A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

John McClintock & James Strong • SECTION 468

Section 468

← McClintock & Strong Cyclopaedia — Volume 7

OLIVES

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OLIVET

Ij'. The eye that kindled and flashed as the mighty music of tlie hymn rose from the enthusiastic multitude was the eye of a thinker, keen, telling of logical wari- ness and ready skill, and giving out, in harmony with its kindred features, expressions of genius, humor, bold- ness, ardent temper, and vivid imagination." See Lives oJ'Larly Methodist Preachers (ed. by Thomas Jackson), i, 195; Stevens, Hist, of Methodism, ii, 41 sq. ; iii, 143 sq. ; Southey, Life of Wesley, ch. xxv ; Christophers, Epicorth Singers, ch. xi. (J. H. ^\'.)

Olives, Mount of. See Olivkt.

Ol'ivet, the well-known eminence, or rather ridge, on the east side of Jerusalem, separated from the city by the Jehoshaphat valley ; it is intimately and char- acteristically connected with some of the gravest and most signiiicant events of the history of the O. T., the N. T., and the intervening times, and one of the firmest links by which the two are united; the scene of the flight of David, and the triumphal progress of the Son of Daviil, of the idolatry of Solomon, and the agony and betrayal of Christ. In the following account of it we largely avail ourselves of the articles on the subject in Kitto and Smith.

1. The name "Mount of Olives" (D"'n'^;'?n ^T\ ; Sept. T() opoQ raiv tXaiioi') occurs only once in the O. T. (Zech. xiv, 4), but the hill is clearly alluded to in five other passages. In 2 Sam. xv, 30 wc read that David, in fleeing from Jerusalem during Absalom's rebellion, "went up hi/ the ascent of the Olives" (D'^r^'Tri il?5-"^2), unquestionably the western side of the mount, up which he had to go " toward the way of the wilderness" (ver. 23). In 1 Kings xi, 7 it is recorded that Solomon built " a high place for Chemosh in the hill that is before pDS-^y "I'iTX ^na, 'which is on the face of) Jeru- salem." This is an accurate description of the position of Olivet — facing the Holy City, visible from every part of it. The same hill is calletl in 2 Kings xxiii, 13 "TheJUount of Corruption'" (nirHT'ari "IH), doubtless from the idolatrous rites established by Solomon, and practiced there. In Neh. viii, 15 Olivet is called em-

phatically " The Mount" ("tin), etc, Ezekiel mentions it as the mountain which is on the east side (D"1p5a) of the city.

In the N. T. its ordinary name is "The Mount of Olives" (to l'po2 Twr iXaiwi'), which may be regarded as a descriptive appellation — the mount on which the olives grew (^Matt. xxi, 1 ; xxiv, 3 ; xxvi, 80; Mark xi, 1; Luke xix, 37; John viii, 1). But Luke in three passages gives it a distinct proper name — "And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called Elaion" — (yrpoQ to iJpoQ to KaXoi'i-iivov 'EXaiiii'), not, as in the A. V., " the Mount of Olives." The word is 'EAaiwr, the noni. sing., and not fXaiwr, the gen. pi. of iXaia (see Alford, Tischen- dorf, Lachmann, etc., ad loc), in which case it would have the article (xix, 29 ; comp. ver. 37 ; xxi, 37 ; xxii, 39). In Acts i, 12 Luke again employs it in the gen. sing. — " Then returned they unto Jerusalem from tlie mount called Olivet" (nTro opovQ tov KaXovnivov'EXa- (wi/oc [" called Eiaion" J). In Josephus also we read Sia TOV 'EXaiMVog opovQ {Ant. vii, 9, 2; comp. xx, 8, 6; War, V, 2, 3), showing that in his time Eluion was the ordinary name given to the mount.

The rabbins called Olivet "The Mount of Anointing" (nrTw^n ^n; Mishna, /"aj-o, iii, 6; Reland, Pote«^ p. 337) ; and Jarchi, in his note on 2 Kings xxiii, 13, says this was its usual name; but that the sacred writers changed it to "jMount of Corruption" (""ri'IJ^tl "ill) by a play upon the word, and to denote its defilement by the idolatrous rites of Solomon. The name nniTTa is closely allied in sense to Olivet — the latter referring to the oil-producing tree, the former to the anointing with its oil (Lightfoot, Opera, ii, 200). The names ap- plied to the mount in the Targums are as follows : Nr"'T -|!i:2 or X^ri'^l (2 Sam. XV, 30; 2 Kings xxiii, 13; Ezra xi, 23; Zech. xiv, 4), Nnc?2 'l3 (Cant, viii, 3; and Gen. viii, 11, Pseudo-Jon. only).

At present the hill has two names, Jehel et-Tur, which may be regarded as equivalent to the expres- sion " the Mount" (~nn) in Neh. viii, 15. This is the

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Tlie Mount of Olives. (From a photograph by the editor.)

VII.— z

OLIVET

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OLIVET

name almost universally given to it by the Moham- medan residents in Jerusalem, The Christians and Jews seem to prefer the Arabic equivalent of the Script- ure name, Jehel ez-Zeitun, " Mount of Olives."

2. Physical Features. — The IVIount of Olives lies on the east side of Jerusalem, and intercepts all view of the wilderness of Judaa and the Jordan valley. It is separated from the city by the deep and narrow glen of the Kidron. Its appearance as first seen sadly dis- appoints the Bible student. Properly speaking it is not a hill. It is only one of a multitude of rounded crowns that form the summit of the broad mountain- ridge which runs longitudinally through Central Pales- tine. Zion, Moriah, Scopus, Gibeah, Kamah, and Miz- peh are others like Olivet. These bare rocky crowns encircle the Holy City, Olivet being the highest and most conspicuous in the immediate vicinity.

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