Wave-offering. It was so called, because it was waved up and down, and toward the east, west, north, and south, to signify, that he to whom it was offered was Lord of the universe, the God who fills all space, and to whom all things of right belong. See [Sacrifices>].
OG, a king of Bashan; being a giant of the race of the Rephaim. Moses records the conquest of Og, and his destruction. After which his country was given to the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, Num. xxi, 33. See [Giants].
OIL, שמן. The invention and use of oil is of the highest antiquity. It is said that Jacob poured oil upon the pillar which he erected at Bethel, Gen. xxviii, 18. The earliest kind was that which is extracted from olives. Before the invention of mills, this was obtained by pounding them in a mortar, Exod. xxvii, 20; and sometimes by treading them with the feet in the same manner as were grapes, Deut. xxxiii, 24; Micah vi, 15. The Hebrews used common oil with their food, in their meat-offerings, for burning in their lamps, &c. As vast quantities of oil were made by the ancient Jews, it became an article of exportation. The great demand for it in Egypt led the Jews to send it thither. The Prophet Hosea thus upbraids his degenerate nation with the servility and folly of their conduct: Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind; he daily increaseth falsehood and vanity: and a league is made with Assyria, and oil carried into Egypt,” Hosea xii, 1. The Israelites, in the decline of their national glory, carried the produce of their olive plantations into Egypt as a tribute to their ancient oppressors, or as a present to conciliate their favour, and obtain their assistance in the sanguinary wars which they were often compelled to wage with the neighbouring states. There was an unguent, very precious and sacred, used in anointing the priests, the tabernacle, and furniture. This was compounded of spicy drugs; namely, myrrh, sweet cinnamon, sweet calamus, and cassia, mixed with oil olive.
OLIVE TREE, וית, ἐλαία, Matt. xxi, 1; Rom. xi, 17, 24; James iii, 12; ἀγριέλαιος, oleaster, the wild olive, Rom. xi, 17, 24. Tournefort mentions eighteen kinds of olives; but in the Scripture we only read of the cultivated and wild olive. The cultivated olive is of a moderate height, and thrives best in a sunny and warm soil. Its trunk is knotty; its bark is smooth, and of an ash colour; its wood is solid, and yellowish; its leaves are oblong, and almost like those of the willow, of a dark green colour on the upper side, and a whitish below. In the month of June it puts forth white flowers, growing in bunches, each of one piece, and widening toward the top, and dividing into four parts. After this flower succeeds the fruit, which is oblong and plump. It is first green, then pale, and, when quite ripe, becomes black. Within it is enclosed a hard stone, filled with oblong seeds. The wild olives were of a less kind. Canaan much abounded with olives. It seems almost every proprietor, whether kings or subjects, had their olive yards. The olive branch was, from most ancient times, used as the symbol of reconciliation and peace.
OLIVES. The Mount of Olives was situated to the east of Jerusalem, and divided from the city only by the brook Kidron, and by the valley of Jehoshaphat, which stretches out from the north to the south. It was upon this mount that Solomon built temples to the gods of the Ammonites, 1 Kings xi, 7, and the Moabites, out of complaisance to his wives of those nations. Hence it is that the Mount of Olives is called the mountain of corruption, 2 Kings xxiii, 13. The Mount of Olives forms part of a ridge of limestone hills, extending to the north and the south west. Pococke describes it as having four summits. On the lowest and most northerly of these, which, he tells us, is called Sulman Tashy, the stone of Solomon, there is a large domed sepulchre, and several other Mohammedan tombs. The ascent to this point, which is to the north-east of the city, he describes as very gradual, through pleasant corn fields, planted with olive trees. The second summit is that which overlooks the city: the path to it rises from the ruined gardens of Gethsemane, which occupy part of the valley. About half way up the ascent is a ruined monastery, built, as the monks tell us, on the spot where our Saviour wept over Jerusalem. From this point, the spectator enjoys, perhaps, the best view of the holy city. On reaching the summit, an extensive view is obtained toward the east, embracing the fertile plain of Jericho, watered by the Jordan, and the Dead Sea, enclosed by mountains of considerable grandeur. Here there is a small village, surrounded by some tolerable corn land. This summit is not relatively high, and would more properly be termed a hill than a mountain: it is not above two miles distant from Jerusalem. At a short distance from the summit is shown the supposed print of our Saviour’s left foot; Chateaubriand says the mark of the right was once visible, and Bernard de Breidenbach saw it in 1483! This is the spot fixed upon by the mother of Constantine, as that from which our Lord ascended, and over which she accordingly erected a church and monastery, the ruins of which still remain. Pococke describes the building which was standing in his time, as a small Gothic chapel, round within, and octagonal without, and tells us that it was converted into a mosque. The Turks, for a stipulated sum, permit the Christian pilgrims to take an impression of the foot print in wax or plaster, to carry home. Twice,” says Dr. Richardson, I visited this memorable spot; and each time it was crowded with devout pilgrims, taking casts of the holy vestige. They had to purchase permission of the Turks; but, had it not been in the possession of the Turks, they would have had to purchase it from the more mercenary and not less merciless Romans or Greeks.” On ascension eve, the Christians come and encamp in the court, and that night they perform the offices of the ascension. Here, however, as with regard to Calvary and almost all the supposed sacred places, superstition has blindly followed the blind. That this is not the place of the ascension, is certain from the words of St. Luke, who says that our Lord led out his disciples as far as Bethany, and lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up to heaven,” Acts i. Bethany is a small village to the east of the Mount of Olives, on the road to Jericho, not farther from Jerusalem than the pinnacle of the hill. There are two roads to it; one passes over the Mount of Olives; the other, which is the shorter and easier, winds round the eastern end, having the greater part of the hill on the north or left hand, and on the right the elevation called by some writers the Mount of Offence, which is, however, very little above the valley of Jehoshaphat. The village of Bethany is small and poor, and the cultivation of the soil is much neglected; but it is a pleasant and somewhat romantic spot, sheltered by Mount Olivet on the north, and abounding with trees and long grass. The inhabitants are Arabs.
The olive is still found growing in patches at the foot of the mount to which it gives its name; and as a spontaneous produce, uninterruptedly resulting from the original growth of this part of the mountain, it is impossible,” says Dr. E. D. Clarke, to view even these trees with indifference.” Titus cut down all the wood in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem; but there would seem to have been constantly springing up a succession of these hardy trees. It is truly a curious and interesting fact,” adds the learned traveller, that, during a period of little more than two thousand years, Hebrews, Assyrians, Romans, Moslems, and Christians, have been successively in possession of the rocky mountains of Palestine; yet, the olive still vindicates its paternal soil, and is found, at this day, upon the same spot which was called by the Hebrew writers Mount Olivet and the Mount of Olives, eleven centuries before the Christian era,” 2 Sam. xv, 30; Zech. xiv, 4.
OMEGA, the last letter in the Greek alphabet, Rev. i, 8; a title of Christ.
OMNIPOTENCE. See [Almighty].
OMNIPRESENCE, that attribute of God by which he is present in all places. The statement of this doctrine in the inspired records, like that of all the other attributes of God, is made in their own peculiar tone and emphasis of majesty and sublimity. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up to heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there; if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?” “Thus saith the Lord, Behold, heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.” Behold, heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee.” “Though he dig into hell, thence shall my hand take him; though he climb up into heaven, thence will I bring him down; and though he hide himself in the top of Carmel, I will search and take him out from thence.” In him we live, and move, and have our being.” “He filleth all things.”
Some striking passages on the ubiquity of the divine presence may be found in the writings of some of the Greek philosophers, arising out of this notion, that God was the soul of the world; but their very connection with this speculation, notwithstanding the imposing phrase occasionally adopted, strikingly marks the difference between their most exalted views, and those of the Hebrew prophets on this subject. To a large proportion of those who hold a distinguished rank among the ancient theistical philosophers, the idea of the personality of the Deity was in a great measure unknown. The Deity by them was considered not so much an intelligent Being, as an animating power, diffused throughout the world, and was introduced into their speculative system to account for the motion of that passive mass of matter, which was supposed coëval, and indeed coëxistent, with himself. These defective notions are confessed by Gibbon, a writer not disposed to undervalue their attainments: The philosophers of Greece deduced their morals from the nature of man, rather than from that of God. They meditated, however, on the divine nature, as a very curious and important speculation; and, in the profound inquiry, they displayed the strength and weakness of the human understanding. Of the four most considerable sects, the Stoics and the Platonicians endeavoured to reconcile the jarring interests of reason and piety. They have left us the most sublime proofs of the existence and perfections of the First Cause; but as it was impossible for them to conceive the creation of matter, the workman, in the Stoic philosophy, was not sufficiently distinguished from the work; while, on the contrary, the spiritual god of Plato and his disciples resembled more an idea than a substance.”