Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/928

OLIVES. 794 south (and southeast of Jerusalem) is a third hill, tlic -Mount of Offense, where, according to tradition, Solonion erected altars for the heathen gods of his foreign wives (I. Kings xi. 7-8; 11. Kings xxiii. 13). On the steep western slopes of the .Mount of Offense lies the village of Siloara and in the valley between this mount and the Mount of Olives is one fork of the road to Jericho, on which lay Bethany, whcirte Jesus started on His triumphant entry into Jerusalem (ilatt. xxi. 1 and parallels). The height of the Mount of Olives averages over 2000 feet, about 200 feet higher than the city. The name has come down from early times (ef. II. Sam. XV. 30), and theie is thus reason to believe that it «as once largely covered with olive trees. It was even called (II. Kings xxiii. 13) the Jlount of Anointing, symbolical of the oil produced on it (cf. also Xeli. viii. 15). During the siege by the Romans (a.d. 70) the trees were all cut down, and it has since been almost treeless. As early as the days of David the mount ap- ])ears to "have had on it a sanctuary, jicrhaps originally instituted by the Canaanites and after- wards appropriated by the Israelites. I'rom its conuiianding situition, east of the temi)le hill, as a great protecting wall before the city, the iMounl of Olives was regarded with veneration by the .lews. It was called the Mountain of the Three Lights, since it was lighted up at night by the altar fire of the temple opposite, and by the first rays of the rising sun. and because it furnished the oil for the temple lamps. In prophecy (Zcch. xiv. 4; Ezek. xi. 23) and in Kabbinic teaching it plays a role in the scenes of judgment connected with the iiessianic era. The mountain was the scene of several im- portant incidents in Jesus' ministry. On its ■western slope, near the road leading down to the main eastern gate of the city, lay the (Jarden of Ciethsemane. wliither He often resorted for prayer, and where He was arrested. Somewhere on the same roadside He sat and discoursed to the dis- ciples concerning the coming doom of the city opposite, and in His triumphal entry He passed down its slope on the same highway. Christian tradition has altered and amplified the notices in the Hible by transferring the scene of the Ascension from near Bethany to the sum- mit of Olivet (Luke xxiv. 50; cf. Acts i. 12), where two different spots claim the honor. One of these, an elevation directly cast of the old temple site, is occupied by the Church of the Ascension, a small modern building, hut on the ruins of a church built in the fourth century. It is in possession of Jloslems, but Christians are permitted to use it on certain occasions. The rival spot is on a second eminence farther north, called Viri Oalihei (Acts i. 11), also (but wrongly) Scopus, now the property of the Oreek Catholic Bish(i|)ric of .Jerusalem and well cared for. On this hill extensive catacombs have been recently discovered, indicating that it was once a Jewish burial place, afterwards appro- priated and enlarged by Christians. Xear the Church of the Ascension is a wretched village, Kafr et-Tur. A little to the ea«t on Knssian property a fine observation tower has been erected. South of the Church of the A«cension are the possessions of the Latin Church, with the two chapels, that of the Creed, where the Apostles are said to have formulated the Apostles' Creed, and the Pater Xoster, liuilt by OLIVETANS. a French princess in 1865. Deep down in the valley, just east of the bridge across the Kidron, is a chapel over the legendary site of the grave of ilary, mother of .lesus, whence her body was carried by the angels to heaven. Consult the works treating of the city of Jerusalem (see jEBL'S^iEM) ; reports of the Palestine Kxplora- tion Fund, especially volumes for 1889 and 1S9G: and Baedeker, Palestine and Syria (Leipzig. 1S98). OLIVE-SHELL. A mollusk of the gastropod family, Olivida;, which has a beautiful bIicU that resembles an olive in general shape. Slany species, whose shells are brilliantly ornamented, inhabit the Indian Ocean and Australian seas. They occur at various dcptlis down to fifty feet or so, and creep about the bottom, seizing and feeding upon small animals and carrion, from which the}' suck the juices. -, :m BLACK OLIVE {OUvti M:iutn). OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER. A migra- tory tyraut-llycalcher (Contvjuoi bonalis) of Xorth America, which is slaty-brown above, with darker streaks, and olive-gray below, with the median line of the abdomen white. It frequents mountains and northern pine forests, and makes its nest on the branch of a pine or similar tree. The eggs are cream-colored, marked with rciUlisli- brown and laventlcr spots. Few bi'ced south of Canada, except in Northern New England. Con- sult Baird, Brewer, and Ridgeway, Xorth Ameri- can Birth, vol. ii. (Boston. 1874). See Colored Plate of Eggs of So.ng Birds. OLIVETAN, A'l^'va'tJix', or OLIVETANUS, PlKilUK. KoiiKHT (?-153S). A Frcnih Kcfoinicd thcolo;,'ian, born at Noyon. lie was a kinsman of Caivin and is credited with stimulating him to theological studies. Olivetan taught at (Ge- neva for a year (1532-33), and was then ban- ished to Neuchntel. His great work was a ver- sion of the Bible, a basis for the work of sid)- sequent scholars; it was published at Xcuchiltcl (1535) and at Geneva (1540). He was a pains- taking, but not a great scholar. OLIVET'ANS. A religious Order of the Roman Catholic Church, one of the many remark- able products of the great spiritual movement which characterized the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Olivetans. or Brethren of Our Lady of Mount Olivet, are an olfshoot of the great Benedictine Order, and derive their origin from (Jiovanni de' Tolomei, a native of Siena, born in the year 1272. Tolomei had been a distinguished ])rofcssor of philosophy in the university of his native city; but his career was suddenly interrupted by the loss of his sight. AlthouLdl he was eurcrl of his blindness (and. as he himself believed, miraculously), this visi- tation convinced him of the vanity of earthly things; and in company with some friends he withdrew to Monte Oliveto, near Accona, between