Best Tree is the Oldest: Olive

    The second tree in the midst of the Garden, it seems, is the olive tree. It is the one representative of God, and the visible part of the tree is symbolic of God manifested. In whatever form God shows Himself, that visualization is Jesus Christ. Not that God and Jesus are two different existences, but that Jesus is what God is called when He chooses to show himself to mankind. That is validated by what else God is called - Emmanuel, which is "God with us". Being a literalist when it is not obviously a parable, it is expedient to believe the trees in the Garden were indeed actual living trees, but at the same time were symbolic what was yet remained unseen.
     Did the trees talk to Adam and Eve in the Garden? We see that it was the Serpent in the Tree which spoke to the two. It was an animate being. Was it a real Serpent -  a snake? Likely so, but that "snake" was Lucifer manifested. In the Garden, before sin, it can be assumed that Adam and Eve could see God. Why so? It does not say that they could not, but we soon find out after sin, that they merely heard his Voice (Gen 3:8). They were changed, from bright natures with bright eyes to dark natures with  dim eyes. I suspect that the fruit, after they ate it, changed them, and the most noticeable is that they could no longer see God! They could, however, still recognize his Voice, and they knew he was displeased.
     Because all mankind inherited Adam's flesh, none of us can see God. On the other hand, many can still hear His Voice. It is softly spoken as we recall his Words from Holy Scripture. For instance, when I read scripture in the morning, God expands my understanding as the day wears on. Like the silent scream of an unborn baby who fears danger, God has a silent Voice which only those who love and fear Him can hear.  Even those who are not Christians "hear" God's calling until he tires of calling out of rejection (2 Pet 1:10). That silent Voice sinners hear in their conscience is God's silent scream for us to come to Him (Mat 11:28). That is an important verse because God will give rest from the heavy burden we carry. What is the burden? Guilt! The unrepentant who are calloused to guilt and cease to listen to God's Voice are reprobate (Rom 1:28) and no longer sense guilt. They become spiritually psychopathic!
     Just as the reprobate are as well as damned, those who heed God's Voice are safe, but as good as saved unless they blaspheme. Blasphemy is knowing God but denying Him. I believe that the Fifth Commandment is blasphemy, not by saying God's name without purpose - in vain - but taking His Name - Jesus - and his Purpose frivolously. What is Jesus's Purpose: to redeem sinners from eternal death. The Book of Genesis is so important because the sin instituted therein caused God to put on Flesh and die in our stead. Therefore, Jesus's Purpose was foreknown before the foundation of the world (1 Pet 1:20). At that time, God knew that He would need to manifest Himself as Jesus. The apostle John said that Jesus was there at the beginning of the world (John 1-2, 14). Where was Jesus? Walking in the Garden unseen, but before that in full view for both sets of bright eyes to see!
    It seems that knowing in advance that He would be sinned against, God created a special Tree to represent Jesus until he came. Jesus's Purpose was revealed by the Tree of Life. That was revealed  in the apostle John's Revelation (Rev 22:2). Jesus's Purpose was the healing of man. His Name is theophoric: "Yeshua is salvation". Salvation is healing from death. The Tree of Life represents both Jesus and His Purpose - the Doctrine of Christ. His Purpose was fulfilled on the cross which scripture identifies as a tree: "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree" (Acts 5:30). The Tree of Life was not actually Jesus because "Jesus" walked in the Garden, but represented his Purpose - to provide life!
     Jesus's Purpose can be described with one word - Peace! When the angels proclaimed, "Peace on earth, goodwill toward men," (Luke 2:14), that "Peace" is Jesus's Purpose. God knew His Purpose for coming would not come about as Jesus said, "I came not to send peace, but a sword" (Mat 10:24). God  knew that Jesus's Purpose would not be massively acted upon. The word angels used to describe Jesus's Purpose was "Peace". The olive branch represents peace just about everywhere. Let's look at the identity of that peaceful tree (Wikipedia; "Olive Tree"):

• The olive tree is an evergreen tree or shrub native to the Mediterranean, Asia, and Africa. It is short and squat, and rarely exceeds 8–15 m (26–49 ft) in height.
• The fruit is a small drupe or a fruit with a stone which are preceded by white flowers.
• Olives are used for eating and for its oil. The oil is said to have the power for healing.
• The olive plant later was first cultivated some 7,000 years ago in Mediterranean regions. (We'll take that time. It's close to 6000 years when it originated.)
• Olive oil has long been considered sacred. The olive branch was often a symbol of abundance, glory, and peace. The leafy branches of the olive tree were ritually offered to deities and powerful figures as emblems of benediction and purification, and they were used to crown the victors of friendly games and bloody wars. Today, olive oil is still used in many religious ceremonies. Over the years, the olive has also been used to symbolize wisdom, fertility, power, and purity. 
• Olive oil was used to anoint kings and athletes in ancient Greece. It was burnt in the sacred lamps of temples and was the "eternal flame" of the original Olympic games. Victors in these games were crowned with its leaves. 
• In the Roman Forum the olive tree shadow was used for shade.
• Olive trees in the groves around the Mediterranean Sea are centuries old, with some dated to 2000 years.The olive tree of Vouves in Crete has an age estimated between 2000 and 4000 years.  Lebanon claims to have the oldest olive trees in the world (4000 BC for the oldest),
• Several trees in the Garden of Gethsemane (from the Hebrew words gat shemanim or olive press) in Jerusalem are claimed to date back to the purported time of Jesus.[ A study conducted by the National Research Council of Italy in 2012 used carbon dating on older parts of the trunks of three trees from Gethsemane and came up with the dates of 1092, 1166, and 1198 AD, while DNA tests show that the trees were originally planted from the same parent plant. According to molecular analysis, the tested trees showed the same allelic profile at all microsatellite loci analyzed which furthermore may indicate attempt to keep the lineage of an older species intact. However, Bernabei writes, “All the tree trunks are hollow inside so that the central, older wood is missing . . . In the end, only three from a total of eight olive trees could be successfully dated. The dated ancient olive trees do, however, not allow any hypothesis to be made with regard to the age of the remaining five giant olive trees.” Babcox concludes, “The roots of the eight oldest trees are possibly much older. 

    Without the inside of the trees extant to measure age, the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem could have been trees indigenous to the Garden of Eden. Of course, my premise is that Jerusalem, if not all the Kingdom of David, was the Garden of Eden and Eden was the created land from (Gen 1:1). 

     The Garden of Gethsemane would be "in the midst of the garden" (Gen 2:9). Biblically the Mount of Olives is a Holy Mount and the Garden of Gethsemane the very center of it! Even the word Gethsemane means "oil press". Essentially, the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden was a type of oil press - requiring a decision to eat of the olive tree or the fig!  The choice between the two trees represent man's free will to decide his or her eternal destinations. For me and my house, we seek peace, and that is only obtained through the blood of Jesus! That shed blood is Peace, and it is available to all who drink of living water which in scripture is exemplified by olive oil:

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. (Jas 5:14)

     There are many verses in the bible in reference to oil (which was olive oil), and many are in reference to healing or healing from demons.  Oil in the Bible represents safety, and is the condition for those who drink of the living water until salvation is attained!
     Jesus used the olive tree in the Parable of the Olive Tree to convince the Romans of the need to seek holiness:

For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. (Rom 11:13-27)

     Tomorrow I will comment on the meaning of that parable, but for now let's look at the other trees in the Garden of Eden. "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it" (Gen 2:15).  I have always contended that there were other "trees" in the Garden for Adam to dress and keep. These were not people as that time, but would soon be after their multiplication came about. God intended that mankind have other "trees" in the Garden, but that happened outside the Garden. However, the "trees" within the Garden surely represented the souls of Cain, Abel, Seth, and other sons and daughters (Gen 5:3-4). Sacred Literature names two of the daughters:  Luluwa and Aklia (Adam and Eve and the Conflict with Satan).
     All the "trees" were born outside the Garden. The blind man whose sight was restored by Jesus compared men as "trees": "And he looked up, and said, 'I see men as trees, walking'" (Mark 8:34). Jesus did not correct him, and that comparison had a purpose!
     Adam's purpose was to dress and keep the "trees" as a type of Christ. God's second son, Adam, didn't do that, so His first Son, Jesus did. Jesus came from the beginning to his birth to dress and keep us human "trees"! Jesus did the job assigned to Adam, but by Adam sin came into the world: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom 5:12). Incidentally, by the law of primogeniture, it is the first son who superintended the land and received the inheritance. Mankind has never understood that it is only Jesus, the eldest son of God who does the work and whose land it is. We only inherit the "land" if we are adopted by God, and still do not deserve the inheritance but obtain it!
      The Tree of Life brought forth good fruit for Jesus said, "only God is good" (Mat 19:17). The fig tree bears the corrupt fruit; it is the tree of the world. Jesus expounded upon that: "Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit" (Mat 7:17). However, Jesus was comparing those who ate of the Tree of Life (himself) to those who ate of the forbidden tree (the Serpent's fig tree) or the things and pleasures of the world. Some of each of mankind are good fruit, but most are bad fruit. Jesus came to make everyone good fruit", and Satan to spoil all the "fruit"!

Tomorrow, the Parable of the Olive Tree.

Olive Tree in Garden of Gethsemane (Etsy - WPThayerFineArt)

Olive Fruit (Bibleplaces.com)