zerinus wrote:To suggest an ancient culture and civilization stretching back many thousands years, long before even the Israelites came into existence, who had learned to cultivate fruit trees of various kinds including (especially) the olive tree, whose product was such an important staple of their experience (not just for food, but for illumination and other purposes as well), had not figured out tree grafting until the Greeks came along stretches the imagination quite a bit.
Nope. You don't know much about the history of technology, do you? Many innovations seem obvious once you have them - but only then.
And in any case, the fact that Jacob says nothing whatsoever about oil (which is the main reason for raising olives, rather than eating them), considers it unusual that a cultivated olive should taste bitter (as they
all do) and seems to think that the olive is some kind of fruit that can be eaten like an apple without elaborate preparation is fatal to any idea that Jacob is from an olive-using culture.
Still, kudos for maintaining your faith in the face of all evidence and logic. That's really the point for you, isn't it?