Olive Oil Production: From Garden of Oil Presses to the Lamp

The Olive Tree in Palestinian Agriculture

The olive (*Olea europaea*, Hebrew *zayit*, Greek *elaia*) was the most economically important tree crop in ancient Palestine. It appears among the 'seven species' of the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 8:8) and was a staple of the Mediterranean triad - olive oil, grain, and wine - that sustained ancient civilization. An olive orchard (*bat*) represented significant family wealth: olive trees required no irrigation (they are drought-adapted), produced for 50-100 years (some trees live for 2,000 years), and generated a commodity essential for every household function.

The challenge of olive oil production was the harvest. Olives ripen in October-November and must be harvested before the first cold weather damages the oil content. The Mishnah (*Bikkurim* 1:3) and rabbinic literature describe olive harvest (*mesikat zaytim*) as one of the defining moments of the agricultural year.

Harvesting Methods

Olives were harvested three ways in antiquity, each affecting quality:

**Hand picking**: Laborers picked individual olives by hand - slow but preserving the fruit undamaged. This produced the highest-quality oil.

**Beating with poles** (*chottet*, Deuteronomy 24:20): Workers beat the branches with long poles to knock olives loose. The Torah required leaving behind what fell ('when you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again; it shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow' - Deuteronomy 24:20). Mechanical efficiency traded oil quality for speed.

**Raking or combing**: A hand-held rake stripped olives from branches without damaging the tree. Isaiah 17:6 uses the image of gleaning after the olive harvest ('gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten - two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree').

Three Grades of Oil

The three pressing stages produced oils of different quality and purity:

**First press (virgin oil, *shemen zayit kathi*)**: Olives were bruised gently or rolled in a stone basin (*gat*), allowing oil to flow out by gravity before any pressing pressure was applied. This oil was the purest and lightest - suitable for Temple use. Leviticus 24:2 specifies 'pure oil from beaten olives' (*shemen zayit kath*) for the Temple menorah. The Mishnah (*Menachot* 8:4-5) specifies that the menorah oil must be first-press oil from hand-harvested olives.

**Second press**: The bruised olive paste was placed in baskets (*aqqal*, made of esparto grass) and pressed under a heavy beam (*qorat*) weighted with stones, or later under a screw press. This produced the bulk of usable cooking and commerce oil.

**Third press**: The exhausted paste was soaked in warm water and re-pressed, producing a lower-quality oil used for soap-making, lamp fuel, and other non-food purposes.

The Oil Press: Gat Shemanim / Gethsemane

The name **Gethsemane** (*Gat Shemanim* in Hebrew/Aramaic) means 'press of oils' or 'oil vat' - an olive oil pressing installation. Matthew 26:36 and Mark 14:32 identify it as a *chorion* ('place/estate') at the foot of the Mount of Olives; John 18:1 calls it a 'garden' (*kepos*) across the Kidron Valley. The Mount of Olives was named for its olive orchards, and pressing facilities would naturally be located where the olives were grown.

The irony embedded in the location is significant to Christian interpretation: Jesus's most agonized prayer ('Not my will but yours be done,' Luke 22:42; his sweat 'like great drops of blood,' Luke 22:44) takes place at an oil press. As olive oil is pressed out of olives under crushing weight, so the 'anointed one' (Messiah/Christ) is pressed under the weight of the coming sacrifice.

Archaeological Olive Presses

Hundreds of olive pressing installations from the Iron Age through Byzantine period have been found throughout Israel. The basic equipment:

**Crushing basin** (*yam*): A round stone basin in which olives were crushed by a rolling stone wheel (rotated around a central pivot). Archaeological examples range from small domestic installations to large commercial facilities processing tons of olives.

**Beam press**: A horizontal wooden beam, fixed at one end in a wall socket, with stone weights hung from the free end. Baskets of crushed olive paste placed under the beam were squeezed by the beam's weight and leverage. Archaeological beam presses have been found at Ekron (Tel Miqne), which had over 100 olive oil presses in the 7th century BCE - the largest olive oil production center known from the ancient Near East, capable of producing 290 tons of oil annually.

**Screw press** (*ed*): A later technology, appearing in Hellenistic and Roman periods, using an Archimedean screw mechanism to apply pressure mechanically. More efficient than beam presses.

Uses of Olive Oil

**Cooking**: Olive oil was the primary cooking fat throughout the Mediterranean world. Frying, sauteing, and baking all used oil.

**Lighting**: Olive oil was the primary fuel for clay lamps throughout the biblical period. Every household consumed oil for light.

**Medicine**: The Good Samaritan applies oil and wine to wounds (Luke 10:34) - oil as a wound treatment appears in Talmudic medicine and is consistent with the antibiotic properties of olive polyphenols. Isaiah 1:6 ('wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil') implies that oil treatment of wounds was standard care.

**Cosmetics**: Oil was applied to skin and hair as moisturizer and conditioner in a dry climate. Ruth 3:3 ('wash, anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes') treats anointing as standard preparation for an important occasion. Fasting and mourning involved *not* anointing (2 Samuel 12:20 - David rose from fasting and 'anointed himself' as the first act of returning to normal life).

**Ritual anointing**: First-press oil was used for anointing kings, priests, prophets, and the sick (see *anointing-practices* entry).

**Trade**: Olive oil was a major export commodity. 1 Kings 5:11 records Solomon sending Hiram 20,000 *baths* of olive oil annually for his Phoenician construction workforce - payment in the Mediterranean world's liquid gold.

The Widow's Oil Miracle

2 Kings 4:1-7 records Elisha instructing a widow to collect all available jars and fill them from her single jar of oil - the oil multiplied miraculously until all the jars were full. The widow sold the oil and paid her debt, preserving her sons from debt-slavery. The story is set against the background of olive oil as the universal liquid commodity: oil could always be sold, its value was stable, and its production was the woman's only asset.

Parallel Cultures

Olive oil production archaeology is one of the best-documented ancient industries. The excavation of Ekron (*Tel Miqne*) by Seymour Gitin and Trude Dothan revealed 115 olive oil presses from the 7th century BCE - the industrial scale confirmed textual references. Egyptian texts refer to imported olive oil as a luxury; Mesopotamian records mention *samnum* (oil) as a standard commodity. Greek *Linear B* tablets from Mycenae (c. 1400 BCE) record olive oil production in palace accounting, confirming the industry's antiquity.

Scholarly Sources

Seymour Gitin and Trude Dothan's *Ekron of the Philistines* (various publications) document the massive oil-pressing installation. Oded Borowski's *Agriculture in Iron Age Israel* covers olive cultivation and pressing in detail. For ritual oil uses, Milgrom's *Leviticus* commentary and the entries in *Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament* under *shemen* are essential. Philip King and Lawrence Stager's *Life in Biblical Israel* (2001) treats the full range of olive oil uses.

• Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel (1987)
• Gitin & Dothan, Ekron excavation reports
• King & Stager, Life in Biblical Israel (2001)
• Milgrom, Leviticus (Anchor Bible)