【Olive – Kokia House Visitors Center, Jerusalem】【橄榄—耶路撒冷美地展览馆】

Exodus 30:24-25: “…and a hin of olive oil. And you shall make it a holy anointing oil, a fragrant ointment compounded according to the work of a compounder; it shall be a holy anointing oil.”
Deuteronomy 8:8: “A land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees with oil and of honey”.

Olive is one of the seven sacred species in the Land of Israel. In ancient times, olive oil was used for not only food and cooking, but also lighting, sacrificial offerings, ointment, and anointment for priestly or royal office. Olive trees in the groves around the Mediterranean Sea are centuries old, with some dated to 2000 years. Several trees in the Garden of Gethsemane (from the Hebrew words olive press) in Jerusalem are claimed to date back to the time of Jesus. They still give fruit.

The olive tree itself, as well as olive oil, play an important role in the Bible. An olive leaf was brought back to Noah by a dove to demonstrate that the flood was over (Genesis 8:11). The Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem is mentioned several times in the New Testament. The allegory of the olive tree in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans compares the Israelites to a natural olive branch and the Gentiles to a wild olive branch (Romans 11).

『…又取橄榄油一欣；你要把这些香料，按调制香品者之法复合成香品，作成圣膏油。 』(出埃及记30:24-25)
『那地有小麦、大麦、葡萄树、无花果树、石榴树；那地有出油的橄榄树，有蜜。 』(申命记8:8)

橄榄(Olive)是美地七种神圣作物之一。以色列是全世界最早有橄榄树的地方，而且至今还找得到上千年的橄榄树，仍持续在结果。耶路撒冷橄榄山的客西马尼园中，就有几棵（客西马尼意为榨油机）。橄榄树豫表基督，基督意即受膏者；橄榄油是圣膏油原料之一，豫表圣灵。