El Libro de Mormón/Olivicultura

Pregunta

¿Corresponde el relato del Libro de Mormón del cultivo del olivo en el capítulo 5 de JacobJacob 5 a lo que sabemos de este tema?

Respuesta

El Libro de Mormón pinta un cuadro notablemente preciso de la horticultura del olivo.^[1] Hay dos puntos en los cuales la alegoría/parábola se desvía de los principios conocidos del cultivo del olivo; en ambos casos, los personajes de la alegoría atraen la atención del lector a estas desviaciones con algo de asombro. Así, estos 'errores' hacen un papel dramático para demostrar el significado de la alegoría/parábola.^[2]

Información correcta del cultivo del olivo

Información de^[3] a menos que se indique algo contrario.

Elemento	Principio de horticultura
Olivos silvestres vs. olivos cultivados	Hay muchas especies [por lo menos 35-40] de olivos, pero sólo uno, Olea europaea, es cultivado. Olivos cultivados tienen aceitunas más grandes y con un contenido mayor de aceite, habiendo sido engendrados para estas características deseadas. Olivos silvestres a menudo tienen espinas, que los hace menos agradable manipular.
La propagación entre especies silvestres y cultivados de olivos	Olea europaea L. es infértil con algunos especies de olivos silvestres.
La propagación de olivos silvestres	La aceituna es la semilla del olivo. Uno puede plantar la semilla, pero esto tiene una desventaja: las semillas se producen sexualmente (por la unión de materia genética macho y hembra). Así, es posible que no tengan todas las características deseadas de una planta madre específico, ya que uno no puede controlar siempre cuál otro árbol fertiliza a cada semilla.
Todo olivo silvestre se propaga sólo por semillas.	Así, hasta los árboles con características deseadas tenderán a producir descendientes que "revierten" a silvestres, ya que sus genes se mezclan y se combinan por la propagación por semillas.
El cultivo de olivos nuevos	Afortunadamente para los cultivadores de olivos, los olivos cultivados (i.e., domésticos) se pueden propagar asexualmente [i.e. sin la propagación sexual, o la mezcla de materia genética — algo como una bacteria que se divide en dos, haciendo una copia perfecta de sí misma), y esto también es más rápido que el cultivo de semillas. Esta propagación asexual implica que un olivo emite ramas o raíces, que pueden ser cortadas y simplemente "plantadas" en la tierra, donde crecerán como árboles genéticamente idénticas — un clon, en términos genéticos, una copia exacta de la planta madre (con todas sus características buenas). Esto puede sugerir qué puede hacer el evangelio del lector — un clon de Cristo, digamos, en su comportamiento y carácter.
El uso de olivos silvestres como "rizoma"	El pariente silvestre del olivo cultivado, Olea oleaster puede ser usado como parte de la propagación por "raíces" anteriormente descritas. Una raíz puede ser injertada en un olivo no doméstico ("silvestre") para la nutrición, pero continuará produciendo aceitunas según so propia genética. (Este es el modelo del cual se desvía cuando el olivo silvestre comienza a producir fruto cultivado — véase abajo.) below.) Esto se hace a menudo para obtener los beneficios de cierto rizoma (resistencia a la enfermedad, habilidad de perseverar con menos agua, etc.) con cierta categoría deseada del fruto de la rama doméstica.
Olive trees are valuable	They live for hundreds of years. Starting a new olive grove was a major investment anciently, since no production could be hoped for before 40 years. It's no wonder olive trees were a common feature of civilization: one needed a stable, settled society to even think about growing them. [In fact, olives were considered by the Greeks to be a gift from the goddess Athena. This was common thinking in the ancient world — olive oil was good for light, medicinal purposes, cleaning or adorning the body, and for food. Olives were the key lipid (fat) source in early Eurasian agriculture, and a major economic driving force for the Greeks and the Roman empire (among others).]
Pruning is important	Fruit size varies with environmental conditions; sometimes excess fruit must be trimmed away so that the remaining fruit will grow larger, increasing the yield of oil. Fruit only grows on two-year-old branches of trees, so older branches must be pruned away as needed so as to concentrate the tree’s "efforts" on the productive branches. [One can't cut too many off at once, as the allegory says, or this won't leave enough leaves for photosynthesis, etc.]
Why is the Lord always threatening to burn the vineyard?	Olive trees will usually grow back after being burned, producing suckers from the old roots. This is often more time-effective than trying to start a completely new crop of trees from scratch.
Why are branches cut off and then burned?	This destroys any disease or parasite that may have caused the bad fruit, and prevents it from infecting the rest of the vineyard. Olive wood on the ground would also get in the way of the dunging, plowing, etc. needed to take care of the valuable trees. The old wood is also knotted, twisted, and brittle: it is "good for nothing", one might say, except for burning.
Dung is an important fertilizer	5-10 tons per hectare every 1-2 years is needed in dry climates; half as frequently in wet areas.
Why the digging about the trees?	This aerates the soil, and lets minerals like potash and phosphates reach the feeder roots (since upper soil layers often bind these nutrients). Deep plowing is generally called for, and this needs to be done twice a year.
Olive trees do not need constant care	These trees have been called the "Cinderella" of agriculture, since one can leave them for a while and come back during the "off season" when there is no other crop work to do. This fits with the allegory, where the Lord and servant will leave for a while, and then come back and see how things are going.
Is "loftiness" a bad thing?	Yes. Olives can easily reach 15-20 meters in height. This makes it harder to pick the fruit and, wastes the tree's energy by supporting wood that is not productive of fruit. This is likely why the Lord of the vineyard "plucks off" [as opposed to "pruning"] the trees — every few years one must cut off all the undesired growth, to keep the trees smaller and more productive/manageable.
How are laborers typically paid?	It was typical to provide the hired help with money wages. The offer to share the crop and its profits "should probably be understood as being very generous".[4]
Why does the Lord always go "down" to the vineyard?	A few Roman manuals on olive culture (prepared for Roman citizens who were newly made "farmers" on lands which had been seized by the empire — sort of a Latin Olive Farming for Dummies) are extant. These manuals always recommended that the villa (farmhouse) be placed uphill from the crop areas and animals: and, not surprisingly, upwind from the manure pile!

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Unusual olive culture information

"Deviation" from Biology	Relevance for Interpretation
1. Grafted branches do not "take on" the genetic and fruit-bearing characteristics of the trunk to which they are grafted, despite the claim in Jacob 5.	This does not happen with "real" olive trees, but Christ and His Gospel can transform one's very nature when a believer becomes "grafted in.” The parable author knows that he's stretching the truth here — the servant (who knows something about olive growing) is amazed, and calls the Lord: "Behold, look here; behold the tree." (verse 16). This is astonishing, and it is meant to be — it is a miracle, just as every transformation of sinner to saint is a miracle that cannot be explained, yet cannot be denied when one "tastes the fruits." Likewise, tame fruit does not "become wild" in a genetic sense, though it may well take on the "wild" fruit aspects of being smaller, more bitter, and having less oil content because of poor farming, disease, nutritional or environmental problems, etc.
2. Trees grown in poor ground will not, as claimed, do as well as trees in good ground if given the same care and attention.	The servant, once again, clearly knows his olive culture. He asks the Lord just what he's thinking of: "How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard." (verse 21) The Lord's reply is "Counsel me not" — I know what I'm doing here. He's the Lord of the vineyard, and producing fruit (purified souls) is His business. Mankind's trials, sufferings, disadvantages, and tribulations are key in that process — see Ether 12, 2 Corinthians 12. The believer ought not to seek to "counsel" the Lord on these issues: He knows them already. The believer ought, rather, to trust His skill in the vineyard of souls.

Conclusion

Jacob 5 is a virtuoso performance by Joseph Smith in his role as translator. He presents an intricate, accurate account of olive culture, and uses variances from the "proper" technique as a teaching tool. It should be noted that there was (and is) no olive culture done in New England. Furthermore, the original manuscript exists for part of this chapter — Jacob 5:46-48, 57-61, 69-70, and 77. Only one word is altered after dictation: "diged" in "digged about" of verse 47.^[5] Thus, Joseph produced this material by dictation, with no revision.

Endnotes

1. [back]  See the exhaustive Multiple Authors, "All," in Stephen D. Ricks & John W. Welch (editors), Allegory of the Olive Tree: The Olive, the Bible, and Jacob 5 (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Co. ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1994), 1. ISBN 0875797679. GL direct link
2. [back] Dennis L. Largey (editor), Book of Mormon Reference Companion (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 2003),618–621. ISBN 1573452319.
3. [back]  WM Hess, DJ Fairbanks , JW Welch, JK Driggs, "Botanical Aspects of Olive Culture Relevant to Jacob 5," in Stephen D. Ricks & John W. Welch (editors), Allegory of the Olive Tree: The Olive, the Bible, and Jacob 5 (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Co. ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1994),484–562. ISBN 0875797679. GL direct link (unless otherwise indicated).
4. [back]  Hess et al., 529.
5. [back]  Royal Skousen (editor), The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon : typographical facsimile of the extant text [Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, Vol. 1] (Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University, 2001),200–203. ISBN 0934893047.

Further reading

Printed material

• Multiple Authors, "All," in Stephen D. Ricks & John W. Welch (editors), Allegory of the Olive Tree: The Olive, the Bible, and Jacob 5 (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Co. ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1994), 1. ISBN 0875797679. GL direct link