Food, fuel, medicine and anointing
Olives and olive oil
Oil runs through worship, hospitality and healing in Scripture.
Biblical permission← Food Guide
Where it appears in Scripture
Psalm 104:15; the good Samaritan pours oil and wine on wounds (Luke 10:34); James 5:14 anoints the sick with oil.
What Scripture says
- Oil is a provision that gladdens and sustains.
- Oil was used on wounds and in prayer for the sick.
What Scripture does NOT say
- Scripture never calls olive oil a cure or a cholesterol treatment.
- Anointing oil in James is connected to prayer, not to pharmacology.
Olive oil is well studied today as part of Mediterranean-style eating. This research can serve wise stewardship, while Scripture honours oil as provision and in prayer without attaching a health guarantee to it.