Dict: easton - Olive

easton:

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 kjv@Deuteronomy:24:20; kjv@Isaiah:17:6 kjv@Isaiah:24:13). It was called "beaten," or "fresh oil" kjv@Exodus:27:20). There were also oil-presses, in which the oil was trodden out by the feet kjv@Micah:6:15). James (3:12) calls the fruit "olive berries." The phrase "vineyards and olives" kjv@Judges:15:5, A.V.) should be simply "olive-yard," or "olive-garden," as in the Revised Version. (
See OIL.)

Olive-tree @ is frequently mentioned in Scripture. The dove from the ark brought an olive-branch to Noah kjv@Genesis:8:11). It is mentioned among the most notable trees of Palestine, where it was cultivated long before the time of the Hebrews kjv@Deuteronomy:6:11 kjv@Deuteronomy:8:8). It is mentioned in the first Old Testament parable, that of Jotham kjv@Judges: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 kjv@Psalms:52:8; kjv@Jeremiah:11:16; kjv@Hosea:14:6). The two "witnesses" mentioned in kjv@Revelation:11:4 are spoken of as "two olive trees standing before the God of the earth." (Comp. kjv@Zechariah:4:3 kjv@Zechariah:4:11-14.) The "olive-tree, wild by nature" kjv@Romans:11:24), is the shoot or cutting of the good olive-tree which, left ungrafted, grows up to be a "wild olive." In kjv@Romans: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).