Must We Use OLIVE OIL to Anoint the Sick?

No.

The Bible only mentions anointing with oil.  It never mentions what kind of oil.  So I suppose that crankcase oil would do, though I don’t recommend it.  Any oil you have will do.  Personally, I usually use either olive oil or cooking oil.  It’s just generic oil anyone can buy at a supermarket.  It isn’t a big deal to me.  It’s the prayer of faith that heals the sick person anyway, not the oil itself.  However, I have been given anointing oil as a gift with a convenient “ball-point” dispenser that seems to work well to avoid making an unnecessary mess.

My wife had 20% use of her lungs when she was in her twenties.  She needed a machine to stay alive for 6 years.  She was healed after she was anointed with oil by some Christian friends.  They didn’t have any olive oil handy, so they asked her if it was okay if they used lamp oil.  She said, “Yes, as long as you don’t light a match.”  She was healed and has had 100% use of her lungs ever since.  One doctor kept looking for scars because he was sure she had gotten a lung transplant.  I suppose she did, but it wasn’t done in a human operating room.  I’m glad that God didn’t nitpick over what kind of oil her friends used.

Actually, anointing her with lamp oil was entirely OK because the Greek word for oil in James 5:14-15 is elaion, which is actually used elsewhere in Scripture to refer to lamp oil, for example, in the parable of the wise and unwise virgins.  In other places, it obviously refers to edible oil or at least some kind of oil other than lamp oil, as you would not “pour in lamp oil and wine” to someone’s wounds if you were the Good Samaritan.  (Only a Bad Samaritan would pour lamp oil into wounds.)  If I had a better kind of oil than motor oil available, I’d use it.

I’ve seen ads for anointing oil that stress that it’s pure olive oil, as if that makes it work better.  I suppose by their logic that it should be extra virgin olive oil, as you would not want to use immoral olive oil on anyone.  And it should work better if it is from the Holy Land.  I’m not sure why that would be, but the ads emphasize that it’s from the Holy Land, so it must matter, right?  If you pursue this “logic,” you will insist that your extra virgin olive oil from the Holy Land have an all-important Certificate of Authenticity, which should state in no uncertain terms that the oil came from the Holy Land (Israel).  That way, you can have the greatest confidence when you apply it to sick people.  You will be happy, and so would a person who buys olive oil in bulk containers at a supermarket in Tel Aviv and resells them in little vials with Certificates of Authenticity that declare correctly that the oil came from Israel.  (The Certificate does not state whether in fact it even came from Israeli trees, as that is not a prerequisite to stating truthfully that the oil came from the Holy Land.)

Actually, I don’t know where the Israeli oil sellers get their oil, but regardless of what marketing you may see, it is not important to use olive oil or oil from any particular geographical location when you anoint the sick.  Use whatever oil you want and make sure that you minister in faith, which is what really counts.