In Old Testament times it was customary for priests, prophets, and kings to be sanctified by their being anointed with oil. Anointing was still observed in Jesus' time, but it had for him an infinitely higher meaning than the ceremonial law would have ascribed to it.
In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 313), "The term Christ Jesus, or Jesus the Christ (to give the full and proper translation of the Greek), may be rendered 'Jesus the anointed,' Jesus the God-crowned or the divinely royal man, as it is said of him in the first chapter of Hebrews:—
Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee
With the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
