Zenos' allegory and Joseph Smith

I believe that Zenos' allegory in Jacob 5 is strong evidence of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. The symbolism of trees and branches and fruit and connections to the House of Israel and Gentiles is also found in the Bible, both in the Old Testament (Isaiah 5) and the New Testament (Romans 11). But the descriptions found there are nowhere near the details about cultivating olive trees in Jacob 5, that happen to be accurately describing the process that happens to be quite complex. There is absolutely no reason to expect that a poor farmer in upstate New York should have detailed knowledge about it.

I will not create a long post about all the details, because they have already been written. Here is a great summary with further links. But just to mention a few examples of how Jacob 5 demonstrates detailed knowledge of growing olive trees:

• Olives come in two varieties: Wild and tame
• All of the fruit of the olive is borne on second‑year wood and the same wood does not bear again. For this reason a new crop of shoots each year is necessary for fruit set. With proper management, trees can be stimulated to produce young shoots. Zenos refers repeatedly to the process of pruning to stimulate fruit bearing.
• When the older rootstock of the main tree in Jacob 5 is rejuvenated by extensive grafting, it cannot keep up with the vigorous new growth of the wild stock (Jacob 5:37), and pruning and grafting are necessary as a corrective measure. The top can indeed overrun the roots as described in Jacob 5:37,48.
• In Jacob 5:65 it is stated, “And ye shall not clear away the bad thereof all at once, lest the roots thereof should be too strong for the graft, and the graft thereof shall perish, and I lose the trees of my vineyard.” If all of the branches were replaced at the same time, the tree and roots could be overstressed.
• The problem of "loftiness" described in Jacob 5:48 is a common problem with olive trees. It is when the tree is too tall and there is too much foliage for the roots to feed.
• One of the key elements of the allegory of Zenos is the image of taking cuttings from the tame tree and not just grafting them into other trees (Jacob 5:8–9) but clearing the ground (Jacob 5:44) and “planting” them elsewhere (Jacob 5:23, 24, 25, 54). These branches will take root (Jacob 5:54). The ancients relied principally upon propagation by slips, which is accomplished by taking stem pieces or cuttings of roots and burying them in an inclined position in trenches four inches deep. They normally sprout within a year. The olive is one of the few fruit trees that can be propagated by taking a branch of a tree and burying it in the ground.
• If the wood of the olive tree or some of its branches is dead, the best option may be for them to be “hewn down and cast into the fire” (Jacob 5:42). Dead wood is likely to have parasites and pathogens, and one of the best ways to reduce the inoculum potential is to burn the infested plant materials.
• It may seem puzzling but it was common to plant olive trees in vineyards
• In Jacob 5:30 the natural branches are described as having been broken off and wild branches grafted in. Because of this “all sorts of fruit did cumber the tree” and “there is none of it which is good” (Jacob 5:32). This could happen if the rootstock of an old tree was rejuvenated with grafts from wild trees who would bring much genetic variety resulting in all sorts of undesirable fruit.

There are many more examples. Not bad for someone who didn't know that Jerusalem had walls around it.

Another interesting aspect from one of the linked articles

Interestingly, much of this sophisticated technology was probably lost in Nephite civilization, for the olive is not mentioned again in the Book of Mormon after Jacob 5, an indication that the lands of the Book of Mormon may not have been suitable for growing olives. It seems reasonable to conjecture that given the importance of olives, Lehi and his group might have carried olives with them as they did other plants (1 Nephi 8:1; 16:11; 18:6). However, these references mention seeds, but not cuttings, and fruit-bearing olives are not usually grown from seeds. Warren reported that the strongest, heaviest bearing, and longest living trees are those grown from seed. But trees from seedlings tend to resemble wild forms, and the resultant fruit is normally unsuited for either oil or pickling. To have the desired quality of fruit, the tree must be cloned from a selected and proven cultivar. Moreover, with the very restrictive climatic requirements for olive production it is not surprising that there is no New World mention of olives in the Book of Mormon.