Nazareth, the making of Olive Oil

Remember the old olive trees that I spoke of in my last post?  Well, Nazareth Village makes full use of those incredible trees.  Between October and December each year they pick the olives and make olive oil.  They use the same process that was used in Jesus' time.  I don't know how olive oil is currently made but the process used back in first century is pretty cool.

First, the olives are put into a crusher which is a huge wheel attached to a post and an arm.  They use a donkey to pull the arm around.  The olives, which are put in the cavity are crushed by the wheel.  After the olives are crushed, they are taken by hand and put in baskets that have holes in them.  The baskets are stacked about eight high and put in the press area.  There is a hole in the press area that is a bit smaller than the hole in the baskets.

The green arrow is pointing to one of the baskets.

Here is the press area with the hole where the olive oil is captured.  The oil is then scooped out and put into containers.

The weight of the baskets causes some oil to come out of the olives.  That oil is the extra virgin olive oil. This oil is the best oil and was used in the temple.  It was used for lighting the menorah as well as anointing priests.

After that oil is gathered, some weight is applied to the baskets.  The weight at this point is actually the log that you see in the picture to the left.  The log extends quite a ways to where some weights are added for the third pressing of the olives.   This second pressing is what gets you virgin olive oil.  This was used for food purposes as well as for medicines and cosmetics.

After those two pressings, the baskets are pressed a third time. This pressing uses the stone weights.  There are three weights that weigh about 400lbs each.  These are connected to the log arm which squeezes out almost all of the oil out of the olives.  The quality of this oil is a lower quality.  There is some pulp in the oil.  This oil was used for lamps and for making soaps.

What was left was a cake that had a small amount of oil in it.  The cake parts were used to start fires.  All of that usage out of the simple olive.  It's pretty amazing.

Now that I've bored you (?) with the facts.  Let's consider a little that this is related to.  Remember the garden of Gethsemane?  The name Gethsemane comes from the Aramaic Gaṯ-Šmānê which means "oil press".  Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane.  Mark tells us that Jesus prayed three times in the garden  and Luke tells us that Jesus, being in anguish, prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.   Don't you find it interesting that the method for getting olive oil uses three pressings, the name Gethsemane means oil press and Jesus prayed three times in the garden of Gethsemane?  Do you think that the sweat was like drops of blood because Jesus was feeling the heavy pressure of that upcoming task of taking on our sins?  What a weight He must have felt.

We can be so thankful that He did not back out.  He asked God if there was another way yet He was willing to do God's will and not His own.  We are so blessed Jesus was willing to go through what was needed to pay for our sins; for our redemption.  Thank Him today for what He did for you.