As I debated what to call this website, I entertained several ideas that were quickly discarded. Either the name was not evocative enough, or someone else was already using it. At that time, I had just finished a week-long teaching on Romans 8-12, and I realized this passage contained many concepts that transformed my understanding of the overarching story of Scripture. It might have a term that would serve as an elegant summary of what had breathed fresh life into my Bible reading and worship and informed the topics I gravitate towards. So I opened up a tool called the STEP Bible and started looking at the Greek, phrase by phrase, to see if anything jumped out at me.
As my cursor hovered over the “wild olive shoot” of Romans 11:17, the second English definition, “an Oleaster,” caught my eye. I had no idea there was a proper name for the tree that served as a metaphor for Gentile followers of Jesus in Romans 11. My original understanding was that the wild olive tree referenced by Paul was merely an ordinary olive tree that had not been properly cultivated but left to its own devices. Was the wild olive tree in Romans 11 an Oleaster, another tree species altogether? These speculations sent me down an ancient oleiculture rabbit hole and I emerged fairly convinced that the Olea Oleaster was indeed the tree of Paul’s famous grafted-in word picture. Though this discovery was hardly revolutionary, it does have interesting implications for interpreting the text and subsequently for the inter-ecclesial relationship between Jew and Gentile.
The standard practice in the ancient Mediterranean was to graft cultivated olive branches onto wild olive trees, thereby taking advantage of the wild olive’s natural disease resistance and deeper root system while harvesting the superior fruit of the cultivated olive.
By inverting this common technique, Paul gives further weight to his exhortation that Gentiles not become “arrogant.” The wild olive branch has been grafted into a cultivated olive tree, “contrary to nature.” The shoot receives benefits from the cultivated olive but does not itself add to the overall fruitfulness of the tree. In fact, the wild olive branch produces much less fruit, and that fruit produces much less oil than the cultivated olive. A humbling reflection and cause for much gratitude on the part of the wild olive branches.
Further cause for Gentile humility is right there in the Latin name of the wild olive tree, with the prefix “olea,” meaning olive, and the suffix “aster,” which is used to form diminutive and pejorative nouns, labeling someone pretending to be what they are not. An olive pretender! (We construct many English words using this formation; e.g., a philosophaster is a charlatan philosopher, and a poetaster is an unskilled poet.)
Oleaster, its etymology and its position in the framework of Romans 11, captures on many levels what I hope to express through this collection of resources. As a Gentile grafted into that cultivated olive tree of Israel, I have placed all of my hope in her Messiah—Christ crucified and his coming Kingdom, the consummation of the covenants. My prayer is to avoid the twin warnings of Paul to Gentile believers regarding their understanding of the mystery of Israel, namely ignorance and arrogance, by counteracting them with as much wisdom and humility as possible.
The primary audience of this website, I believe, will be fellow Gentile Christians and Messianic Jews. I hope that in seeing the steady loving kindness of God to Israel, you will be in awe and given fresh assurance of his faithfulness towards you. In contemplating the mystery of Israel—that is, national Israel’s unbelief in light of Israel’s election—you will not be arrogant towards the branches of the cultivated olive tree. In joining the great cloud of witnesses greeting promises from afar, you will persevere in hope.
I also have had the honor of Jewish readers of my content. If this describes you, I’m so glad you are here, and I am grateful for your readership and input. It is with great sadness that I admit that the Church, as a primarily Gentile entity since the third century, has a terrible record of its treatment of the Jewish people. Painfully, the misinterpretation and misapplication of Scripture often served to justify atrocious acts. Though Oleaster is a tiny, niche blog in the vast ocean that is the internet, if I can contribute in any small way to countering antisemitic interpretations of Christian Scripture and offer readings consistent with the original Jewish context, I will be thankful.
To anyone else reading not mentioned yet, welcome to you as well! I don’t take for granted that you took the time to navigate and digest the information here—thank you!
