Gethsemane Monastery
Gethsemane Monastery Tree
Olive trees are resilient plants. After a couple of centuries, they stop
bearing olives and wither. But if the withered branches are broken or cut
away, new branches sprout and the tree starts to bear olives again. One
olive tree in Magliano in Italy's Tuscany region is touted
to be 3500 years old.
The macabre trunk above belongs to an olive tree in the Gethsemane monastery and is said to be only 2000 years old.
Gethsemane monastery enshrines a large flat rock on which, according to the friar in charge of the monastery, Jesus prayed on that fateful night. When pressed for Biblical evidence of Jesus having prayed on that rock or any other rock for that matter, the good friar conceded that that detail had been added by his tradition.
The last chapter of the Bible ends with a stern warming about adding to the Bible: "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." (Revelation 22:18-19)
The macabre trunk above belongs to an olive tree in the Gethsemane monastery and is said to be only 2000 years old.
Gethsemane monastery enshrines a large flat rock on which, according to the friar in charge of the monastery, Jesus prayed on that fateful night. When pressed for Biblical evidence of Jesus having prayed on that rock or any other rock for that matter, the good friar conceded that that detail had been added by his tradition.
The last chapter of the Bible ends with a stern warming about adding to the Bible: "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." (Revelation 22:18-19)