The last interview of our Lord with His dis- ciples before He ascended into heaven is stated to have taken place on the eastern slopes of Olivet, for ‘He led them out as far as to Bethany > 24); and it is further stated that ‘they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day’s journey.’ The traditional site, however, from very early times, has been the middle summit of Olivet, at the church of the Ascension; and there are those who consider that this is quite in keeping with the account in St. Luke's Gospel (see report of Schick, PEFSt, p. 317, 1896). The church of the Ascen- sion is a small octagonal structure within an enclosure of irregular polygonal form, measuring
west. It is in possession of the Moslems, and a minaret is close beside the west entrance, and is avery conspicuous feature in the landscape. Chris- tian sects are permitted on certain days to perform mass in the chapel. The chapel was built in 1834 on the plan of one built by the Moslems in 1617 on the ruins of the Crusading Church built 1130 and destroyed 1187. The latter was built on the ruins of the Basilica of Constantine. Dr. Schick (PEFSt p. 319, 1896) has carefully traced the indications of the original building from the ex- isting remains, and has proposed a restoration of the place, showing a round church open at the centre to the sky, with the entrance to west and altar to east. This church was built in the 4th cent., and a plan is given by Arculf, A.D. 680, of its restoration in the 7th cent. by the Patriarch Modestus.
The footprints of Christ have experienced various and strange vicissitudes. One is impressed on the pavement of the courtyard; the other has been transferred to the chapel at the south end of the main aisle of the Aksa Mosque in the temple enclosure (see Tobler, Siloahquelle u. Oecl- berg). Willibald (A.D. 922) and other writers speak of two columns within the church in memory of the two men who said, ‘ Men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?’ This site has now been transferred to the northern hill of Olivet, near Scopus, and is called ‘ Galilee.’
The Pater Noster Chapel, south of the church of the Ascension, was erected in 1865 by the Princess de la Tour d’Auvergne, and is supposed to stand on an old traditional site of the Middle Ages. The intention of the Princess was to have within 24 small chambers, in which the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ should be written up in 24 different languages, so that pilgrims of all nationalities and all creeds might unite there in repeating the Lord’s Prayer.
Within recent years the Russians have erected a high tower and church on the commanding spur north-east of the church of the Ascension, over- looking the eastern slopes of Olivet.
‘From the Temple Mount to the western base of Olivet it was not more than 100 or 200 yards straight across, though of course the distance to the summit was much greater, say about half a mile. By the nearest pathway it was only 918 yards from the city gate to the principal summit. Olivet was always fresh and green, even in earliest spring or during parched summer—the coolest, the Tiemanteee the most sheltered walk about Jeru- salem. Far across this road the temple and its mountain flung their broad shadows and luxu- riant foliage, spreading a leafy canopy overhead. They were not gardens in the ordinary Western sense, through which one passed, far less orchards ; but something peculiar to those climes, where Nature everywhere strews with lavish hand her flowers, and makes her gardens—where the garden bursts into orchard, and the orchard stretches into field, till, high up, olive and fig mingle with the darker cypress and pine. The stony road up Olivet wound along terraces covered with olives, whose silver and dark-green leaves rustled in the breeze. Here gigantic gnarled fig trees twisted themselves out of rocky soil; there clusters of palms raised their knotty stems high up into waving plumed tufts, or spread, bush like, from the
‘ound, the rich coloured fruit bursting in clusters
rom the pod. Then there were groves of myrtles, ines, tall stately cypresses, and on the summit itself the gigantic cedars. To these shady retreats the inhabitants would often come from Jerusalem to take pleasure or to meditate, and there one of their most celebrated Rabbis (R. Jochanan ben Saccai) was at one time wont in preference te
OLIVET
often resorted’ (Edersheim, Zhe Temple, p. 8). Lirexatora.—J. Tobler, Stloah * Jerusalem’ vol. ;
EB FSt, 1889, p. 174 ff. ;
Society. See also under JenvsaLem. C. WARREN.
OLIVET (from Lat. olivetum, an oliveyard),—
This form has been
Mount of Olives in AV at 2S 15" and Ac 1:3.
It was taken from the Vulg. at the latter passage
(‘a Monte has been followed nd cluding RV) except t
620 teach. Thither, also, Jesus with is called the Olive hil’).
In 2S 15” the Vulg.
has ‘David ascendebat Clinum oliuarum’; it is Cov. who introduces ‘Olivet’ here, and it is also RV changes into Amer. RV prefers Olivet to AV and RV
the form in the Douay version. Olives. ‘the Mount of Olives’ in Lk 19” 915, See OLIVEs, ΜΟΥΝΤ oF.