"The United Seas"

by Robert W. Rogers

No one saw how conspicuously and romantically the olive was associated with the early Bible history of these people, as well as the prophet Jotham, who spoke the famous fable of the olive—in which he unmistakably infers that people should recognize it as the most important of the fruits—in these striking and beautiful words, found in the book of Judges:

"And Jotham went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim and lifted up his voice and said, 'Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem * * * The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them and they said unto the olive tree, "Reign over us" (or, as one of the versions so suggestively translates the Hebrew, "Wave your branches over us").'"

The olive also held a most conspicuous place in the religious life of the peoples of the Promised Land. Indeed, in the building of Solomon's temple 480 years after the Babylonian captivity, the olive wood was honored by being used in completing the most sacred parts of the edifice. The cherubims, the sacred symbols of Divine wisdom, one on each side of the oracle and each with wings five feet long extending over the temple walls, were made of the olive tree.

In fact, the book of First Kings shows that the olive wood was built into most of the conspicuous parts of the temple, in these definite words:

"And for the entering of the oracle, be made doors of the olive tree; the lintel and side posts were a fifth part of the wall. So was also made for the door of the temple posts of the olive tree, a fourth part of the wall."

Not only was the olive given a primary place industrially and religiously; but it was also pressed into service on festive occasions of joy, commemorating historic events. It was used at the great feast of the Tabernacles, in constructing the booths, made principally of olive branches, intermingled with branches from other trees. And when spring hangs her infant blossoms on California's thousands of olive trees, rocked in the cradle of the western breeze, we will not fail to understand why Nehemiah reminds us of the early Jews' deep appreciation of the olive branch as a symbol of joy, in these words:

"So the people went forth and brought them olive branches (with pine and myrtle) and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts. And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths and sat under booths, and there was very great gladness."

And the Psalmist himself must have been inspired by the joy that came from the prosperity of these olive groves, when he wrote, in the one hundred and twenty-eighth Psalm:

"For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands, happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy children shall be like olive plants round about thy table."

Indeed, with the Greeks and Romans, the Israelites found that there was no tree that could be used for so many purposes as the olive—its fruit for food, its wood for costly decorations, its branches and blossoms for festive occasions, and its oil for medicine and light. For not only was the olive itself used, but the oil was also used for the anointing of the bodies of the sick, the captive and the dead. And the oil was likewise valued for illuminating purposes in the lamps and vessels in the tabernacle. And how highly they regarded it, we can fully understand by reading these words from Leviticus: