sick person is near death or needs prayer to prepare him for it. Furthermore the footnote

deliberately alters the word translated `elders' to `priests'. James uses presbuteros=elders

not sacerdotes=priests.

It is most significant that the usual word for priest hierens is never used in the N.T. for

Christian ministry, with the exception of the O.T. Jewish priesthood. This word is

reserved for Christ alone; and the former word is not used once in the New Testament.

Moreover we should note that it is elders (in the plural) that are sent for, not one man

who had so-called priestly functions. The application of oil would not be strange to a

Jew for in the Talmud it is mentioned as a curative agent.  In Isa. 1: 6 the prophet

laments that Israel's sick condition spiritually was like a body riddled with disease ". . . . .

putrifying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil"

(margin). We also have the parable of the good Samaritan who pours oil and wine into

the wounds of the man lying injured by the roadside (Luke 10: 34). But we must not

regard the oil as the sole agent of cure in James. Sometimes the Lord heals without any

intermediary means. Other times He uses them as He did when He made clay from saliva

and anointed the blind man's eyes.

What is important on this subject is to realize that good health and healing are a

distinctive feature of the earthly kingdom of the Lord when it is established. We all

know, (but sometimes forget), the tremendous blessing of good health, for how can the

experience of a full life be enjoyed without it?

This is why the Lord Jesus in His earthly ministry as a "Minister of the circumcision"

(Rom. 15: 8) constantly healed bodily ailments as well as spiritual ones and moreover

gave the 12 apostles the same gift. "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city

of the Samaritan enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And

as ye go preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the

lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils (demons) . . . . ." (Matt. 10: 5-8). In Mark's account

we are told that "they went out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast out

many devils (demons) and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them"

(Mark 6: 12, 13).

This power to heal miraculously continued right through the Acts. Peter healed and

so did Paul.  Even a handkerchief that had touched Paul's body healed at a distance

(Acts 19: 11, 12) and we find him healing in the last chapter of the book (28: 8, 9).

Certain believers were also given the gift of healing by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 12: 9).

After the Acts period however, there was a dramatic change. When Paul wrote to the

Philippians he expressed his great concern for the health of Epaphroditus for "he was sick

nigh unto death" (Phil. 2: 27) but the Apostle does not heal him and it is unthinkable that

if Paul still had the miraculous gift of healing, he would not have used it in the case of so

valued a friend and companion in labour (verse 25). In II Tim. 4: 20 he has to leave

Trophimus ill at Miletum and in the case of his beloved son in the faith, Timothy who

was frequently ill, all he could do was to prescribe a little wine (I Tim. 5: 23).