Ancient Oleiculture and Ethnic Differentiation: The Meaning of the Olive-Tree Image in Romans 11

Abstract

The image of the olive tree in Rom. 11.16b-24, like other such images in Paul’s correspondence, deserves to be taken seriously as contributing to the message he is communicating. This necessitates considering it in the light of its ancient context, here meaning Graeco-Roman oleiculture. The best solution is not, however, that Paul was referring to a technique mentioned by Columella of stimulating fruitfulness in a cultivated olive tree by grafting in a twig of wild olive. Rather, he is alluding to the standard practice in the eastern Mediterranean, described by Theophrastus and employed even in our times, of grafting a stock of cultivated olive onto a wild olive tree. But Paul deliberately depicts the inversion of this process, as a way of undermining the pretensions of Greek Christ-followers in Rome. The result is an image of the Christ movement, clearly differentiated in its parts, in which the Judaean members are superior to the others.