Zechariah’s “sons of oil” and the olive trees of Romans 11:16–24

Abstract

This study explicates the significance of the olive trees in Zechariah 4:1–14 and Paul’s metaphorical illustration of the olive trees in Romans 11:16–24 and draws a comparison between the two. Both in Zechariah 4:1–14 and in Romans 11:16–24 the focused attention on two olive trees may indicate a common theological parallelism that may have been influential in crafting Paul’s analogy. This study suggests the possibility that Zechariah’s olive trees may have been at the forefront of Paul’s categorical interpretation of the natural and wild olive trees of Romans 11.