OLIVE
(from lat. “oleum”, “oil”).
In Palestine there were a large number of olive trees (Ex. 23:11; Jos. 24:13; Judges 15:5; 1 Sam. 8:14); there were also them in Assyria (2 Kings 18:32).
It is found among the trees of Armenia mentioned by Strabo; It is assumed to be native to northern India and temperate regions of Asia. Its wood was used in construction (1 Kings 6:23, 31, 32, 33). The fruits gave a valuable oil, for daily use (see OIL).
The plants, born from an olive, or from a stem taken below the graft, as well as the shoots that rise from below the trunk, give a wild variety that must be grafted.
The best olive trees return to the wild state if they are not cared for. The wild olive tree is a shrub with tiny, worthless fruits.
The shoot, taken from the wild olive tree and grafted into a cultivated variety, is the image that Paul uses in Rom. 11:17 to represent the grafting into the trunk of the people of God of Christians from paganism.
In horticulture, the process was different. A branch taken from a cultivated olive tree was grafted onto the wild olive tree, in order to change its nature.
When the waters of the flood receded, the dove returned carrying an olive leaf in its beak (Gen. 8:11). This tree has become the symbol of peace.
Its fruit was the emblem of prosperity, divine blessing, beauty, and strength (Ps. 52:10; Jer. 11:16; Hos. 14:6). The trunk of an old olive tree is often surrounded by vigorous shoots (Ps. 128:3).
Sometimes during festivals, women adorned themselves with olive garlands (Jdt. 15:13). In Greece, the winners of the Olympic Games received a crown of olive leaves.
The Israeli olive tree is the common species, “Olea europea”, with entire lanceolate leaves, pale green above and whitish below. The flowers are small and white, gamopetalous, grouped in panicles. The olive tree is grown today in almost all regions of Israel.