ISRAEL PHOTOS III -- A COLLECTION OF PHOTOS
FROM ISRAEL
WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF SCENES AND
SITES PERTINENT TO THE STUDY OF CHRISTIANITY
OLIVE HARVEST AT SAMARIA
Samaria (January 2006)
John 4 - American Standard Version
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
27 Just then his disciples returned
and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do
you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"
28 Then, leaving her water jar,
the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
29 "Come, see a man who told me
everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"
30 They came out of the town and made
their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged
him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32 But he said to them, "I have
food to eat that you know nothing about." 33 Then his disciples said to each
other, "Could someone have brought him food?" 34" My food," said Jesus, "is to
do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
35 Do you not say, 'Four months more
and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They
are ripe for harvest.
36 Even now the
reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that
the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
37 Thus the saying 'One sows and
another reaps' is true.
38 I sent you
to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you
have reaped the benefits of their labor."
Many Samaritans Believe
39 Many of the Samaritans from that
town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I
ever did."
40 So when the Samaritans
came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.
41 And because of his words many more
became believers.
Jesus was speaking to the residents of Shechem who had a saying; "four months
and then the harvest". Some of these may have been out of work and
had time to go from the village to listen to Jesus. They were longing for
the harvest time as it was a time of maximum employment and higher wages.
Labor shortages existed as there was much work in the harvesting, transport,
processing, and storage of oil. There were times when hundreds of acres
of olive trees were ready for harvest at one time and many people were able to
find jobs. Jesus was traveling north after the Passover. He had
paused to baptize some people at a site along the Jordan River before his
enemies became aware of his activities. After they were aware of his
activities, Jesus moved west and turned north towards Galilee. I would
imagine this was April or May. Four months more would have been Aug -
Sept. I arrived in Samaria during late September to find most of the
olives along the road were harvested for oil production. According to a
guide in Jerusalem the olives used for salads were harvested in October.
Most of the olive crop in this area was used for olive oil production.
There was some grain production in the valleys of the hill country around Shechem and there was harvesting of barley through April and the wheat harvest
began in May. There were larger tracts of grain along the coast and to the north near Nazareth
in the Jezreel Valley with owners requiring field helpers. The fields were ripe or white (light colored as
they dried out) for the harvest. If the truth were to be known there was a lot more
work that should have been done than people knew about, or wanted to do.
"The Olive Orchard", Vincent Van Gogh, 1889
The olive harvest was a time when all able bodied people were needed. Men,
women, and children earned wages.
