The olive fruit is no stranger to most of us. You can find it on pizzas, pastas and even as a snack in NTUC for a few dollars. Most people either love it or hate it. Olives are classified as drupes a.k.a stone fruits, and drupes are fruits with four major parts: a thin skin, a fleshy body, a hard stone, and an inner seed. The olive is one fruit that is mentioned in the bible countless of times. There are about 25 references to the olive tree and more than 160 references to the oil in the bible.
Uses of Olives in the Bible
Olive oil had four main uses in Biblical days: as food, for illumination, as ointment, and for sacrificial or anointing oil. The wood of the olive tree was also mentioned as material for doors in 1 King 6:31-33. It is probably safe to assume that when oil is mentioned in the Scriptures, it is almost always olive oil.
An instance of where it was used as food can be found in Nehemiah 9:25: the Jews upon reflection of their sins mentioned that they had “olive groves and fruit trees in abundance, so they ate and were filled and grew fat.”
It is also commonly used as fuel for their lamps, as can be seen from Exodus 27:20 where the Israelites were commanded to bring Moses “pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually” for the tabernacle.
Medicinal use of olive oil was also widely practised way back in the Old Testament (OT) and even today, where hospitals use pharmaceutical grade olive oil to treat burnt victims. Examples can be seen from the OT, in Isaiah 1:6 where oil is used to soothe wounds and open sores, and also in the New Testament (NT) when the good Samaritan tended to the injured man by bounding up his wounds and pouring in oil and wine in Luke 10:34.
Olive oil was also used as sacrificial oil in the OT and anointing oil for kings and priests as well. Leviticus 2:4 gave explicit instructions that oil shall be used when making offerings to the Lord. Olive oil was also part of the instructions God gave to Moses for the anointing oil he needed to use in Exodus 30:22-25.
Symbolism of Olives
The olive is first mentioned in Scripture when the dove returned to Noah’s ark carrying a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak as described in Genesis 8:11. This was a particularly prominent moment in the history of mankind as it represented new life sprouting on earth, and marked a new beginning for God and man. Since that time, the olive branch has been a symbol of “peace” and reconciliation in the world, and we often hear the expression, “extending an olive branch” to another person as an indication of one’s desire for peace.
There are also many other instances where olive trees or plants are used as a symbol of righteousness, beauty, abundance and joy. David described himself as like a “green olive tree” who “trusted in the mercy of God forever and ever” in Psalms 52:8-9. Hosea used the phrase “his beauty shall be like an olive tree” to describe a repentant Israel in Hosea 14:6-7. Children of the righteous are also described as olive plants around the table bearing much fruit and having vigour in Psalms 128:3. Isaiah and David have also described it as the “oil of joy” and “oil of gladness” in Isaiah 61:3 and Psalms 45:7. Perhaps one of the more obvious examples of how significant the olive tree was in comparison to others was from Jotham’s parable of the trees in Judges 9:7-15, where the olive tree was the first choice of all the trees when the other trees wanted to anoint a king over them.
The olive tree was also used to describe the relationship between God and Man. In Jeremiah 11:16-17, God’s people were originally illustrated as a “green olive tree, lovely and of good fruit” before they turned against him. God was depicted as the farmer who planted them and eventually pronounced doom towards them for their evil. Paul in the NT also compared the Christians to branches of an olive tree in Romans 11:16-24. He stated God removed some of the unbelieving Jews from His spiritual family, just like how some branches are broken off from an olive tree. Hence, the Gentiles being a “wild olive tree, were grafted in among them” and then cultivated together with the strong roots of the olive tree.
Lessons from Olives
There are many parallels and lessons we can draw from all these instances where olive was used either literally or figuratively in the Bible. The fact that olive trees were around before the great flood and can grow up to 4000 years old and still bear fruit, is similar to and can remind us of the word of God enduring forever even till today, where it still holds the same truth. The raw olive plucked from the olive tree is also not edible until they are treated with lye or cured in brine before being edible. Again, it seems quite apt to compare it to our Christian journey, that we need to be trained and increase our knowledge before we can be fruitful to others. This then leads to the further question that James asks in James 3:12, “Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs?” We have seen the significance of olives in the Bible and know how valuable a commodity it was. We have also seen what it means in terms of service to God and that our service should be as bountiful as a fruitful green olive tree. So the real question we need to ask ourselves is this – do we want to be like an olive bearing much fruit in God’s work and be full of abundance, joy and righteousness?