Anointing
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The local New Testament index currently counts three occurrences of χρῖσμα (anointing), all in 1 John 2:20 and 2:27, but its rarity does not diminish its theological weight. John uses it to describe the Spirit-given endowment that every believer in Christ possesses — an anointing received from the Holy One that results in the knowledge of truth and the discernment of what is false.
Reader summary
Full entry for χρῖσμα (G5545) · Open the biblical lexicon
The local New Testament index currently counts three occurrences of χρῖσμα (anointing), all in 1 John 2:20 and 2:27, but its rarity does not diminish its theological weight. John uses it to describe the Spirit-given endowment that every believer in Christ possesses — an anointing received from the Holy One that results in the knowledge of truth and the.
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include anointing (2), [an] anointing (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 John 2:20. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 John (3).
The local New Testament index currently counts three occurrences of χρῖσμα (anointing), all in 1 John 2:20 and 2:27, but its rarity does not diminish its theological weight. John uses it to describe the Spirit-given endowment that every believer in Christ possesses — an anointing received from the Holy One that results in the knowledge of truth and the discernment of what is false.
The word is deliberately chosen: it places the believer in the line of the anointed ones — prophets, priests, and kings — and ultimately in the line of the Anointed One himself, the Christ (Χριστός, from χρίω, to anoint), whose name the same root forms. The context in 1 John 2 is a crisis of false teaching. Teachers have appeared within the community who deny that Jesus is the Christ (2:22) and who have gone out from the community (2:19).
John's response is not primarily to argue doctrine but to remind the community that they have a χρῖσμα — a Spirit-given anointing that enables them to know the truth. First John 2:20: 'You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.' The pronoun 'you' (plural) carries weight: this is not elite knowledge given to a few; it belongs to the whole community.
All of you know. The χρῖσμα is democratically distributed. First John 2:27 deepens the picture: 'the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.' The claim that believers 'do not need anyone to teach' requires careful handling.
John cannot mean this absolutely — he himself is teaching them in this letter. What he means is that the χρῖσμα is sufficient: the community does not need to import the false teachers' special gnosis because the Spirit-anointing already provides genuine knowledge. The anointing is not an alternative to teaching; it is the endowment that enables the community to receive true teaching and reject false teaching.
The OT background runs deep: anointing oil was poured on prophets, priests, and kings to mark their consecration for God's purposes. The anointing of these figures with oil was a visible sign of Spirit-endowment for their office. John's use of χρῖσμα connects every believer to that tradition: they are not merely receivers of teaching about the Anointed One; they are themselves anointed, consecrated, and Spirit-equipped for the knowledge and service of God.
The local New Testament index currently counts three occurrences of χρῖσμα, all in 1 John 2 (verses 20 and 27). Its rarity makes it a concentrated rather than distributed word — everything it carries is held in two closely related passages addressing a community under pressure from false teachers. The word draws on the rich OT tradition of anointing (prophets, priests, kings) and applies it to the whole believing community as their Spirit-endowment for discernment and faithfulness.
You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
The distributive claim: every member of the community ('all of you') has received the χρῖσμα and therefore knows the truth. The contrast is with the antichrists who have gone out (2:19) and the false teachers who claim superior knowledge. John's response is not an argument about doctrine first but a reminder about possession: they already have the anointing. Knowledge of truth is not restricted to the spiritually advanced; it belongs to the anointed community.
And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.
The abiding and teaching χρῖσμα: the anointing 'remains' (menei — the Johannine word for enduring, indwelling presence) and 'teaches' (didaskei). The Spirit's anointing is described as an active, ongoing instructor within the community. The phrase 'do not need anyone to teach you' must be read in context: John himself is teaching them; the point is that they do not need to accept the false teachers' alternative instruction, because the anointing itself is their sufficient guide.
The call at the end is 'remain in Him' — the χρῖσμα is not a replacement for the person of Christ but the endowment that keeps the community abiding in him.
And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.
The word 'genuine' (alēthes) applied to the anointing signals that there are counterfeit anointings — false claims to special knowledge or prophetic authority that the community is facing. John's test is not to question whether anointing exists but to identify which anointing is real: the one that teaches truth and leads to remaining in Christ, not the one that departs from the community and denies the Son.
You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
The source of the χρῖσμα is the Holy One — identified in context with Christ (2:1, 'Jesus Christ the righteous') and the Holy Spirit (the one who anoints). The phrase 'from the Holy One' grounds the anointing's authority in its divine origin. It is not a claim the community makes about itself; it is a gift they have received from outside themselves. This prevents both arrogance (we have this because of who we are) and doubt (do we actually have it?).
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. The actual anointing oil applied, not merely the act of anointing; conveys God's consecrating presence.
The actual anointing oil applied, not merely the act of anointing; conveys God's consecrating presence.
(χρίω), later form of χρῖμα (Æsch., al.), [in LXX for מִשְׁחָה and cogn. forms (Exo.29:7, al.) ;] an anointing, unction (the result of the action χρίειν; ICC, in l; but cf. Westc., in l, for the view that the oil, not the act, is meant): 1Jn.2:20 Jn 2:27.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
an anointing
Read versean anointing
Read versean anointing
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 2 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Representative Scripture witnesses for this entry: passage, original form, and sense in context.
χρῖσμα is built from this root:
Refers to the Spirit-given capacity to discern truth and remain anchored in apostolic teaching. 1 John 2:18-23
Refers to the Spirit’s ministry that confirms truth and enables discernment. 1 John 2:24-27
Believers are not left defenseless against deception; the Spirit equips them to remain grounded in the gospel.
Believers are sustained in truth not by intellectual ability alone but by the Spirit’s internal work.
Χρῖσμα is the NT's word for what the community of faith already has — a possession that most congregations underestimate because it is Spirit-given and invisible. First John's crisis was that sophisticated-sounding teachers had left the community and were claiming superior knowledge (what later became Gnosticism). The community was vulnerable to feeling that those teachers had something they lacked.
John's response is one of the most pastorally decisive moves in the NT: 'you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.' He does not argue against the false teachers directly in this moment. He reminds the community of what they possess. The preacher who handles χρῖσμα well will help congregations see that the Spirit's endowment for knowing and living truth is not the preserve of the theologically trained, the spiritually advanced, or the charismatically gifted.
It belongs to all who are in Christ. 'All of you know.' The democratic quality of the χρῖσμα — all of you — is not a claim about equal competence in exegesis or systematic theology. It is a claim about the Spirit's presence with the whole community as their teacher and guide. The pastoral application is both sobering (you are accountable for what you know) and reassuring (you do actually know — you have not been abandoned to doctrinal confusion in a difficult hour).
And the call the anointing produces is simply: remain in him. The χρῖσμα does not take the community beyond Christ into some higher knowledge; it keeps the community anchored to Christ.
1John.2.27
Χρῖσμα derives from χρίω (to anoint), which is also the root of Χριστός (Christ, the Anointed One) and χρισμα/chrism (anointing oil in later ecclesiastical use). Abbott-Smith notes that χρῖσμα can refer to the act of anointing or to the anointing substance (the oil), and that interpreters debate which meaning John intends. The most likely reading is that χρῖσμα names the result of the anointing — the endowment or equipment that the anointing produces — rather than the oil itself.
This is consistent with LXX usage (מִשְׁחָה, anointing oil or anointing act) and with the functional description in 1 John 2:27 (the anointing 'teaches'). The word stands in contrast to the false teachers' claims to superior gnosis: the χρῖσμα is not secret knowledge but the Spirit-given capacity to know and hold the truth that has been proclaimed from the beginning.
The OT practice of anointing — oil poured on the head of the one being consecrated — marked prophets (1 Kings 19:16), priests (Exodus 29:7), and kings (1 Samuel 16:13) as set apart for God's purposes and equipped by his Spirit. The anointing of the Spirit in OT expectation reached its apex in Isaiah 61:1-2, quoted by Jesus in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke 4:18): 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news.'
Jesus is the fulfillment of the anointed figures — prophet, priest, and king in one person. What 1 John adds is the extension of this anointing to the whole community: those who are in Christ, the Anointed One, share in his anointing by the Spirit. The χρῖσμα is not a second Pentecost or a second blessing for the elite; it is the Spirit's normal endowment of the whole believing community, completing the Joel 2:28-29 trajectory (sons and daughters, young and old — all prophesying) in the community that belongs to the Anointed One.
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