Prophet Zenos Jacob 5 The Allegory of the Olive Tree

Who Was Zenos?  We don’t know –Some speculation as to his identity (Hugh Nibley and others)  House of Joseph (3 Nephi 10:15)  Prophet after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob  Writings contained in the Brass Plates  4,261 Words of Zenos in the BofM  Teachings focused on the Mission of the Savior and the Gathering of Israel  Died as a martyr

 “I do not think I overstate the matter when I say that next to Isaiah himself-who is the prototype, pattern, and model for all the prophets- there was not a greater prophet in all Israel than Zenos” Bruce R. McConkie Bruce R. McConkie

Allegory of the Olive Tree  “Throughout Scripture, the Teacher of teachers and his prophets have invoked their surroundings to verify revelatory acts and sayings…In the very rocks and trees of Israel, God’s meaning is lodged-meaning that can reach the center of the soul. Amid all those surroundings, no figure looms larger on the landscape than does the olive tree.” Truman G. Madsen

Jacob’s Commentary on Zenos’ Allegory of the vineyard  1 And now, behold, my brethren, as I said unto you that I would prophesy, behold, this is my prophecy—that the things which this prophet Zenos spake, concerning the house of Israel, in the which he likened them unto a tame olive-tree, must surely come to pass.  2 And the day that he shall set his hand again the second time to recover his people, is the day, yea, even the last time, that the servants of the Lord shall go forth in his power, to nourish and prune his vineyard; and after that the end soon cometh. (Jacob 6:1,2)

Elder Dallan H. Oaks April Conference, 2004  Another sign of the times is the gathering of the faithful. In the early years of this last dispensation, a gathering to Zion involved various locations in the United States: to Kirtland, to Missouri, to Nauvoo, and to the tops of the mountains. Always these were gatherings to prospective temples. With the creation of stakes and the construction of temples in most nations with sizeable populations of the faithful, the current commandment is not to gather to one place but to gather in stakes in our own homelands.

Natural Olive Tree- Israel Wild Trees- Different parts of the World Seven Tribes of Lehi Fall of Jerusalem, 587 BC Jacob 4-14 Good Fruit Everywhere Just before the time of Christ Jacob 5: Bad Fruit Everywhere Before Christ to Dark Ages Jacob 5: Restoration and Last Days Jacob 5: Israel Gathered In Zion and Jerusalem for the Millenium

St. Hugh Nibley “The long and puzzling story of the olive orchard in the fifth chapter of Jacob seems to present an endless combination of tactics to preserve the orchard. The point is that any combination is possible; God will try any scheme, general or local, to redeem the people.... sixteen times the trees are given a last chance to get growing again— there is no end to the Lord’s patience.”