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 [451]OIL.)

Is frequently mentioned in Scripture. The dove from the ark brought an olive-branch to Noah (Gen. 8:11). It is mentioned "among the most notable trees of Palestine, where it was" cultivated long before the time of the Hebrews (Deut. 6:11; "8:8). It is mentioned in the first Old Testament parable, that" "of Jotham (Judg. 9:9), and is named among the blessings of the" "good land, and is at the present day the one characteristic" tree of Palestine. The oldest olive-trees in the country are those which are enclosed in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is referred to as an emblem of prosperity and beauty and religious "privilege (Ps. 52:8; Jer. 11:16; Hos. 14:6). The two "witnesses" "mentioned in Rev. 11:4 are spoken of as "two olive trees" "standing before the God of the earth." (Comp. Zech. 4:3, 11-14.)" "The "olive-tree, wild by nature" (Rom. 11:24), is the shoot or "cutting of the good olive-tree which, left ungrafted, grows up" "to be a "wild olive." In Rom. 11:17 Paul refers to the practice" "of grafting shoots of the wild olive into a "good" olive which" has become unfruitful. By such a process the sap of the good "olive, by pervading the branch which is "graffed in," makes it a" "good branch, bearing good olives. Thus the Gentiles, being a" "wild olive, but now "graffed in," yield fruit, but only" through the sap of the tree into which they have been graffed. "This is a process "contrary to nature" (11:24)."