Q. Is there any significance to the fact the Jesus taught on the Mount of Olives?

A. He didn’t teach anywhere without it meaning something. In past articles I showed where he taught in the Temple and the Sea of Galilee all had meaning, and the Mount of Olives has major significance. The Mount of Olives is called “har Mashiach” (mount of Messiah) in Hebrew because of its significance to the coming of Messiah. In the rabbinical writings associated with the feast of Sukkot they wrote that when Messiah comes he will weep over the city from the Mount of Olives. (Zech 14). Let’s deal with one passage in Mark 13 .3, Luke 21 and Matt 24 as an example. These passages teach prophecy and it is very significant that he teaches about the final days here (Matt 24.3). The olive tree is symbolic of Israel (Zech 4.2,3,11; Hosea 14.6; Rev 11.4) and the olive was very valuable. The first press is the best and it is called “extra virgin” olive oil. The priest was anointed with it (Ps 133.2; Exo 27.2). It was used in the Temple (Exo 30.25-30) and the title “ Messiah” is “mashiach” in Hebrew and it means “anointed one.” Messiah is an olive branch out of an older root (Isa 11.1-5) leading men out of darkness (Isa 11.6-10). In Jer 23.5-8, 16.14-16 he gathers Israel from among the nations a second time after a “shaking” called the Tribulation or the “birth-pains of the Messiah.” Now, to get the olives the “branches” are shaken violently (tribulation) and in the process some of the branches break. Those branches are grafted back in and become stronger than before and they produce better. In Rom 11.17-24 Paul teaches that scattered Israel will be grafted into their own tree again (redeemed) and in Rom 11.25 he quotes Isa 59.20 concerning this redemption. There is a word picture here. When a branch is grafted back into the tree it is called a “scion.” A scion means “an heir or descendant.” So, it was very significant that he taught about the shaking, scattering and the eventual regathering of Israel at a place called the Mount of Olives. He went to the Garden of Gethsemene on that same mountain the night when he was arrested. Gethsemene means “oil (shemen) press (gat)” and it was where he (Messiah, anointed one) was pressed. He was the first one “pressed’ (extra virgin=without sin) and many are now grafted into one tree and are “heirs” to salvation. There is much more to this concept but it is very significant that the Messiah taught what he did on the Mount of Olives.