1. The Allegory of the Olive Tree
Jacob 5
The Allegory of the Olive Tree

2. “The parable of Zenos, recorded by Jacob in chapter five of his book, is one of the greatest parables ever recorded. This parable in and of itself stamps the Book of Mormon with convincing truth. No mortal man, without the inspiration of the Lord, could have written such a parable. It is a pity that too many of those who read the Book of Mormon pass over and slight the truths which it conveys” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, 4:141).

3. Jacob 5
Do you know someone who has questioned God’s love for him or her, particularly during a time of trial when the person may have turned away from Him?
• A young priesthood holder develops a sinful habit. He believes that others can be forgiven, but he doubts the Lord will accept his repentance.
• A young woman transgresses a commandment. She experiences guilt, feels terrible about herself, and questions if the Lord still loves her.

4. Jacob 4:4-6 Jacob 4:12 Jacob 4:14 Jacob 4:15-18
Jacob’s Intent…
Zenos’ Intent…
Jacob 4:4-6
Jacob 4:12
Jacob 4:14
Jacob 4:15-18
Jacob 5:3
Jacob 5:74

5. The Symbolism of Olive Trees

6. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
An olive tree with pruned branches

7. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
Allegory of the Tame & Wild Olive Trees

8. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
An olive tree with shoots coming from the roots of the tree
Olive Tree with Shoots from the Roots

9. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
Shoots from the stump of a cut down olive tree that have matured.
Shoots from a Cut Down Olive Tree

10. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
Olives from the Dead Sea, Jordan

11. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
What is the symbolism of Olives and Olive Oil?
Olive branch is the universal symbol of peace or victory
Olives are best picked individually
Olive oil is used for healing
Olive oil is the brightest burning of the vegetable oils
Ancient prophets, priests, and kings were anointed in the temple with olive oil

12. The Symbols in the Allegory
Read Jacob 5: , 11 and look for a symbol

13. Jacob 5
SYMBOL
MEANING

14. Jacob 5
SYMBOL
MEANING
Tame olive tree (verse 3)

15. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people

16. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)

17. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world

18. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)

19. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy

20. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)

21. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ

22. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ
Pruning, digging, and nourishing (verse 4)

23. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ
Pruning, digging, and nourishing (verse 4)
The Lord’s efforts to help us be righteous

24. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ
Pruning, digging, and nourishing (verse 4)
The Lord’s efforts to help us be righteous
Wild olive tree (verse 7)

25. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ
Pruning, digging, and nourishing (verse 4)
The Lord’s efforts to help us be righteous
Wild olive tree (verse 7)
Gentiles

26. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ
Pruning, digging, and nourishing (verse 4)
The Lord’s efforts to help us be righteous
Wild olive tree (verse 7)
Gentiles
Plucking and grafting branches (verses 7–8)

27. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ
Pruning, digging, and nourishing (verse 4)
The Lord’s efforts to help us be righteous
Wild olive tree (verse 7)
Gentiles
Plucking and grafting branches (verses 7–8)
The scattering and gathering of the Lord’s covenant people.

28. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ
Pruning, digging, and nourishing (verse 4)
The Lord’s efforts to help us be righteous
Wild olive tree (verse 7)
Gentiles
Plucking and grafting branches (verses 7–8)
The scattering and gathering of the Lord’s covenant people.
Burning branches (verse 7)

29. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ
Pruning, digging, and nourishing (verse 4)
The Lord’s efforts to help us be righteous
Wild olive tree (verse 7)
Gentiles
Plucking and grafting branches (verses 7–8)
The scattering and gathering of the Lord’s covenant people.
Burning branches (verse 7)
God’s judgments upon the wicked

30. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ
Pruning, digging, and nourishing (verse 4)
The Lord’s efforts to help us be righteous
Wild olive tree (verse 7)
Gentiles
Plucking and grafting branches (verses 7–8)
The scattering and gathering of the Lord’s covenant people.
Burning branches (verse 7)
God’s judgments upon the wicked
Fruit (verse 8)

31. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ
Pruning, digging, and nourishing (verse 4)
The Lord’s efforts to help us be righteous
Wild olive tree (verse 7)
Gentiles
Plucking and grafting branches (verses 7–8)
The scattering and gathering of the Lord’s covenant people.
Burning branches (verse 7)
God’s judgments upon the wicked
Fruit (verse 8)
The lives or works of people

32. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ
Pruning, digging, and nourishing (verse 4)
The Lord’s efforts to help us be righteous
Wild olive tree (verse 7)
Gentiles
Plucking and grafting branches (verses 7–8)
The scattering and gathering of the Lord’s covenant people.
Burning branches (verse 7)
God’s judgments upon the wicked
Fruit (verse 8)
The lives or works of people
Roots of the tame olive tree (verse 11)

33. Jacob 5 SYMBOL MEANING Tame olive tree (verse 3)
The house of Israel, God’s covenant people
The vineyard (verse 3)
The world
Decay (verse 3)
Sin and apostasy
Master of the vineyard (verse 4)
Jesus Christ
Pruning, digging, and nourishing (verse 4)
The Lord’s efforts to help us be righteous
Wild olive tree (verse 7)
Gentiles
Plucking and grafting branches (verses 7–8)
The scattering and gathering of the Lord’s covenant people.
Burning branches (verse 7)
God’s judgments upon the wicked
Fruit (verse 8)
The lives or works of people
Roots of the tame olive tree (verse 11)
The covenants the Lord makes with those who follow Him.

34. The history of the House of Israel…
Jacob 5:4-6
Scene 1
Jacob 5:7-14
Scene 2
Jacob 5:15-28
Scene 3
Jacob 5:29-49
Scene 4
Jacob 5:50-74
Scene 5
Jacob 5:76
Scene 6
Jacob 5:77
Scene 7

35. Jacob 5 First Visit (Jacob 5:4-14)
The master sees that the old tame olive tree (Israel) is dying. (vs. 3)
The master prunes and fertilizes the tree and wild branches (gentiles) are grafted in.(vss. 4-11)
Tame branches are transplanted into the nethermost part of the vineyard (vss. 8, 13, 14)
The days before Christ

36. Jacob 5
“Now in that parable the olive tree is the House of Israel in its native land it began to die. So the Lord took branches like the Nephites, like the lost tribes to other parts of the earth. He planted them all over his vineyard, which is the world. No doubt he sent some of these branches into Japan, into Korea, into China. No question about it, because he sent them to all parts of the world” (Answers to Gospel Questions,comp. Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., 5 vols. [1957–66], 4:204–5).

37. Jacob 5 Second Visit (Jacob 5:15-28)
The grafted-in gentiles have helped save the tree. (vss )
The tame branches in the poor spot of ground have borne fruit. (vss )
The good ground bears good fruit, but part is wild. (vs. 25)
After the Crucifixion

38. Jacob 5 Third Visit (Jacob 5:29-60)
The tree is cumbered with all sorts of fruit and none of the fruit is good; apostasy has become almost universal. (vss , 36) (vs. 39)
In the good part of ground, the wild branches have overcome the tame.
The Lord of the vineyard weeps.
What does verse 47 tell you about how the Lord feels concerning the inhabitants of this earth?
The Great Apostasy

39. “What could I have done more for my vineyard?” (Jacob 5:41, 47, 49)
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “After digging and dunging, watering and weeding, trimming, pruning, transplanting, and grafting, the great Lord of the vineyard throws down his spade and his pruning shears and weeps, crying out to any who would listen, ‘What could I have done more for my vineyard?’ “What an indelible image of God’s engagement in our lives! What anguish in a parent when His children do not choose Him nor the gospel He sent!”
Jeffery R. Holland, The Grandeur of God, October 2003

40. Jacob 5 Fourth Visit (Jacob 5:61-77)
The final gathering takes place by the Lord’s servants. (vss )
The wild branches are cast away. (vss )
The good are gathered and the bad burned for the last time. (vs. 77)
Our Day

41. Jacob 5
The Grandeur of God (Elder Holland, October 2003) video] or Book of Mormon Teacher Resource Video

42. Prune it Dig it Nourish it Dung it
How do these phrases help us to see how the Lord brings us back to at-one-ment with Him?

43. Roots
Why is there an emphasis on roots in this allegory? What is the importance of good roots?

44. “What could I have done more for my vineyard?” (Jacob 5:41, 47, 49)
“At least fifteen times the Lord of the vineyard expresses a desire to bring the vineyard and its harvest to his ‘own self,’ and he laments no less than eight times, ‘It grieveth me that I should lose this tree.’ [This allegory] makes the Lord’s mercy so movingly memorable.”
Jeffery R. Holland, (Christ and the New Covenant [1997], ).

45. “What could I have done more for my vineyard?” (Jacob 5:41, 47, 49)
“Clearly this at-one-ment is hard, demanding, and, at times, deeply painful work, as the work of redemption always is. There is digging and dunging. There is watering and nourishing and pruning. And there is always the endless approaches to grafting—all to one saving end, that the trees of the vineyard would ‘thrive exceedingly’ and become ‘one body; . . .From all the distant places of sin, it has always been the work of Christ (and his disciples) in every dispensation to gather them, heal them, and unite them with their Master”
Jeffery R. Holland, (Christ and the New Covenant [1997], ).

46. Olive Trees
Olive tree in Bar, Montenegro which is over 2,000 years old

47. Definition of Gethsemane
Gethsemane comes from the Hebrew words Geth [Gath], meaning “press,” and semane [shemen], meaning “oil” – and therefore means “the press of oil.” The word has reference to huge stone presses that were used to squeeze the oil from olives or the juice from grapes; such presses would have been found in Gethsemane, which was a grove of olive trees. In like manner, the Savior was “pressed” in that garden by the weight of the sins of all mankind until His blood flowed from His skin.
Stephen E. Robinson
Believing Christ: The Parable of the Bicycle and Other Good News
Page 119

48. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
Crushing Stone
In ancient Israel, olive processing began with first crushing olives in an olive crusher. This is an authentic olive crusher at BYU's Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies.

49. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
An olive mill and an olive press dating from Roman times in Capernaum, Israel.

50. To produce olive oil, the refined olives had to be crushed in a press
To produce olive oil, the refined olives had to be crushed in a press. The olives were placed in burlap bags and flattened on a furrowed stone. Then a huge crushing circular rock was rolled around on top, paced by a mule or an ox.
Another method used heavy wooden levers or screws twisting beams downward like a winch upon the stone with the same effect: pressure, pressure, pressure—until the oil flowed.
The first liquid to appear is red, followed by the grey-green olive oil we are used to seeing (Truman G. Madsen, “The Olive Press,” Ensign, Dec 1982, 57)

51. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
Collecting the Crushed Olives into Mash Sacks
In order to get a "virgin oil," the crushed olives are not taken to the press (usually the next step) but are gathered and placed in a large container. Then hot water is poured over the crushed olives. The mixture is stirred and the oil separates from the meat of the olive and floats. The oil is then skimmed off by hand. Virgin oil is clear and free of impurities.
Second grade oil (which is more common and usually used for lamps) is produced by pressing the pulp. This is done in an olive press. To prepare for the olive press, the crushed olives are scooped up and collected into round baskets called "mash sacks" to be taken to the olive press.

52. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
Placing Mash Sacks Under the Press Beam
One of my students is placing the mash sacks under the press board on the press beam at the Jerusalem Center.

53. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
Collecting Bowls
As the beam presses down upon the mash sacks, olive oil oozes into the collecting bowls. Notice the color is a brownish red.

54. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
Close up of Collecting Bowls

55. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
A Screw Press
A few hundred years after the time of Christ, the screw press was invented. The press beam required a large space to locate it in. A screw press could be located in a smaller confine. This screw press is located in ancient Jewish village of Qatzrin in Galilee.

56. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
The Jerusalem Center's Screw Press

57. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
The mash sacks are placed under the screw.

58. The Symbolism of Olive Trees
Oil oozes down into the collecting trays. Note in this picture and the next the color of the olive oil is brownish-red nearly resembling blood.

60. The Atonement
“Imagine, Jehovah, the Creator of this and other worlds, 'astonished'! Jesus knew cognitively what He must do, but not experientially. He had never personally known the exquisite and exacting process of an atonement before. Thus, when the agony came in its fulness, it was so much, much worse than even He with his unique intellect had ever imagined! No wonder an angel appeared to strengthen him! All our infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of the Atonement.”
Neal A. Maxwell
Ensign, May 1985
Pages 72-73

61. The Atonement
“For many years I thought of the Savior’s experience in the garden and on the cross as places where a large mass of sin was heaped upon Him. Through the words of Alma, Abinadi, Isaiah, and other prophets, however, my view has changed. Instead of an impersonal mass of sin, there was a long line of people, as Jesus felt “our infirmities” (Hebrews 4:15), “[bore] our griefs, … carried our sorrows … [and] was bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:4–5).
“The Atonement was an intimate, personal experience in which Jesus came to know how to help each of us…”

62. The Atonement
“The Pearl of Great Price teaches that Moses was shown all the inhabitants of the earth, which were “numberless as the sand upon the sea shore” (Moses 1:28). If Moses beheld every soul, then it seems reasonable that the Creator of the universe has the power to become intimately acquainted with each of us. He learned about your weaknesses and mine. He experienced your pains and sufferings. He experienced mine.
“He knows our weaknesses. But more than that, more than just knowing us, He knows how to help us if we come to Him in faith.”
Merrill J. Bateman
“A Pattern for All”
Ensign, October 2005

63. The Atonement

64. Jacob 5
The Allegory of the Olive Tree: What applications did you see? What thoughts came to your mind? What impressions did you have?

65. Jacob 5:47-48 “Develop Spiritual Roots”
“It seems that some among us have this same problem; they want bountiful harvests without developing the root system that will yield them. There are far too few who are willing to pay the price, in discipline and work, to cultivate hardy roots. Such cultivation should begin in our youth. Let us each cultivate deep roots, so that we may secure the desired fruits of our welfare labors” (Spencer W. Kimball, C.R., Oct. 1978, 113).