Olive
OLIVE
This is one of the earliest trees mentioned in Scripture, and has furnished, perhaps ever since he deluge the most universal emblem of peace, Gen 8:11 . It is always classed among the most valuable trees of Palestine, which is described as a land of oil olive, and honey, Deu 6:11 8:8 Hab 3:17 . No tree is more frequently mentioned in the Greek and Roman classics. By the Greeks it was dedicated to Minerva, and employed in crowning Jove, Apollo, and Hercules. The olive is never a very large or beautiful tree, and seldom exceeds thirty feet in height: its leaves are dark green on the upper surface, and of a silvery hue on the under, and generally grow in pairs. Its wood is hard, like that of box, and very close in the grain. It blossoms very profusely, and bears fruit every other year.The flower is at first yellow, but as it expands, it becomes whiter, leaving a yellow center. The fruit resembles a plum in shape and in color, being first green, then pale, and when ripe, black. It is gathered by shaking the boughs and by beating them with poles, Deu 24:20 Isa 17:6, and is sometimes plucked in an unripe state, put into some preserving liquid, and exported. It is principally valuable for the oil it produces, which is an important article of commerce in the east. A full-sized tree in full bearing vigor is said to produce a thousand pounds of oil, Jdg 9:8,9 2Ch 2:10 . The olive delights in a stony soil, and will thrive even on the sides and tops of rocky hills, where there is scarcely any earth; hence the expression “oil out of the flinty rock,” etc., Deu 32:13 Job 29:6 . It is an evergreen tree, and very longlived, an emblem of a fresh and enduring piety, Psa 52:8 . Around an old trunk young plants shoot up from the same root, to adorn the parent stock when living, and succeed it when dead; hence the allusion in describing the family of the just, Psa 128:3 . It is slow of growth, and no less slow to decay. The ancient trees now in Gethsemane are believed by many to have sprung from the roots of those, which witnessed the agony of our Lord. The “wild olive-tree” is smaller than the cultivated, and inferior in all its parts and products. A graft upon it, from a good tree, bore good fruit; while a graft from a “wild” olive upon a good tree, remains “wild” as before.Yet, “contrary to nature,” the sinner engrafted on Christ partakes of His nature and bears good fruit, 1Ch 11:13-26 .
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Olive
(, , )
The only passages in which the olive is referred to in the NT are Rom 11:17; Rom 11:24, Jam 3:12, Rev 11:4. (For Rom 11:17; Rom 11:24 see article Grafting.) For the proverb in Jam 3:12 -Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive berries?-cf. Seneca, Ep. 87, non nascitur ex malo bonum non magis quam ficus ex olea; see also Epict. Diss. ii. 20 and Plut. Mor. p. 472. A like simile is found in Mat 7:16; Mat 12:33. The reference to the two olive-trees in Rev 11:4 is after Zec 4:2 f. In the latter passage the is Israel, and the two olive-trees which feed it are probably the monarchy and the priesthood as represented by Zerubbabel and Joshua. The writer of Rev 11:4 has adapted the imagery of Zec 4:2 f. In Rev 1:12; Rev 1:20 he has likened the seven churches to seven golden . These are kept burning by the oil of the Spirit with which the true members of the Church are imbued (cf. Mat 25:4, Rom 11:17). These stand before the God of the earth (Rev 11:4). In Jam 5:14 reference is made to the early Christian custom of anointing the sick with oil ().
Of recent years olive-trees have been largely destroyed, chiefly with a view to avoiding taxation, but also in part for the supply of fire-wood. The extent to which the olive was cultivated in Palestine in ancient times may be gauged by the large number of olive-presses that are to be seen all over the country. Many of these presses were cut in the rock before houses were built upon it. They are often found in immediate association with Troglodyte caves, while a press was actually found inside one cave. In the earliest times the presses were of a simple character and generally consisted of a single circular or rectangular vat with one or two cup-holes in the floor. These appear both on the hill-sides and also on the rock-surface. The olive-presses of a later time show greater elaboration, and in Roman times or after, the receiving-vats were sometimes lined with Mosaic tesserae. The fruit was apparently crushed on the surface of the press with stones, rollers, or pestles, the juice being subsequently expressed by boards placed over the fruit and weighed down with weights. The juice thus extracted was collected in a receiving-vat of greater depth than the press itself. The receiving-vat was sometimes sunk in the press, while sometimes it lay outside, and communicated with it by a channel. The pressing-surface is nearly always square or rectangular, and never more than from 1 to 1 ft. deep; the receiving-vat is generally square but occasionally circular. There were often several receiving-vats to a single press. In the larger presses, the fruit was not crushed by the aid of movable hand-stones, but by a large, massive stone wheel rotated round a central staple by an ox or horse. One of these wheels that has been recovered has a diameter of 4 ft. 8 in. The rock in the press-surface was usually left bare, but the receiving-vat was often cemented.
But olive-presses of an entirely different character were also in use in all the Semitic periods. They consisted of movable slabs or boulders of stone. They are generally circular in shape and have a diameter of from 4 ft. 9 in. to 6 ft. 6 in. The rim within which the fruit was crushed is raised, the juice being collected in a cup hollowed out within the rim. Apart from the natural use of the olive as a fruit, it supplies the place of butter and is used for cooking. The oil is used for lamps as well as for anointing the body, while the soap of the country is made exclusively from it. The wood is used for cabinet-work. See also article Grafting.
Literature.-J. B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James3, 1913, pp. 125, 170 ff.; Sanday-Headlam, International Critical Commentary , Romans,51902, p. 326 ff.; H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John2, 1907, p. 135; W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, 3 vols., ed. 1881-86, passim; ed. 1910, pp. 31-36; J. C. Geikie, The Holy Land and the Bible, 1903, pp. 50-52, 74; H. B. Tristram, The Natural History of the Bible10, 1911, pp. 373, 377; Hastings Single-vol. Dictionary of the Bible , p. 667; Encyclopaedia Biblica iii. 3495-3496; Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) iii. 616; and especially R. A. S. Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer, 1912, ii. 48-67.
P. S. P. Handcock.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Olive
Olive. A fruit-bearing tree about six meters (20 feet) tall with a gnarled, twisted trunk, white flowers, and berries that ripen to a black color. The olive tree grew slowly and continued
to bear fruit after reaching a great age. Before it died, new branches sprouted from its roots.
The fruit was harvested by beating the boughs of the olive tree with a stick ( Deu 24:20), or by shaking the tree ( Isa 17:6). The ripe fruit was enjoyed fresh or the green fruit was often pickled or made into a relish.
The best oil was obtained from the green olive fruit. It was used as fuel for lamps ( Exo 27:20), as anointing oil ( Lev 2:1), as an article of commerce ( 1Ki 5:11), and for dressing wounds ( Luk 10:34).
Olive trees were cultivated in groves or orchards ( Exo 23:11; Jos 24:13). The most famous olive garden mentioned in the Bible is Gethsemane, meaning “oil press” ( Mat 26:36).
Fuente: Plants Animals Of Bible
Olive
(, za’yith, probably from , to be pleasant, said esp. of odors; or, as Gesenius supposes, from , to shine, from the gloss of the oil; Gr. , i.e. oil-tree. The Heb. name is essentially found in all the kindred languages-the Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopic, and Coptic; comp. the Spanish azeyte, oil).
The olive-tree is one of the chief vegetable products of Palestine, and an important source of that country’s wealth and prosperity throughout the Scripture period. It was cultivated in olive-gardens (called in Hebrew ), usually on high ground, and even on mountains (comp. Gen 8:11; Shaw, Travels, p. 293), preferring a dry and sandy soil (see Virgil, Georg. 2:180 sq.; Colum. v. 8; De Arbor. 17; Pliny, 17:3); yet it appears also in wet soil, and even grows under water (Theophr. Plant. 4:8; Pliny, 13:50). The species are widely distributed in the warmer temperate parts of the globe. The common olive (Oliva Eusropcea), a native of Syria and other Asiatic countries, and perhaps also of the south of Europe, although probably it is there rather naturalized than indigenous, is in its wild state a thorny shrub or small tree, but through cultivation becomes a tree of twenty to forty feet high, destitute of spines. It attains a prodigious age. The cultivated varieties are very numerous, differing in the breadth of the leaves, and in other characters. The general appearance of the trees is that of an apple-orchard, as to the trunk, and the willow as to the stems and leaves. The olive is of slow growth (Virgil, .Georg. 2:3). It never becomes a very large tree, though sometimes two or three stems rise from the same root, and reach from twenty to thirty feet high, with spreading branches (comp. Hos 14:7; Strabo, 16:769). The leaves are in pairs, lanceolate in shape, of a dull green on the upper, and hoary on the under surface (comp. Psalm 52:10; 128:3; Jer 11:16; Ovid, Metamorph. 8:295; Theophr. Plant. 1:15; Pliny, 16:33; Diod. Sic. 1:17). Hence in countries where the olive is extensively cultivated the scenery is of a dull character from this color of the foliage. The flowers, which are white, appear in little tufts between the leaves. The fruit is an elliptical drupe, at first of a green color, but gradually becoming purple, and even black, with a hard, stony kernel, and is remarkable from the outer fleshy part being that in which much oil is lodged, and not, as is usual, in the almond of the seed. In Palestine the olive blossoms in June (Anderson, Bible Light, p. 202). It ripens from August to September. The tree is usually propagated by slips, and it bears very abundantly, with comparatively little care (Pliny, 17:19; comp. Jer 11:16). As to the growth of the tree, it thrives. best. in warm and sunny situations. It is of a moderate spread, with a knotty, gnarled trunk, and a smooth ash-colored bark. Its look is singularly indicative of tenacious vigor; and this is the force of what is said in Scripture of its greenness, as emblematic of strength and prosperity. The leaves, too, are not deciduous. Those who see olives for the first time are occasionally disappointed by the dusty color of their foliage; but those who are familiar with them find an inexpressible chaim in the rippling changes of these slender gray-green leaves. Mr. Ruskin’s pages in the Stones of Venice (3:175-177) are not at all extravagant.
Of the olive-tree two varieties are particularly distinguished: the long- leafed, which is cultivated in the south of France and in Italy, and the broad-leafed in Spain, which has also much larger fruit than the former kind. On the wild olive-tree, as well as the practice of grafting, SEE OLIVE, WILD.
The olive is one of the earliest of the plants specifically mentioned in the Bible, the fig being the first Thus in Gen 8:11 the dove is described as bringing the olive-branch to Noah. How far this early incident may have suggested the later emblematical meanings of the leaf it is impossible to say; but now it is as difficult for us to disconnect the thought of peace from this scene of primitive patriarchal history as from a multitude of allusions in the Greek and Roman poets. Next, we find it the most prominent tree in the earliest allegory. When the trees invited it to reign over them, its sagacious answer sets it before us in its characteristic relations to divine worship and domestic life (Jdg 9:8-9). The olive, being an evergreen, was adduced as an emblem of prosperity (Psa 52:8; Psa 128:3), and it has continued, from the earliest ages, to be an emblem of peace among all civilized nations. Thus among the Greeks the olives was sacred to Pallas Athene (Minerva), who was honored as the bestower of it; it was also the emblem of chastity. A crown of olive-twigs was the highest distinction of a citizen who had merited well of his country, and the highest prize of the victor in the Olympic games. The different passages of Scripture in which the olive is mentioned are elucidated by Celsius (Hierobot. 2:330). So with the later prophets it is the symbol of beauty, luxuriance, and strength; and hence the symbol of religious privileges (Hos 14:6; Jer 11:6; comp. Sirach 1, 10). The olive is always enumerated among the valued trees of Palestine; which Moses describes (Deu 6:11; Deu 8:8) as a land of oil-olive and honey (so in 28:40, etc.). Solomon gave to the laborers sent him by Hiram, king of Tyre, 20,000 baths of oil (2Ch 2:10). Besides this, immense quantities must have been required for home consumption, as it was extensively used as an article of diet, for burning in lamps, and for the ritual service. The oil of Palestine was highly prized, and large quantities were exported to Egypt, where the tree has been little cultivated (Ritter, Erdk. 11:519; see Hos 12:12, and Jerome, ad loc.; Echa Rabb. 85:3). The Phoenicians also received much oil from Palestine (Eze 27:17; comp. 1Ki 5:11; Ezr 3:7). The kings of Israel raised a part of their revenue in oil (2Ch 32:28). The best olives grew in the region of Tekoa (Mishna, Menach. 8:3). It was not unusual to eat the olives themselves, either raw, softened in salt water (comp. Burckhardt, Travels, 1:85), or preserved (Dioscor. 1:138). On the method of preserving olives, see Colum. 12:47. SEE OIL.
Not only the olive-oil, but the branches of the tree were employed at the Feast of Tabernacles (Neh 8:15). SEE OLIVET. The wood also was used (1Ki 6:23) by Solomon for making the cherubim (vers. 31, 32), and for doors and posts for the entering of the oracle, the former of which were carved with cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers;. The wood of the olive-tree, which is imported chiefly from Leghorn, is like that of the box, but softer, with darker gray-colored veins. The roots have a very pretty knotted and curly character; they are much esteemed on the Continent for making embossed boxes, pressed into engraved metallic molds. Furniture is made of the olive-tree in Italy, and the closeness of the grain fits it even for painters palettes. The bark of the tree is bitter and astringent; and both it and the leaves have febrifuge properties. A gum- resin exudes from old stems, which much resembles storax, has an odor like vanilla, and is used in all parts of Italy for perfumery. This was known to the ancients, and is now sometimes called olive-gum. But the fruit, with its oil, is that which renders the tree especially valuable. The green unripe fruit is preserved in a solution of salt, and is well known at desserts. The fruit when ripe is bruised in mills, and the oil pressed out of the paste. Different qualities are known in commerce, varying partly in the quality of the fruit, partly in the care with which the oil is extracted. SEE OLIVE- BERRY. The berries (Jam 3:12; Esdras 16:29), which produce the oil, were sometimes gathered by shaking the tree (Isa 24:13), sometimes by beating it (Deu 24:20). Then followed the treading of the fruit (Deu 33:24; Mic 6:15). Hence the mention of oil- fats!’ (Joe 2:24). SEE OIL-MILL. Nor must the flower be passed over without notice:
Si belle floruerint olese, nitidissimus ainnus (Ovid, Fast. v. 265).
The wind was dreaded by the cultivator of the olive, for the least ruffling of a breeze is apt to cause the flowers to fall:
Florebant olea: yenti nocuere protervi (Ibid. 321).
Thus we see the force of the words of Eliphaz the Temanite: He shall cast off his flower like the olive (Job 15:33). It is needless to add that the locust was a formidable enemy of the olive (Amo 4:9). It happened not unfrequently that hopes were disappointed, and that the labor of the olive failed (Hab 3:17). SEE FLOWER. Of all fruit-bearing trees it is the most prodigal in flowers. It literally bends under the load of them. But then not one in a hundred comes to maturity. The tree casts them off by millions, as if they were of no more value than flakes of snow, which they closely resemble. So will it be with those who put their trust in vanity. Cast off, they melt away, and no one takes the trouble to ask after such empty, useless things just as our olive seems to throw off in contempt the myriads of flowers that signify nothing, and turns all her fatness to those which will mature into fruit (Thomson, Land and Book, 1:525). SEE BLAST.
That the olive grows to a great age has long been known. Pliny mentions one which the Athenians of his time considered to be coeval with their city, and therefore 1600 years old. Near Terni, in the vale of the cascade of Marmora, there is a plantation of very old trees, supposed to consist of the same plants that were growing there in the time of Pliny. Lady Calcott states that at Tericoncio, on the mountain road between Tivoli and Palestrina, there is an ancient olive-tree of large dimensions, which, unless the documents are purposely falsified, stood as a boundary between two possessions even before the Christian sera, and in the 2d century was looked upon as very ancient. The difficulty on this point arises from a fresh tree springing up from the old stump. Chateaubriand says: Those in the garden of Olivet (or Gethsemane) are at least of the times of the Eastern empire, as is demonstrated by the following circumstance. In Turkey every olive tree found standing by the Mussulmans when they conquered Asia pays one medina to the treasury, while each of those planted since the conquest is taxed half its produce. The eight olives of which we are speaking are charged only eight medinas.. By some, especially by Dr. Martin, it is supposed that these olive-trees may have been in existence even in the time of our Savior. Dr. Wilde describes the largest of them as being twenty-four feet in girth above the roots, though its topmost branch is not thirty feet from the ground; Bove, who traveled as a naturalist, asserts that the largest are at least six yards in circumference, and nine or ten yards high; so large, indeed, that he calculates their age at 2000 years. SEE GETHSEMANE.
It is more than probable that the olive was introduced from Asia into Europe. The Greeks, indeed, had a tradition that the first branch of it was carried by a dove from Phoenicia to the temple of Jupiter in Epirus, where the priests received and planted it; and Pliny states that there were no olive-trees in Italy or Spain before the 173d year from the foundation of the city of Rome. Though the olive continues to be much cultivated in Syria, it is much more extensively so in the south of Europe, whence the rest of the world is chiefly supplied with olive-oil. SEE OLIVE-OIL.
No tree is more frequently mentioned by ancient authors, nor was any one more highly honored by ancient nations. By the Greeks it was dedicated to Minerva, and even employed in crowning Jove, Apollo, and Hercules, as well as emperors, philosophers, and orators, and all others whom the people delighted to honor. By the Romans also it was highly honored; and Columells describes it as the chief of trees. It is not wonderful that almost all the ancient authors, from the time of Homer, so frequently mention it, and that, as Horac( says, to win it seemed the sole aim some men had in life (Carm. 1:7). The olive still continues to be one of the most extensively cultivated of plants. Kitto mentions that in a list he had made of references to all the notices of plants by the different travelers in Palestine those of the presence of the olive exceed one hundred and fifty, and are more numerous by far than those to any other tree or plant (Phys. Hist. of Palest. p. 203), The references to vines, fig-trees, mulberries, and oaks rank next in frequency. These depend partly upon the knowledge of plants the several travelers have. Botanists, even from Europe, neglect tropical species with Which they are unacquainted. See Tristram, Nat. Hist, of the Bible, p, 337; Thomson, Land and Book, 1:70. SEE TREE.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Olive
the fruit of the olive-tree. This tree yielded oil which was highly valued. The best oil was from olives that were plucked before being fully ripe, and then beaten or squeezed (Deut. 24:20; Isa. 17:6; 24:13). It was called “beaten,” or “fresh oil” (Ex. 27:20). There were also oil-presses, in which the oil was trodden out by the feet (Micah 6:15). James (3:12) calls the fruit “olive berries.” The phrase “vineyards and olives” (Judg. 15:5, A.V.) should be simply “olive-yard,” or “olive-garden,” as in the Revised Version. (See OIL)
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Olive
Its foliage is the earliest mentioned (Gen 8:11). Tradition from Noah’s days has ever made it symbolize peace. It is the emblem of “fatness” in the oldest parable (Jdg 9:8-9). Emblem of the godly (Psa 52:5; Psa 52:8), in spirit constantly dwelling “in the house of God”; in contrast to slave-like formalists now sojourning outwardly in it for a time, but not abiding ever (Joh 8:34-35; Psa 15:1; Psa 23:6; Psa 27:4-5; Psa 36:8); the wicked and antichrist shall be “rooted out of (God’s) dwelling place,” literally, 5 (‘ohel). The Septuagint, Chaldee, Vulgate, and Aben Ezra interpret ‘ohel “the tabernacle” (2Th 2:4; Dan 11:44-45). The saint’s children are “like olive plants round about his table” (Psa 128:3).
The old olive sends out young suckers which spring up round the parent tree, and which in after ages, when the parent’s strength fails, shelter it on every side from the blast. It is the characteristic tree of Judea on Roman coins, Deu 8:8. Asher “dipped his foot in oil” (Deu 33:24). Emblem of Judah’s adoption of God by grace (Jer 11:16; Rom 11:17), also of joy and prosperity. The Gentile church is the wild twig “engrafted contrary to nature” on the original Jewish olive stock; it marks supernatural virtue in the stock that it enables those wild by nature to bear good fruit; ordinarily it is only a superior scion that is grafted on an inferior. The two witnesses for God (antitypes to Elijah and Moses, Zerubbabel and Joshua, the civil ruler and the priest: Mal 4:5-6; Mat 17:11; Act 3:21; Jud 1:6) are “the two olive trees,” channels of the oil (the Holy Spirit in them) feeding the church (Rev 11:3-4; Zec 4:11-12).
The wood, fine grained, solid, and yellowish, was used for the cherubim, doors, and posts (1Ki 6:23; 1Ki 6:31-33). The tree was shaken to get the remnant left after the general gathering (by “beating,” Deu 24:20), Isa 24:13; image of Israel’s “remnant according to the election of grace.” The least breeze makes the flowers fall; compare Job 15:33, “he shall cast off his flower as the olive,” i.e. the least blast sweeps away in a moment the sinner’s prosperity. The tree poetically is made to cast off its own blossom, to mark that the sinner brings on his own ruin (Isa 3:11; Jer 6:19). It thrives best in a sunny position. A rocky calcareous subsoil suits it; compare “oil out of the flinty rock” (Deu 32:13). The trunk is knotty and gnarled, the bark smooth and ash colored. Its growth is slow, but it lives very long. The leaves are grey green, not deciduous, suggestive of tenacious strength.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
OLIVE
Olive trees, both wild and cultivated, were among the most common trees of Palestine (Deu 8:8; Jdg 15:5; 1Ch 27:28; Luk 22:39). They grew also in Mesopotamia and other places in the region (Gen 8:11). The trees grew to about six metres in height, and although their timber was of no use in building construction, it could be used to make furniture and ornamental articles (1Ki 6:23; 1Ki 6:31). The Israelites used branches of olive trees to help make shelters for the Feast of Tabernacles (Neh 8:15).
Mostly, however, people grew olive trees for their fruit, which could be crushed to produce oil (Exo 27:20; Lev 2:4; 2Ki 18:32; Mic 6:15; see OIL). Farmers harvested the olives by shaking or beating the tree so that the fruit fell to the ground. They then collected the fruit in baskets (Deu 24:20; Isa 17:6; Isa 24:13; Amo 8:2). To obtain higher quality fruit and larger harvests, they sometimes grafted branches from good quality trees on to wild trees. To graft branches from wild trees on to good trees was contrary to nature (Rom 11:17-24).
In the symbols and pictures of the Bible, the olive tree had a variety of meanings. It was a symbol of peace (Gen 8:10-12), fruitfulness (Psa 128:3-4), freshness (Psa 52:8), pleasantness (Jer 11:16), beauty (Hos 14:5-7), Gods Spirit (Zec 4:1-6), Gods family (Rom 11:17-24) and Gods witnesses (Zec 4:11-14; Rev 11:3-4).
Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary
Olive
OLIVE (zayith, cf. Arab [Note: Arabic.] , zeit oil, and zeitn olive tree).This tree (Olea europea) is the first-named king of the trees (Jdg 9:8-9), and is, in Palestine at any rate, by far the most important. The scantily covered terraced hillsides, the long rainless summer of blazing sunshine, and the heavy night moisture of late summer, afford climatic conditions which appear in a very special degree favourable to the olive. This has been so in all history: the children of Israel were to inherit olive-yards which they planted not (Jos 24:13, Deu 6:11), and the wide-spread remains of ruined terraces and olive-presses in every part of the land witness to the extent of olive culture that existed in the past. A large proportion of the fuel consumed to-day consists of the roots of ancient olive trees. In recent years this cultivation has been largely revived, and extensive groves of olives may be found in many parts, notably near Beit Jala on the Bethlehem road, and near Nblus. The peculiar grey-green foliage with its silver sheen, and the wonderful twisted and often hollow trunks of the tree, are very characteristic of Palestine scenery. The OT writers admired the beauty of the olive (see Hos 14:6, Psa 52:8; Psa 128:3, Jer 11:16). In some parts, notably at Nblus, a large proportion of the trees are invaded by parasitic mistletoe. The cultivation of the olive requires patience, and presupposes a certain degree of settlement and peace: perhaps for this reason it was the emblem of peace. Destruction of a harvest of cereals is a temporary loss, but when the vines and, still more, the olives are destroyed, the loss takes many years to make good (Rev 6:5-6).
The olive tree, grown from a slip taken from below the grafted branches of a selected fruitful olive, has to be grafted when three years old, but it does not bear fruit for some three or four years more, and not plentifully until it is about seventeen or eighteen years old; it may then, when well cared for, continue bearing for many years. The soil, however, must be carefully ploughed and manured every spring, and on the hillsides the water of the early rains must be conducted to the very roots by carefully arranged channels. When, after some years, the stem becomes too hollow from rotting of the wood, and the crop fails, it is sometimes cut sharp off at the root, and new shoots are allowed to spring up, which, after re-grafting, become a fruitful tree. It has been stated by Prof. Ramsay (Expositor, Jan. and Feb. 1905) that it is a custom in Syria to graft a branch of wild olive into the stem of a cultivated tree (cf. Rom 11:17-24). How this can be of any benefit to the tree it is difficult to see. Nor can the present writer, after careful inquiries all over Palestine, find any knowledge of such a custom. Cf. art. Grafting.
The wild olive is a kind of reversion to the primitive plantsuch as occurs also with the fig and the almondand it takes place whenever the growth of the olive is neglected. Thus the little shoots which grow around the main trunk (perhaps the origin of Psa 128:3) are of the wild variety, and also those growing from the self-sown drupe. According to the fellahn of Galilee, the drupe germinates in the soil only after passing through the alimentary canal of the hooded crow.
In most neglected olive groves numerous little bushes of the wild olive may be seen, which, though very unlike the cultivated treehaving a shorter, smaller, and greener leaf and a stirrer, more prickly stemare nevertheless derived from it. As a rule the wild olive is but a shrub, but it may grow into a tree and have small but useless berries. Where groves of wild olives are found in Palestine, they are probably always the descendants of cultivated trees long ago destroyed.
The young wild olive trees, scattered over the mountains in Galilee, are gathered by the fellahn and sold for olive plantations. Such plants are grafted three years after transplantation, and always in the late spring or early summer.
The olive berries (Jam 3:12 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ) ripen in the autumn, and are harvested in November or December. They are beaten from the trees with a long pole (Deu 24:20) and collected in baskets. Olives are eaten pickled in hrine, either when green and unripe or when soft and black. They are universally eaten by the fellahn with breadsometimes the oil is eaten instead, much as butter is used in our home lands. The oil is also used extensively for making soup, for frying meat, and for illumination. See Oil.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Olive
See OLIVE TREE.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Olive
Olive. The olive was among the most abundant and characteristic vegetation of Judea. The olive tree grows freely. Almost everywhere. On the shores of the Mediterranean, but it was peculiarly abundant in Palestine. See Deu 6:11; Deu 8:8; Deu 28:40. Oliveyards are a matter of course in descriptions of the country like vines and cornfields. Jdg 15:5; 1Sa 8:14. The kings had very extensive ones. 1Ch 27:28 Even now, the olive is very abundant in the country. Almost every village has its olive grove.
Certain districts may be specified, where, at various times, this tree been very luxuriant. The cultivation of the olive tree had the closest connection, with the domestic life of the Israelites 2Ch 2:10, their trade, Eze 27:17; Hos 12:1, and even their public ceremonies and religious worship. In Solomon’s Temple, the cherubim were “of olive tree,” 1Ki 6:23, as also the doors, 1Ki 6:31-32, and posts. 1Ki 6:33. For the various uses of olive oil See Oil.
The wind was dreaded, by the cultivator of the olive, for the least ruffling of a breeze, is apt to cause the flowers to fall. Job 15:33. It is, needless to add that the locust was a formidable enemy of the olive. It happened, not unfrequently, that hopes were disappointed, and that “the labor of the olive failed.” Hab 3:17.
As to the growth of the tree, it thrives best, in warm and sunny situations. It is of moderate height, with a knott, y gnarled trunk and a smooth, ash-colored bark. It grows slowly, but lives to an immense age. Its look is singularly indicative of tenacious vigor, and this is the force of what is said in Scripture of its “greenness, as emblematic of strength and prosperity. The leaves, too, are not deciduous. Those who see olives for the first time are occasionally disappointed by the dusty color of their foilage; but those who are familiar with them find an inexpressible charm, in the rippling changes of their slender gray-green leaves. (See Ruskin’s “Stones of Venice,” iii. 175-177).
The olive furnishes the basis of one of Paul’s allegories. Rom 11:16-25. The Gentiles are the “wild olive,” grafted in upon the “good olive,” to which once the Jews belonged, and with which, they may again be incorporated.
(The olive grows from 20 to 40 feet high. In general appearance. It resembles the apple tree; in leaves and sterns, it resembles the willow. The flowers are white, and appear in June. The fruit is like a plum in shape and size, and at first, it is green, but gradually becomes purple, and even black, with a hard stony kernel, and is remarkable, from the outer fleshy part being that in which much oil is lodged, and not, as is usual, in the almond of the seed.
The fruit ripens from August to September. It is sometimes eaten green, but its chief value is in its oil. The wood is hard, fine and beautifully veined, and is open used for cabinet work. Olive trees were so abundant in Galilee tha, t at the siege of Jotapata by Vespasian, the Roman army were driven from the ascent of the walls, by hot olive oil poured upon them, and scalding them underneath their armor. — Josephus, Wars, 3; 7:28. — Editor).