Jokes7 mins ago
The "Olive Branch"
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable...
"An olive-branch was anciently a symbol of peace. The vanquished who sued for peace carried olive-branches in their hands. And an olive-twig in the hands of a king (on medals), as in the case of Numa, indicated a reign of peace."
(Numa Pompilius was the second king of Rome and not a kind of dance or anything to do with underwater activities, if you're tempted to do a Google search!)
The Bible ark story certainly involved an olive branch but seems to have less to do with the idea of peace than the idea that dry land - and hence trees - still existed. In addition, the Bible held little sway in ancient Rome where an olive branch certainly was a peace symbol.
And I didn't say that you had, O! I was simply pointing out for Dave's benefit - as you are now further doing yourself - that the peace-symbolism of the olive-branch is far more widely spread than just the Bible.
Your reference to Genesis 8/11 reads, in the King James' Version: "And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive-leaf pluckt off. So Noah knew the waters were abated from off the earth." It has nothing to do with peace, but only with knowing the flood had subsided, as I indicated earlier.
Of course, the knowledge that ancient Egyptians and ancient Romans as well as ancient Hebrews saw the olive-branch as a peace symbol does not really help any of us to grasp why. Why not the date, fig or whatever other Mediterranean/Middle Eastern plant's leaf/branch might occur to us?
I can't help thinking of the Native Americans and their "pipe of peace". Why not a "deer-stew of peace" or a "hooch-goblet of peace"?
The real point here is that none of us has truly answered the question...in my case at least because I don't know. Nor, I suspect - given that it stretches so far into the past - does anyone else.
I presume, therefore, that the notion must have been handed down via Jewish oral tradition alone. Either that or we've been barking up the wrong (olive!) tree as regards the Hebrew/olive/peace connection for a long time! Cheers