Kim Paffenroth, «Jesus as Anointed and Healing Son of David in the Gospel of Matthew», Vol. 80 (1999) 547-554

Matthew handles his material in order to relate Jesus’ anointing, healing, and his title "Son of David". Matthew does this in order to present Jesus as the uniquely anointed "Christ", the Son of David who has come to heal, and who is in that respect (and others), greater than his father David.

In this paper I will examine Jesus’ anointing and healing and their relation to his title Son of David in the Gospel of Matthew. As will be shown, these three aspects of Jesus’ ministry are of special importance to Matthew and he emphasizes and relates them so as to represent Jesus as the uniquely anointed "Christ", the Son of David who has come to heal².

1. Anointing

        First, a general examination of anointing in Matthew. In his redaction of Mark ³, Matthew has retained the story of Jesus’ anointing at Bethany (Matt 26,6-13//Mark 14,3-9). He has indeed followed Mark’s account closely⁴, agreeing with Mark that it is Jesus’ head that is anointed⁵, retaining the more explicitly royal motif that is typical in Matthew⁶. Elsewhere in the Gospel, he has omitted the other two references to anointing in Mark (Mark 6,13; 16,1), but he has also added one of his own (Matt 6,17). What are the effects of Matthew’s redaction? By his omission of Mark 6,13, "And they [the disciples] cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them"⁷, Matthew has removed any reference to the disciples’ anointing anyone. In Matthew’s Gospel, unlike Mark’s, no one besides Jesus is ever anointed. In his redaction of Mark 16,1, Matthew has also omitted any reference to the women intending to anoint Jesus’ body. Matthew 28,1 only states that they come to see Jesus’