Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
situations. It is of moderate height, with knotty 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. (Romans 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, the willow. The flowers are white and
appear in June, The fruit is like a plum in shape and size, and at first 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 beautifully veined, and is open used for cabinet work. Olive trees were so abundant in
Galilee that 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.—ED.)
Olives, Mount Of
“The Mount of Olives” occurs in the Old Testament in (Zechariah 14:4) only. In (2 Samuel
15:30) it is called “Olivet;” in other places simply “the mount,” (Nehemiah 8:15) “the mount facing
Jerusalem” (1 Kings 11:7) or “the mountain which is on the east aide of the city.” (Ezekiel 11:23)
In the New Testament the usual form is “the Mount of Olives.” It is called also “Olivet.” (Acts
1:12) This mountain is the well-known eminence on the east of Jerusalem, intimately connected
with some of the gravest events of the history of the Old Testament and the New Testament, the
scene of the flight of David and the triumphal progress of the Son of David, of the idolatry-of
Solomon, and the agony and betrayal of Christ. It is a ridge of rather more than a mile in length,
running in general direction north and south, covering the whole eastern side of the city. At its
northern end the ridge bends round to the west so as to form an enclosure to the city on that side
also. On the north a space of nearly a mile of tolerably level surface intervenes between the walls
of the city and the rising ground; on the east the mount is close to the walls, parted only by the
narrow ravine of the Kidron. It is this portion which is the real Mount of Olives of the history. In
general height it is not very much above-the city: 300 feet higher than the temple mount, hardly
more than 100 above the so-called Zion. It is rounded, swelling and regular in form. Proceeding
from north to south there occur four independent summits, called— 1, “Viri Galilaei:” 2, “Mount
of Ascension;” 3, “Prophets”—subordinate to the last and almost a part of it; 4, “Mount of Offence.”
•Of these the central one -the “Mount of Ascension”—is the most important. Three paths lead from
the valley to the summit-one on the north, in the hollow between the two crests of the hill another
over the summit, and a third winding around the southern shoulder still the most frequented and
the best. The central hill, which we are now considering, purports to contain the sites of some of
the most sacred and impressive events of Christian history. The majority of these sacred spots
now command little or no attention; but three still remain, sufficiently sacred—if authentic—to
consecrate any place. These are— (1) Gethsemane, at the foot of the mount; (2) The spot from
which our Saviour ascended on the summit; (3) The place of the lamentation of Christ over
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William Smith