Bible Meaning: Olive, olive tree
Strong's Concordance #H2132, #G1638
The Mount of Olives, referenced by name twelve times in the Bible, is also called Mount Olivet twice in the KJV translation (2Samuel 15:30, Acts 1:12).
Olivet's (Mount of Olives) first mention, by name, involves King David. Due to his son Absalom's insurrection and threat to Jerusalem, David and a host of others flee the city. Wearing no shoes with his head covered as a sign of his grief, he crosses the Kidron Valley then ascends the mount weeping over what has taken place (2Samuel 15).
Ezekiel, toward the end of one of his visions, sees cherubim lift God's glory out of Jerusalem and rest it on "the mountain which is on the east side of the city" (Ezekiel 11:23). This location was almost certainly Olivet.
Crucial Events
The Mt. of Olives is where several crucial events in the life of Jesus took place. Jesus, on March 30 in 30 A.D. (the last Thursday of his life), gets on a colt in Bethphage and makes a short journey into Jerusalem. His trip, a fulfillment of prophecy (Zechariah 9:9), takes him over Mount Olivet (Luke 19:29 - 30, 37). Seeing the city, he weeps, knowing that its destruction will soon arrive (verses 41 - 44).
Christ, during his final days, would sometimes stay near Olivet at night before entering the city (Luke 21:37). Teaching on the Mount of Olives on the Sunday before his crucifixion, he reveals prophecies concerning End Time events and his triumphal return to earth (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21).
After partaking of his last Passover, the Lord and his disciples walk east of Jerusalem to the foot of Mt. Olivet. It is there, in a garden named Gethsemane, that he prays and awaits his arrest (Mark 14:26 - 42).
Leaving and Returning
Jesus, forty days after his miraculous resurrection, ascended into heaven from the Mt. of Olives (Acts 1:9). Olivet is also the exact same location of his return to earth to bring God's kingdom to the planet (Zechariah 14:4, Acts 1:11)!
Important Verses
2Samuel 15:14, 30
And David went up by the ascent of mount Olivet (Olives), and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot: and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.
Zechariah 14:4
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east . . . shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley . . .
Matthew 24:3
And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple . . . And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Luke 19:28 - 30
And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.
John 8:1 - 3
Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery . . .
Acts 1:9, 12
And when he (Jesus) had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight . . .Then returned they (the disciples) unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet (Olives), which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.