5 And it came to pass
that he pruned it, and digged about it, and nourished it according to his word.
6 And it came to pass
that after many days it began to put forth somewhat a little, young and tender
branches; but behold, the main atop thereof began to perish.
7 And it came to pass
that the master of the vineyard saw it, and he said unto his servant: It
grieveth me that I should lose this tree; wherefore, go and pluck the branches
from a wild olive-tree, and bring them hither unto me; and we will pluck off
those main branches which are beginning to wither away, and we will cast them
into the fire that they may be burned.
8 And behold, saith
the Lord of the vineyard, I take away many of these young and tender branches,
and I will graft them whithersoever I will; and it mattereth not that if it so
be that the root of this tree will perish, I may preserve the fruit thereof
unto myself; wherefore, I will take these young and tender branches, and I will
graft them whithersoever I will.
9 Take thou the
branches of the wild olive-tree, and graft them in, in the stead thereof; and
these which I have plucked off I will cast into the fire and burn them, that
they may not cumber the ground of my vineyard.
10 And it came to pass
that the servant of the Lord of the vineyard did according to the word of the
Lord of the vineyard, and grafted in the branches of the wild olive-tree.
Jacob 5:5-10
The master of the vineyard (Christ), seeing his tame olive
tree decaying (Israel), works to save the tree.
He prunes the tree, digs around it and nourishes it.
After a time, the lower part of the tree began to develop “young and tender branches.” The top of the tree, however, began to die. “And now
also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Luke 3:9).
Seeing this, the master said to his servant, “It grieveth me that I should lose this
tree.” He told the servant to get
branches from a wild olive-tree (gentiles).
He will remove the branches that are dying and cast them into a fire to
be burned. Paul used this same reference
in his epistle to the Romans.
17
And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree,
wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of
the olive tree;
18
Boast not against the branches…
20
Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21
For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not
thee.
23
And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for
God is able to graff them in again.
24
For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert
graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these,
which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?
Romans 11:17–18, 20–21, 23–24
The Lord took away the young and tender branches (“Regarding
the young and tender branches, they appear to be new growth that resulted from the heavy pruning mentioned in Jacob 5:4,
7”[1])
to be grafted where ever he felt they should be grated. Then it will not matter if the root of the
original tree perishes. The fruit of
that tree will be preserved wherever they are grafted.
The master told the servant to take the branches of the wild
tree and graft them into the tame tree.
The branches which have been cut off will be burned. John Gee and Daniel Peterson discuss the
burning of the branches.
During the trimming of the tree,
what is not used for shoots is stacked outside on flooring, as what Cato terms
"firewood for the master" (cf. Jacob 5:9, 42, 49); the
wood, being medium-grained, hard, crooked, brittle, and knotty, is good only
for burning.[2]
Paul and Barnabas travelled to the church at Antioch. “And
when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all
that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the
Gentiles” (Acts 14:27). Paul would
write the Galatians, “That the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might
receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14).
Here we see the teachings of Paul discussing the adoption of
the gentiles into the house of Israel.
John Sorenson and Matthew Roper write:
Branches broken off the tame tree, which represented
historical Israel (see Jacob 5:3), were to be grafted onto the roots of
"wild" olive trees, meaning non-Israelite groups. That is, there was
to be a demographic union between two groups, "young and tender
branches" from the original tree, Israel, represented as being grafted
onto wild rootstock in various parts of the vineyard or earth (see Jacob
5:8–9).[3]
The servant did what the Lord of the vineyard asked. He grafted the branches of the wild olive
tree to the tame olive tree.
"Wild" branches do not
naturally yield "tame" fruit—in other words a grafted olive branch
keeps its genetic constitution regardless of what type of olive tree it is
grafted onto. When branches of a wild olive tree are grafted onto a tame olive
tree (Jacob 5:10) … we would not expect to obtain the desirable large-fruited
tame olives from the small‑fruited wild olive branches … [T]he grafted wild
olive branch has an inferior genetic constitution for fruit size, and other
characteristics, causing all of the fruit on the wild branch to be small and
undesirable … The manner in which the servant and Lord of the vineyard speak of
the olive tree in verses 16–18 implies that they were pleasantly surprised that
the wild branches bore fruit "like unto the natural fruit":
"Behold, look here; behold the tree." This result would not normally
have been expected without divine assistance or extraordinary conditions.[4]
[1]
Botanical
Aspects of Olive Culture Relevant to Jacob 5, Wilford M. Hess, Daniel
Fairbanks, John W. Welch, Jonathan K. Driggs, Maxwell Institute, accessed April
2, 2014.
[2]
Graft
and Corruption: On Olives and Olive Culture in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean,
John Gee and Daniel C. Peterson, Maxwell Institute, accessed April 2, 2014.
[3]
Before
DNA, John L. Sorenson and Matthew Roper, Maxwell Institute, accessed April
2, 2014.
[4]
Graft
and Corruption: On Olives and Olive Culture in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean,
John Gee and Daniel C. Peterson, Maxwell Institute, accessed April 2, 2014
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