"This is Olivet, the Mount of Olives. Olives is almost as important in Jerusalem as the wine. From the time of Solomon, the kings of Judea is anointed with olive oil. When someone is dying, he is covered with olive oil and wrapped in cloth. Once this hill is covered with olive trees, but the
Romans cut down most of them when they have the rule of Jerusalem. They don't know the importance of the olives."
Romans cut down most of them when they have the rule of Jerusalem. They don't know the importance of the olives."
He's sitting on a stone bench, and he spreads both arms toward the twisted olive trunks still growing on the stony hill. "The olive tree is hollow, so the tree dating cannot be done. These trees can be three thousand years old, and maybe they are here when Jesus teaches the Lord's Prayer to his disciples. Inside the Church ofthe Pater Noster is the prayer in 106 different
languages. And see there is the rock where Jesus is praying when the
disciples fall asleep."
"Is this the same view Jesus would have seen?" Rory stares, hungrily, toward the wall ofthe Old City opposite the Mount.
"This particular wall is not here when Jesus is coming. This wall is built by Suleiman in the sixteenth century. But it is built on the line of the old wall, so it looks much the same. The Dome of the Rock, of course, is not here when Jesus looks at the city from Olivet."
