Gethsemane Monastery
Gethsemane Monastery - Olive Tree
Olive trees are resilient plants. After a couple of centuries, they
stop producing olives and the branches wither. But if the withered
branches are
broken or cut away, new branches sprout and the olive tree starts to produce
olives again. One olive tree in Magliano in Italy's Tuscany region is touted
to be 3500 years old.
This macabre trunk belongs to an olive tree in the Garden of Gethsemane Monastery and is said to be only 2000 years old.
Gethsemane monastery also enshrines a large flat rock on which, according to the friar in charge of the Gethsemane monastery, Jesus prayed on that fateful night. When pressed for Biblical evidence of Jesus having prayed on that rock or any other rock in the Gethsemane monastery for that matter, the friar conceded that that detail had been added by his tradition.
The last chapter of the Bible ends with a stern warming about adding to the Bible: "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." (Revelation 22:18-19)
This macabre trunk belongs to an olive tree in the Garden of Gethsemane Monastery and is said to be only 2000 years old.
Gethsemane monastery also enshrines a large flat rock on which, according to the friar in charge of the Gethsemane monastery, Jesus prayed on that fateful night. When pressed for Biblical evidence of Jesus having prayed on that rock or any other rock in the Gethsemane monastery for that matter, the friar conceded that that detail had been added by his tradition.
The last chapter of the Bible ends with a stern warming about adding to the Bible: "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." (Revelation 22:18-19)