Bible Dictionary
Graft
Grafting is the process of joining a branch to a plant so that it grows from the established stock. Paul uses the practice, especially with olive trees, to illustrate Gentiles being joined to God’s people through faith.
Definition
Grafting is the process of joining a branch or shoot to an established plant so that the union produces living growth. The practice was especially associated with olive trees. A cultivated olive shoot was inserted into a prepared branch, secured, and protected until it grew.
Biblical Usage
Paul uses grafting in Romans 11 to illustrate Gentiles being joined to the people of God. The union of branches with a stem represents the spiritual flourishing of Gentiles through God’s mercy, first revealed to the world through Israel.
Historical Background
Olive culture was familiar among Greeks and Romans in Paul’s time. Wild olive trees were cut back, prepared with slits, and fitted with shoots from cultivated olives; the joins were covered with clay and bound with cloth or straw.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
The process of inoculating fruit-trees (Rom. 11:17-24). It is peculiarly appropriate to olive-trees. The union thus of branches to a stem is used to illustrate the union of true believers to the true Church.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>graft (egkentrizo; the Revised Version (British and American) "graft"; the King James Version, "graff"): The word occurs 6 times in Ro 11. Paul assumed that those living about Rome were familiar with the process of grafting olive trees, for olive culture had been adopted by the Greeks and Romans in Paul's time. The wild olive trees (Arabic colloquial, zeitun berri) are cut back, slits made on the freshly sawed branch ends, and two or three grafts from a cultivated olive (Arabic colloquial, zeitun jouwi) are inserted in such a way that the bark of the scion and of the branch coincide. The exposed ends are smeared with mud made from clay, and then bound with cloth or date straw, which is held by thongs made from the bark of young mulberry branches. The fruit thus obtained is good. Wild olives cannot be made cultivated olives by engrafting, as Paul implies (Ro 11:24), but a wild olive branch thus grafted would thrive. So Gentiles would flourish spiritually when grafted into the fullness of God's mercy, first revealed to the world through Israel.</p><p>James A. Patch</p>