![]() When the dove brought Noah “a plucked olive leaf in its beak,” the olive branch represented new life sprouting on the earth (Genesis 8:11). The olive tree and olive branch have been symbols of peace and reconciliation ever since the account of Noah’s flood. Still today, olive oil is considered good for health. The outer, fleshy part of the oval-shaped fruit is what yields the highly valuable commodity of olive oil. Being well-suited to grow in the Mediterranean climate, the olive tree played a significant role in the region’s economy. In the ancient Near East, olive trees were an essential source of food (Nehemiah 9:25), lamp oil (Exodus 27:20), medicine (Isaiah 1:6 Luke 10:34), anointing oil (1 Samuel 10:1 2 Kings 9:3), sacrificial oil (Leviticus 2:4 Genesis 28:18), and wood for furniture (1 Kings 6:23, 31–33).Īn extremely slow-growing plant, the olive tree requires years of patient labor to reach full fruitfulness. At first, the fruit is green but turns to a deep, blue-black or dark green color when the olives are fully ripened and harvested in early fall. When the blooms begin to fall, olives, the fruit of the tree, start to form. Mature, cultivated olive trees grow to 20 or more feet in height and produce small flowers of yellow or white around the first of May. Rather common in the Holy Land, the olive tree is a multi-branched evergreen with a knotted trunk, smooth, ash-colored bark, and oblong, leathery leaves that are silvery green. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’ But the olive tree answered, ‘Should I give up my oil, by which both gods and humans are honored, to hold sway over the trees?’” Its importance in Israel is expressed in the parable of Jotham in Judges 9:8–9: “One day the trees went out to anoint a king for themselves. As one of the most highly valued and useful trees known to the ancient Jews, the olive tree is significant for several reasons in the Bible. ![]() The olive tree is mentioned frequently in the Bible, from as early as the time of the flood when the dove from the ark brought an olive branch back to Noah, to Revelation 11:4, where the two witnesses are represented as two olive trees.
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