The Allegory of the Olive Tree
Excerpts from Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon by Alan C. Miner (Unpublished)

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House of Israel Likened to a Tame Olive Tree

According to Monte Nyman, the prophet Zenos tells a story in Jacob 5, in which he likens the House of Israel to a tame Olive Tree that was planted, grew mature, and started to decay. The Master of the Vineyard (Jesus Christ) and his servants (the prophets) saw it, pruned it, and nourished it. Some natural branches were cast off and wild ones grafted in.

When that didn't work, the Master left the location of the tame Olive Tree roots (the blood of Israel among the Gentiles) and took some tender young natural branches to the nethermost part of the vineyard and grafted them in to wild olive trees (the Gentiles). This story goes on to span the history of the House of Israel until the end of the earth. The illustration below outlines the ideas discussed in the book. [Monte S. Nyman, An Ensign to All People, pp. 35, 36]

The Seven Time Periods of the Allegory [Reference Verses in Jacob 5]

Botanical Aspects of Olive Culture Relevant to The Allegory of the Olive Tree, [Wilford M. Hess, Daniel J. Fairbanks, John W. Welch, and Jonathan K. Driggs F.A.R.M.S., pp. 552-554]

At the conclusion of a lengthy article by Wilford Hess, Daniel Fairbanks, John Welch, and Jonathan Driggs, covering in detail the various horticulture practices described in Jacob 5 related to the cultivation of the olive tree, the following is said:

Based on the botanical and horticultural information present in the archaeological and historical record, and reflected in Jacob 5, we can conclude that the ancients were superb horticulturists and had a profound understanding of vital biological and plant cultural principles. Most of the botanical and horticultural principles in Jacob 5 are sound and are very important for olive culture.

In addition, the one or two points, according to our interpretation, that represent unusual or anomalous circumstances are necessary enhancements to the message of the allegory.

In this single chapter of the Book of Mormon there are many detailed horticultural practices and procedures that were not likely known by an untrained person, and may not have been fully appreciated by professional botanists or horticulturalists at the time the Book of Mormon was translated.

Even today, outside of olive-growing areas, professional horticulturalists may not fully appreciate some of the unique aspects of olive culture. Given the extensive detail about olive culture present in Jacob 5, we must give Zenos much credit for a high degree of horticultural knowledge, which many take for granted.

Examples of what the ancients and Zenos evidently knew were how to prune, dig about, dung, and nourish; how to graft tame to wild and wild to tame, and how to graft tame back into tame; how to balance tops and roots by pruning, and the reasons for doing this; how to save the roots of trees whose branches had decayed, and how to transplant branches to preserve the desired traits of good plants; how to preserve and store fruit and how to distinguish between good and bad fruit; how well plants grow on good and bad soil; how to care for trees to cause young and tender branches to shoot forth; that they could graft wild to tame to rejuvenate tame; that specific cultivars produced well in certain areas; how to remove the bitter glucosides from the fruit; that they could burn an orchard to reestablish a new one; that plants grown from seeds would not have desirable characteristics; the importance of elimination of old wood and debris by burning, and how to deal with pests and pathogens; how to prevent heavy bearing one year and no bearing the next by proper pruning; the necessity to plant more than one cultivar for pollination; and how to propagate scions with the desirable genetic material.

Interestingly, much of this sophisticated technology was probably lost in the Nephite civilization, for the olive is not mentioned again in the Book of Mormon after Jacob 5, an indication that the lands of the Book of Mormon may not have been suitable for growing olives ... The only regions on the American continents with Mediterranean climates where olive culture is economically feasible are the regions of California, Chile, and Argentina.

Joseph Smith probably knew how to prune, dig about, dung, and nourish local fruit trees; he probably knew a little about grafting, and he may have been familiar with some other horticultural principles, but not likely those peculiarly related to olive culture.

The Olive Tree as a Symbol for the House of Israel [Book of Mormon Student Manual Religion 121 and 122, pp. 47-48]

The use of the olive tree as a symbol for the house of Israel is an excellent example of how God uses symbolism to teach his children gospel laws and principles. For centuries the olive tree has been associated with peace. War and its grim attendants of destruction — rape of the land, siege, and death — were hardly conducive to the cultivation of olive orchards, that require many years of careful husbandry to bring into full production.

When the dove returned to the ark, it carried an olive leaf in its beak, as though to symbolize that God was again at peace with the earth (see Genesis 8:11) ... There is further symbolic significance in the cultivation of an olive tree. If the green slip of an olive tree is merely planted and allowed to grow, it develops into the wild olive, a bush that grows without control into a tangle of limbs and branches producing only a small, worthless fruit (see Harold N. and Alma L. Moldenke, Plants of the Bible, p. 159).

To become the productive "tame" olive tree, the main stem of the wild tree must be cut back completely and a branch from a tame olive tree grafted into the stem of the wild one. With careful pruning and cultivating the tree will begin to produce its first fruit in about seven years, but it will not become fully productive for nearly fifteen years.

In other words, the olive tree cannot become productive by itself; it requires grafting by the husbandman to bring it into production.

Throughout its history Israel has demonstrated the remarkable aptness characterized by the symbol of the olive tree. When they gave themselves to their God for pruning and grafting the Israelites prospered and bore much fruit, but when they turned from Christ, the Master of the vineyard, and sought to become their own source of life and sustenance they became wild and unfruitful.

Two other characteristics of the olive tree further illustrate how it is an appropriate symbol for Israel. First, though requiring nearly fifteen years to come into full production, an olive tree may produce fruit for centuries. Some trees now growing in the Holy Land have been producing fruit abundantly for at least four hundred years.

The second amazing quality of the tree is that as it finally grows old and begins to die, the roots send up a number of new green shoots that, if grafted and pruned, will mature into full-grown olive trees. The root of the tree will also send up shoots after the tree is cut down. Thus, while the tree itself may produce fruit for centuries, the root of the tree may go on producing fruit and new trees for millennia.

It is believed that some of the ancient olive trees located in Israel today have come from trees that were ancient during Christ's mortal ministry. How can Israel be compared to an olive tree, which time and again seems to have been cut down, and destroyed, yet, each time a new tree springs forth from the roots?

Zenos was not the only prophet to use the olive tree as a symbol for the chosen people of God. Jeremiah, foreseeing the coming destruction of the Jews by Babylonia, compared the covenant people to a green olive tree consumed by fire (see Jeremiah 11:16). The apostle Paul used a brief allegory almost identical to that of Zenos's to warn the Roman Christians against pride as they compared their favored position to that of the Jews (see Romans 11:16-24). In modern revelation, the Lord uses the parable of a vineyard and olive trees to show his will concerning the redemption of Zion (see D&C 101:43-58).

How Greek Philosophy Corrupted the Christian Concept of God, [Richard R. Hopkins,pp. 34-36, 79, 84-85]

Richard Hopkins notes that according to the prophecies in the Old Testament (e.g., Isaiah 11:10), New Testament (e.g., Romans 11:25), and the Book of Mormon (e.g., Jacob 5:7-17), the Gentiles (Hellens) were to be drawn to Christ following His mortal ministry, when Israel would reject Him (Isaiah 53). In the Allegory of Zenos, after the natural branches of the olive-tree fail to produce good fruit, we find that the Lord of the vineyard instructs his servant to "take thou the branches of the wild olive-tree and graft them in, in the stead thereof" (Jacob 5:9).

Thus, according to Hopkins, the Gentiles [or branches of the wild olive-tree] were expected to take from the Jews [or the branches of the natural olive-tree] the mantle of the Gospel and be grafted into the tree [Christianity] until the last days when ... the "times of the Gentiles" would be "fulfilled" (D&C 45:25).

At the time Isaiah announced this prediction [or at the time Zenos pronounced his allegory] reasonable men could have seen it as ludicrous. How could a pagan, polytheistic society of depraved idolaters be brought to a point where they would even be interested in the Gospel, let alone supplant the House of Israel as its chief proponent? What could possibly have predisposed the Gentiles to accept Christ in such numbers that Christianity would become the dominant religious system of the Gentile world in less than three hundred years after Christ's death?

The answers to these questions are essential to an understanding of what happened to the early Church as it made the transition from Jewish exclusivity to Gentile dominance.

The foundation for the change started very shortly after the first prophecy of its occurrence was given ... That was when a major shift in Gentile worship began through the medium of the classical Greek philosophers ... Although there are not enough resemblances between Greek theology and Judaism to conclude that the philosophers derived very many of their ideas from the Old Testament, there are several similarities. These similarities ultimately caused the Gentiles to be both attracted to the full truth and the Gospel and confused by the erroneous elements that remained in Hellenism …

Hellenism, the philosophy and religion of the Greeks at the time of Christ, was founded primarily on the ideas of six Greek thinkers: Phythagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, who were active from around 550 B.C. to about 350 B.C. It should be remembered that the ideas of these Greek philosophers were truly revolutionary. They contradicted the prevailing views of the pagan system, and the men who advanced them waged the same battle for religious liberty fought by reformers in every age.

The movement even had its own martyrs, Heraclitus and Socrates being among the most noted. Over the centuries that followed, the distinctive ideas of these men grew into various schools of thought. The beliefs of those schools were gradually syncretized in the minds of the Greek public so that by the time of Christ, they were viewed by most of the Gentile world as a single monotheistic system of beliefs distinct from the polytheism and pantheism of the older, though still popular, pagan religions …

Through its pervasive education system, Hellenism invaded Christianity with the same force Christianity invaded Hellenism. The result was a subtle transformation in the ideas of the Church. Among Bible scholars, prophesies of an apostasy from the teachings of Christ are well known. The issue for them is not whether it would occur, but when.

Until recently, it would have been unnecessary to prove to Protestant theologians that prophesies of a great apostasy were fulfilled during the Dark Ages, when the Church was under Roman rule. Today, however, many Evangelical Christian scholars deny that any such apostasy occurred. Mormonism teaches that it has already occurred.

It is Richard Hopkins' contention that the apostasy in regard to the central points of biblical theology was complete by the end of the second century A.D. He documents in a very detailed and organized manner how the Gentiles corrupted the Christian concept of God. However, what amazes him most is not that the apostasy occurred, but that it did not result in an even greater departure from the truth. Thus, we find in Jacob 5:15-17:

And it came to pass that a long time passed away, and the Lord of the vineyard said unto this servant: come, let us go down into the vineyard, that we may labor in the vineyard ... And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: Behold, look here; behold the tree. And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard looked and beheld the tree in the which the wild olive branches had been grafted; and it had sprung forth and begun to bear fruit. And he beheld that it was good; and the fruit thereof was like unto the natural fruit.

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Alan Miner is on the advisory board of Ancient America Foundation, a Book of Mormon research specialist and author of: Step by Step through the Book of Mormon and Chronology of Thought on Book of Mormon Geography (both yet to be published), as well as several articles on Book of Mormon culture. His compilation of commentary and quotes from general authorities, scholars and other writers relative to Book of Mormon geography and culture is classic. He spent his mission in Guatemala. He is a dentist by occupation. He and his wife, Barbara Dedrickson Miner, have six children.

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