Oil was essential in ancient times and one of the first fruit products of the Holy Land. Kings (and queens) were anointed with oil. For example, in 1 Kings 1:39, Zadok the priest took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. Washing and anointing occurred together in ancient times as a hygiene practice. The body was washed to get rid of any uncleanness, and then oil was poured on the body to seal in the good elements and to seal out the unclean elements. Psalm 133:2 describes the “precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments.”
Pure olive oil is a symbol of the atonement of Jesus Christ. The name Gethsemane comes from two Hebrew roots—gath, meaning “press” and shemen, meaning “oil or fatness.” Hence, Gethsemane is an oil press.
The process of extracting oil from the olives reminds us of our Savior’s suffering in Gethsemane. First, the olives were either picked by workers climbing ladders, or rods were used to beat the branches, causing the olives to fall onto a cloth. The olives were then dumped into a limestone crushing basin, and a large limestone grinding wheel would go around to crush the olives into a mash. The mash was then placed in mesh baskets, which were stacked under the press. The press consisted of a large beam with stones used as weights to crush the mesh baskets, and a reddish-brown, bloodlike liquid would ooze out of the baskets.
Jesus was beaten and scourged (like the olive branches). He carried the burden of our sins and suffering, which weight caused Him to bleed at every pore (like the mesh baskets).
To help visualize this, I have attached a YouTube video from the “Messages of Christ” channel. Daniel Smith, who narrates this video, brought some of these mesh baskets that would carry the olive mash to Education Week last year. It was a spiritual experience to see them and hear the story.
Whether the pure olive oil is used to anoint kings and queens, or priests and priestesses, heal the sick and afflicted, or to light the candlestick in the ancient temple, it all goes back to Gethsemane and the atonement of Jesus Christ.
In 2 Kings 4, Elisha multiplies a widow’s oil. Her husband was one of the “sons of the prophets,” who studied under and followed Elisha, and is now dead. The creditor has now come to take away her two sons to be bondmen. Elisha asks, “What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house?” She replies, “Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house, save a pot of oil.” Elisha tells her to borrow vessels from all her neighbors. He said, “And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.” After she poured the oil to fill the vessels, she asked for another empty one. There was not another empty vessel, but all of them were full. Elisha said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.”
Isaiah speaks of a future “feast of fat things full of marrow.” (Isaiah 25:6). “Fat things” is the Hebrew word shemen. In western culture, excessive “fatness” is not a good thing, but in the scriptures, shemen is always a good thing, pointing back to the oil press of Gethsemane. Jacob says, “let your soul delight in fatness” (2 Nephi 9:51).
In the story of Elisha and the widow, symbolic oil from Gethsemane, “the oil press,” is used to deliver the widow’s sons from bondage and to sustain life. The Savior’s atonement releases us from the bondage of sin and multiplies our joy!