Q: What is an allegory? A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning — a moral or political one. A symbol.
Q: What other trees are important scriptural symbols? The trees in the Garden of Eden? The tree of life in Lehi’s dream? The tree that grows from the seed planted in our hearts (Alma 32:37)? The cross? Are there any others?
From FAIR Latter-day Saints:
Q: Why is the Lord always threatening to burn the vineyard?
Olive trees will usually grow back after being burned, producing suckers from the old roots. This is often more time-effective than trying to start a completely new crop of trees from scratch.
Q: Is "loftiness" a bad thing? (5:48)
Yes. Olives can easily reach 15-20 meters in height. This makes it harder to pick the fruit and wastes the tree's energy by supporting wood that is not productive of fruit.
This is likely why the Lord of the vineyard "plucks off" [as opposed to "pruning"] the trees — every few years one must cut off all the undesired growth, to keep the trees smaller and more productive/manageable.
Q: Why does the Lord always go "down" to the vineyard?
A few Roman manuals on olive culture (prepared for Roman citizens who were newly made "farmers" on lands which had been seized by the empire — sort of a Latin Olive Farming for Dummies) are extant.
These manuals always recommended that the villa (farmhouse) be placed uphill from the crop areas and animals: and, not surprisingly, upwind from the manure pile! https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Question:_Is_the_Book_of_Mormon%27s_account_of_olive_horticulture_in_Jacob_5_accurate%3F
Q: Why is the Lord always threatening to burn the vineyard?
Olive trees will usually grow back after being burned, producing suckers from the old roots. This is often more time-effective than trying to start a completely new crop of trees from scratch.
Q: Is "loftiness" a bad thing? (5:48)
Yes. Olives can easily reach 15-20 meters in height. This makes it harder to pick the fruit and wastes the tree's energy by supporting wood that is not productive of fruit.
This is likely why the Lord of the vineyard "plucks off" [as opposed to "pruning"] the trees — every few years one must cut off all the undesired growth, to keep the trees smaller and more productive/manageable.
Q: Why does the Lord always go "down" to the vineyard?
A few Roman manuals on olive culture (prepared for Roman citizens who were newly made "farmers" on lands which had been seized by the empire — sort of a Latin Olive Farming for Dummies) are extant.
These manuals always recommended that the villa (farmhouse) be placed uphill from the crop areas and animals: and, not surprisingly, upwind from the manure pile! https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Question:_Is_the_Book_of_Mormon%27s_account_of_olive_horticulture_in_Jacob_5_accurate%3F
Sister Anette Dennis
. . I discovered books that were entertaining and engaging but also used symbolism in their stories. I loved helping my children understand the symbolism the author was using to teach deeper principles, even gospel principles.
. . I discovered books that were entertaining and engaging but also used symbolism in their stories. I loved helping my children understand the symbolism the author was using to teach deeper principles, even gospel principles.
Jesus taught through stories and symbols. . . . His parables were symbols through which He could teach deeper lessons to those who had ears to hear, but those not seeking the deeper meaning would not understand. Just as many who read those same books I read to my children never knew there were deeper meanings and so much more to get out of those stories. Sister Anette Dennis
John Tanner -(All John Tanner quotes from today's discussion come from his essay, “Literary Reflections on Jacob and His Descendants,” found through this link: https://rsc.byu.edu/book-mormon-jacob-through-words-mormon-learn-joy/literary-reflections-jacob-his-descendants
Unfortunately, discussion of this allegory is often so preoccupied with the world-historical interpretations of Zenos’ allegory that we miss the central point Jacob likely had in mind: that God loves and looks after the house of Israel, no matter where its branches or blood are scattered. The allegory is more than a complex puzzle whose solution unlocks world history. The allegory dramatizes God’s steadfast love, as a recent Ensign article has recognized (Swiss). Thematically, Zenos’ allegory ought to take its place beside the parable of the prodigal son, for both make the Lord’s mercy movingly memorable.
Unfortunately, discussion of this allegory is often so preoccupied with the world-historical interpretations of Zenos’ allegory that we miss the central point Jacob likely had in mind: that God loves and looks after the house of Israel, no matter where its branches or blood are scattered. The allegory is more than a complex puzzle whose solution unlocks world history. The allegory dramatizes God’s steadfast love, as a recent Ensign article has recognized (Swiss). Thematically, Zenos’ allegory ought to take its place beside the parable of the prodigal son, for both make the Lord’s mercy movingly memorable.
John Tanner
A key phrase in the allegory of the vineyard, “and it grieveth me that I should lose this tree,” is repeated eight times. By means of such formal repetition, called by literary critics “anaphora,” the allegory sounds a refrain that celebrates the Lord’s long-suffering love. The very recurrence of the line underscores the quality of that divine love—unfailing, persistent, tenacious, resolute. This characterization of the Lord matters as much as, if not more than, the historical details of his plan to redeem Israel. The allegory teaches that the Lord of the vineyard works out his grand design in history. But more than this, it shows us that he weeps over sin: “And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard wept, and said unto the servant: What could I have done more for my vineyard” (Jacob 5:41; see Moses 7:28–41). The Lord of the universe can be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb 4:15), for it grieveth him that he should lose any tree of the vineyard. What a remarkable witness: God is not deus absconditus but deus misericors (or, God is not an absent God, but a feeling God)! I find this allegory one of the most eloquent scriptural testimonies of God’s love anywhere. Surely Jacob did too.
A key phrase in the allegory of the vineyard, “and it grieveth me that I should lose this tree,” is repeated eight times. By means of such formal repetition, called by literary critics “anaphora,” the allegory sounds a refrain that celebrates the Lord’s long-suffering love. The very recurrence of the line underscores the quality of that divine love—unfailing, persistent, tenacious, resolute. This characterization of the Lord matters as much as, if not more than, the historical details of his plan to redeem Israel. The allegory teaches that the Lord of the vineyard works out his grand design in history. But more than this, it shows us that he weeps over sin: “And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard wept, and said unto the servant: What could I have done more for my vineyard” (Jacob 5:41; see Moses 7:28–41). The Lord of the universe can be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb 4:15), for it grieveth him that he should lose any tree of the vineyard. What a remarkable witness: God is not deus absconditus but deus misericors (or, God is not an absent God, but a feeling God)! I find this allegory one of the most eloquent scriptural testimonies of God’s love anywhere. Surely Jacob did too.
John Tanner - Jacob 6:4-5
Just so we don’t miss the point, Jacob tells us what matters most in the allegory. It is not figuring out detailed historical correspondences; it is feeling and seeing “how merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the house of Israel . . . and he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long,” and as a result, repenting: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you” (Jacob 6:4–5). This is the neglected undersong of Zenos’ allegory.
Just so we don’t miss the point, Jacob tells us what matters most in the allegory. It is not figuring out detailed historical correspondences; it is feeling and seeing “how merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the house of Israel . . . and he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long,” and as a result, repenting: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you” (Jacob 6:4–5). This is the neglected undersong of Zenos’ allegory.
Daniel Belnap
It is no surprise that the allegory still resonates today. The allegory reveals truths concerning who we are, what we are expected to do, and what we can become. More importantly, the allegory reveals to us that the Lord truly has a plan, that He is aware at all times what is going on in His vineyard, and that He strives only for the best of all involved. The true power of the allegory comes from understanding that not only is He seeking for oneness and good fruit but also for servants who become companions, associates, and equals, or “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, . . . that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:17).”[22]
John Tanner - Jacob 7:24
The Lamanites were not distant, faceless, nameless enemies; they were his brothers, nephews, and cousins whose names and families he knew. Remembering this helps me read with more sympathy Jacob’s sad parting observation: “Many means were devised to reclaim and restore the Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth; but it all was vain, for they delighted in wars and bloodshed, and they had an eternal hatred against us, their brethren” (Jacob 7:24).
John Tanner - Jacob 7:26
Jacob, like Moroni, writes three farewells: at the end of Jacob 3, 6, and 7. His valediction expresses the accumulated sorrows of a nomadic life: “And also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days” (Jacob 7:26). By now, it should be clear that the sensitivity, vulnerability, and quiet eloquence of this leave-taking is of a piece not only with the facts of Jacob’s life but with his style.
No other Book of Mormon author uses the term “dread.” Similarly, no one else uses “lonesome,” nor can I imagine any one else capable of the expression “our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream,” or “we did mourn out our days.” None are so open about anxiety, none so poetic. No wonder Elder Neal Maxwell called Jacob a poet-prophet (1). Jacob is a poet-prophet whose voice we should learn to recognize, and to love.
President Susan Tanner - February 2009
I am touched by how frequently the Lord expresses His love for His people, even if they stray—maybe especially when they stray. Think of the parables the Savior gives about lost things: sheep, coins, a prodigal son (see Luke 15). The shepherd goes out after the lost sheep; the woman diligently searches her house for the lost silver; the father runs out to his wayward son while he is “yet a great way off … and [falls] on his neck, and [kisses] him” (Luke 15:20). Likewise, in the parable of the olive tree we glimpse the Lord’s long-suffering love for those who stray (see Jacob 5). Again and again, the Lord of the vineyard laments, “It grieveth me that I should lose this tree” (Jacob 5:7, 11, 13, 32). Throughout the book of Isaiah, the Lord reassures Israel that He cannot forget them: “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:16). In the book of Ezekiel the Lord says, “I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken” (Ezekiel 34:16).
Elder Patrick Kearon
“God is in relentless pursuit of you. He wants all of His children to choose to return to Him, and He employs every possible measure to bring you back. Our loving Father oversaw the Creation of this very Earth for the express purpose of providing an opportunity for you and for me to have the stretching and refining experiences of mortality. . . Everything about the Father’s plan for His beloved children is designed to bring everyone home.”
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/45kearon?lang=eng
Other Books/Essays of Interest:
The Allegory of the Olive Tree: The Olive, the Bible, and Jacob 5 by Stephen D. Ricks and John W. Welch.
Ralph Swiss - "The Tame and Wild Olive Trees https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1988/08/the-tame-and-wild-olive-trees-an-allegory-of-our-saviors-love?lang=eng
Jack Welch and David Seely - https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/insights-and-evidences-allegory-olive-tree
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