Speculation over what those olive trees are in Revelation goes on and on. With a reminder that Revelation is chock full of SYMBOLISM, yet some think it is literal that Moses and Elijah are going to be resurrected to walk around preaching until they are bludgeoned and fall dead .... again.
I offer a different view in that the olive trees represent the witness of the Jews and Gentile believers. Together they represent the church.
The Jew is the cultivated olive.........the Gentiles are the wild olive...grated together in ONE root.
Jeremiah 11
16. The Lord called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.
17. For the Lord of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal
Hosea 14
4. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
5. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
6. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
Zechariah 4
12. And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
13. And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
14. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.
Romans 11
13. For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14. If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
15. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16. For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
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. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
19. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
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.
22. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
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?
25. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
14. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.
I offer a different view in that the olive trees represent the witness of the Jews and Gentile believers. Together they represent the church.
The Jew is the cultivated olive.........the Gentiles are the wild olive...grated together in ONE root.
Jeremiah 11
16. The Lord called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.
17. For the Lord of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal
Hosea 14
4. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
5. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
6. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
Zechariah 4
12. And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
13. And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
14. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.
Romans 11
13. For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14. If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
15. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16. For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
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. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
19. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
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.
22. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
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?
25. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
14. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.
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