Day 42: Pages 124-126

Let's call this post "Jacob 5 Preparation".

I told you before that I love olive trees, but today is not the day to start giving stories as to why. Jacob 5 is known as the "Allegory of the Olive Tree". This is not actually Jacob's sermon, he is quoting Zenos. We don't know much about Zenos, other than he was a Hebrew prophet. He is quoted several times throughout the Book of Mormon. An allegory is a literary device where one object or event is used to describe another. In the "Allegory of the Olive Tree" the cultivation of an olive tree is used to tell the story of Israel's history and destiny.

The next couple of days will be spent in the midst of this allegory, so to start us off I have a chart of some of the symbols with their meanings. Hopefully this helps to add meaning to this lengthy chapter.

Symbol	Meaning
Vineyard	The world
Master of the vineyard	Jesus Christ
Tame olive tree	The house of Israel, the Lord’s covenant people
Wild olive tree	Gentiles (people not born into the house of Israel)
Branches	Groups of people
Servants	Prophets and others called to serve
Fruit	Lives or works of people