OLIVE-FAT. See Oil-Mill; Press.
OLIVE-OIL (fuUy '^id rr^T, olive of oil, Dent, viii, 8; briefly 'i^O^J, Exod. xxx, 24, or ri'T, simjily, 2 Kings xviii, 21 ; A. V. "oil olive"), the product of the fruit of the olive-tree, being emphatically the oil of the East, answering to butter, cream, and fat for the table, as well as for illumination. Olive-oil is much used as an arti- cle of food in the countries in which it is produced, and to a smaller extent in other countries, to which it is ex- ported also for medicinal and other uses. A good illus- tration of the use of olive-oil for food is furnished by 2 Chron. ii, 10, where we are told that Solomon provided Hiram's men with "twenty thousand baths of oiL" Comp. Ezra iii, 7. Too much of this product was sup- plied for home consumption : hence we find the country sending it as an export to Tyre (Ezek. xxvii, 17) and to Egypt (Hos. xii, 1). This oil was used in corona- tions: thus it was an emblem of sovereignty (1 Sam. x, 1 ; xii, 3, 5). It was also mixed with the offerings in sacrifice (Lev. ii, 1, 2, 6, 15). Even in the wiklerness very strict directions were given that, in the tabernacle, the Israelites were to have "pure oil olive beaten for the liglit, to cause the lamp to burn always" (Exod. xxvii, 20). For the burning of it in common lamjis, see Matt, xxv, 3, 4, 8. The use of it on the hair and skin was customarj', and indicative of cheerfulness (Psa. xxiii, 5; Matt, vi, 17). It was also employed medici- nally in surgical cases (Luke x, 34). See, again, Mark vi, 13 ; Jas. v, 14, for its use in combination with prayer on behalf of the sick. See Oil.
In the south of France and in Italy, where the olive- culture is conducted most carefully, the fruit is gathered by hand in November; and after passing through a mill, which separates the pulp or flesh from the hard stone, the pulp is put into bags of rushes and subjected
OLIVE, WILD
351
OLIVE
to a gentle pressure. The result is the "virgin oil," greenish in its tint, and highly prized for its purity. In Palestine several methods are practiced for extract- ing the oil. See Olivk.
OLIVE, WILD ((ir. 'AypitXciia, Dioscorides, i, 125 ; N. T. 'AyptAoiof; Lat. Oleaster), a tree mentioned by the apostle Paul as the basis of one of his most forcible allegories in the argumentation concerning the relative positions of the Jews and Gentiles in the counsels of (Jod (Kom. xi, 16-25). The Gentiles are the '"wild ol- ive" (oypit'Aoiof), grafted in upon the '-good olive" {KaWnXatog), to which once the Jews belonged, and with which they may again be incorporated.
'• Here different opinions have been entertained with respect not only to the plant, but also as to the explana- tion of the metaphor. One great difhculty has arisen from the same name having been applied to different plants. Thus by Dioscorides {De Mater. Med. i, 137) it is stated that the 'AypiiXaio, or wild olive-tree, is by some called Cotinug, and by others the Ethiojyic olive. So in the notes to Theoph. (ed. Boda Stapel, p. 224), we read that kotivoc, Cotinus, is to be rendered Oleaster, or 2cilil olire. Hence the wild olive-tree has been con- founded with Rhus cotinus, or Venetian sumach, to which it has no point of resemblance. Further confu- sion has arisen from the present Eltvai/nus aiujusiijulia of botanists having been at one time called Olea sylves- tris. Hence it has been inferred that the 'AypiiXaia is this verj' Elreagnus, E. angustifolia, or the narrow- leaved Oleaster-tree of Paradise of the Portuguese. In many points it certainly somewhat resembles the true olive-tree^that is, in the form and appearance of the leaves, in the oblong-shaped fruit (edihle in some of the species), also in an oil being expressed from the kernels; but it will not explain the present passage, as no process of grafting will enable the Eteagnus to bear olives of any kind. If we examine a little furtlier the account given by Dioscorides of the 'AypitXaia, we find in i, 141, ' Ujwii the tears of the Ethiopian olive,^ that our olives antl wild olives exude tears — that is, a gum or resin — like the Ethiopian olive. Here it is important to re- mark that the wild olive of the Grecians is distinguished from the wild olive of Etiiiopia. What jilant the latter may be, it is not perhaps easy to determine with cer- tainty ; but Arabian authors translate the name by zait el-Sudan, or the olive of Ethiopia. Other synonymes for it are tiiz el-bur, or wild almond ; and badam kohi, I. e. mountain almond. The last name is given to the kernels of the apricot in Northern India, and it is ap- ])licd in Persian works as one of the sj-nonymes of the hur-kukh, or apricot, which was originally called apri- cock and prtecocia, no doubt from the Arabic bur-kukh. The apricot is extensivelj- cultivated in the Himalayas, chiefly on account of the clear, beautiful oil yielded by its kernels, on which account it might well be compared with the olive-tree. But it does not serve better than the El;eagnus to explain the passage of Paul. From the account of Dioscorides, however, it is clear that the Ethiopie was distinguished from the wild, and this from the cultivated olive ; and as the plant was well known both to the Greeks and Eomans, there was no danger of mistaking it for any other plant except itself in a wild state, that is, the true 'AypitXaia, the common olive, or Olea Eunipwa, in a wild state. That this is the very plant alluded to b}' the apostle seems to be proved from its liaving been the practice of the ancients to graft the wild upon the cultivated olive-tree (see Colum. v, 9, 16; Pliny, Jlist. Nat. xvii, 18 ; Ballad, li. li. xiv, 53; comp. HotTmannsegg, Flore Portug. \, 287). See Oi-ive.