression of a desire, not a precept. For, were it a command, He would have said:
‘The oil of the sinner shall not anoint My Head.’
It is therefore the Voice of the Son of God, even then fearing to meet the oil of the sinner, that is of any man whomsoever, for no man is without sin, but God alone. Accordingly His Son feared the oil of man, for it would have been shameful that God should be anointed by man. Accordingly He prays the Father that He should not be anointed by man, but by God the Father Himself. It is then the Son who asks; let us see whether the Father has granted the request.
This the Holy Spirit points out and makes clear in the forty-fourth Psalm, wherein He says to the Son Himself:
‘The Lord thy God shall anoint Thee with the oil of gladness differently2 from Thy fellows.’
His fellows had been the priests and kings of the Jews, each of whom was known to have been anointed by men. But, since it was right that the Son should be anointed by the Father----God by God----as the Son asked and the Spirit announced that it had been promised----this the Father fulfilled in the Jordan. For when the Son of God, our Saviour, came there, He was pointed out to John with these words3:
‘Behold the Lamb of God; He it is who taketh away the sins of the world.’4
He went down into the water, not that there was anything in God that could be cleansed, but the water had to come before the oil that was to come after, thus to commence and ordain and fulfil the Mysteries of Baptism.5
For when the waters went over Him, and He was held in the hands of John, the Mystery followed in due order, and the Father fulfilled that for which the Son had prayed, and the Holy Ghost had announced was to come. The Heaven was opened, as the Father anointed. Forthwith the spiritual oil descended in the likeness of a Dove, and sat upon His Head and flowed over Him. On this account He was first called Christ, when He was anointed by God the Father. And lest it might seem that the laying on of hands was lacking to Him, the Voice of God was heard, saying from the cloud:
‘This is My well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.6 Hear ye Him.’7
Here, therefore, we find the meaning of that which was written:
‘Let not the oil of the sinner anoint My Head.’
Learn, then, though late, my brother Parmenian, the nature of the truth, for now is the time for learning how to find it.8
Notes
- Ps. cxl, 6.
- aliter a consortibus tuis. (The Vulgate has ‘prae consortibus tuis,’) Ps. xliv, 8.
- Ad Ioannem ostensus est his verbis.
- John i, 29.
- In Confirmation: Cf. Tixeront (op. cit. ii, 314).
- de quo bene sensi.
- Matt. iii, 17; Mark i, 11; Luke ix, 35; 2 Pet. i, 17.
- ration em veritatis, f rater Parmeniane, vel sero, addisce, quoniam nunc tempus est invenire discendi. G reads tempus discendi invenisti ----evidently an emendation, but the rhythm is wrong, and the reading of the other MSS. gives good sense. Casaubon suggests the very violent and unnecessary change Nunc non tempus est iuvenile discendi.