The Lord of the vineyard then took the young and tender branches which had been plucked from the mother tree and hid them in various remote corners of his property. The fact that they were "hid" means, no doubt, that they were no longer known to the mother tree or the main body of Israel. The parable says that after a long time had passed away, probably referring to a period sometime between the first and third centuries A.D., the master and his servant came back to the vineyard to see how the mother tree and all the transplants were faring.
They found that the branches of the wild olive tree which had been grafted into the tame olive tree were beginning to bear fruit and that it was good just like the natural fruit. This no doubt refers to the early Gentile Christians who had become "adopted" Israelites during the first two and half centuries of Christianity.7