Saturday, January 13, 2024

Sharon J. Harris on Collective Atonement and Jacob 5

  

The Allegory of the Olive Tree

 

Jacob’s tale of the olive trees, drawn from the extrabiblical prophet Zenos, is cooperative and boasts a cast of characters. Instead of one person—a sinner, lost sheep, silver coin, or prodigal son—the tree that opens the story represents the entire house of Israel: “thus saith the Lord, I will liken thee, O house of Israel, like into a tame olive tree which a man took and nourished in his vineyard” (Jacob 5:3). As the tree ages and begins to decay, the Lord hopes to encourage new, young growth. Soon a servant joins the master of the vineyard in caring for the tree, and their first strategy to save it involves mixing the branches with other trees in the vineyard. Throughout this allegory, salvation is a group project, and, apparently, not the kind in which on laborer can do all the work alone.

 

As the story progresses, what began as care for one tree grows to include more and more in the vineyard. The Lord expands his focus from the tree representing the house of Israel to its branches. This perspective increases to become care for all the trees and the vineyard as a whole. Initially the Lord takes interest exclusively in the tame olive tree saying multiple times. “It grieveth me that I should lose this tree” (vv. 7, 11-13; see also v. 18). But once it has been cross-grafted—its branches spread throughout the wild trees and wild branches grafted into the tame tree’s roots—the master evaluates the results, carefully checking each transplant site. He travels to the nethermost parts of the vineyard: “Behold, these! . . . Take of the fruit thereof . . . that I may preserve it unto mine own self,” and “Look hither and behold another branch also which I have planted” (vv. 20, 24; see also vv. 14, 21-26). Scattering the tame tree branches multiplies his care for the entire vineyard, such that when all the trees fail to produce good fruit, the Lord of the vineyard weeps. Instead of referring to just the one tree, he repeatedly asks, “What could I have one more for my vineyard?” (vv. 41, 47). The enterprise of saving the tame olive tree widens to that of saving the entire vineyard. The allegory suggests that the trees’ success is interdependent, that what affects one ultimately has an impact on the rest of the vineyard too. In short, concern for one tree must spread to concern for all if any of the trees are to survive.

 

The tame roots are necessary for the wild branches to produce good fruit. In like manner, the grafted wild branches revitalize the decaying tame tree. As Deidre Green writes of the allegory:

 

God’s covenant with Israel will not be fulfilled if those within the covenant isolate themselves from others. The tame olive trees that represent Israel cannot flourish or even survive without the new life introduced by the wild branches. Far from being disposable, the wild olive trees alone are capable of saving the tame olive trees from being deemed “good for nothing” and cast out. (Deirdre Nicole Green, Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction [Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2020], 102)

 

If any part of the vineyard is to be spared, the various trees, branches, and roots need each other. The master designs them into productive relations, and how the servant encourages the master to give the endeavor enough time to grow.

 

Not only are there trees interdependent with one another but also the lord and servants relationship is collaborative. When the Lord despairs that all his trees produce bad fruit, the servant urges and persuades him to wait, make new attempts, and still try to save the vineyard. When the Lord says to “pluck off the branches that have not brought forth good fruit and cast them into the fire,” the servant replies, “Let us prune it and dig about it and nourish it a little longer, that perhaps it may bring forth good fruit unto thee” (v. 27). When the lord sees the trees as good for nothing and is ready to hew them all down, the servant coaxes, “Spare it a little longer” (v. 50). The Lord agrees and, with renewed resolve, plans to regraft some branches and clear away others (vv. 52, 54, 65). He engages additional servants “that we may labor with our mights in the vineyard” (v. 61). There is a different picture than a singular, omnipotent God who dispenses individual permission slips into heaven. This is a picture of “all hands on deck” for sweat and problem-solving; for backbreaking, dirty work and undetermined experiments; and for head-scratching frustration combined with arboricultural acumen. Jacob (through Zenos) presents salvation as an ambitious family home-improvement project that must be figured out together. This is the story Jacob tells of how the lord and his followers work out salvation.

 

If we pluck the allegory out as a self-contained story, we may not readily categorize it as an account of Christ as Savior. But Jacob connects the allegory of the olive trees to Christ as Savior directly. In context, the transnational and transtemporal allegory of the olive trees is not presented as a sweeping story of a global Abrahamic covenant, although it can be read as such. Rather, Jacob tells the allegory of the olive tree to show the house of Israel returns to Christ. In the previous chapter, he writes, “for why not speak of the atonement of Christ and attain a perfect knowledge of him?” (Jacob 4:12). And from this query, he explains how one branch of the house of Israel would not accept Christ. The premise for the allegory of the olive trees arises as Jacob circles back to ask, “how is it possible that these, after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it that it may become the head of their corner?” (Jacob 4:17). He proceeds to answer that question through the example of communal salvation in the allegory. As Jacob frames it, the story of the olive trees is about the Savior of each individual sinner, the one lost sheep, the single silver coin, and the one prodigal son, but the allegory is also an illustration of how an entire lost people may be redeemed through other prophets. (Sharon J. Harris, “Saving the House of Israel: Collective Atonement in the Book of Mormon,” in Latter-day Saint Perspectives on Atonement, ed. Deirdre Nicole Green and Eric D. Huntsman [Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2024], 118-20)