9. As to their nature, what were those symbolic “branches,” and who, therefore, was the real “root,” and who the tree trunk?

⁹ Now we know that that “seed” is a spiritual seed, a seed that is begotten by Jehovah God to be his spiritual sons. He was the real “root” of that spiritual olive tree.

8. To what does the apostle Paul liken the 12 tribes of spiritual Israel in connection with a tree, and, in a typical way, what did the main parts of that “tree” picture?

⁸ In Romans chapter 11, the apostle Paul likens those 12 tribes of spiritual Israel to the branches in a tame olive tree. The root of that symbolic olive tree was prefigured by the patriarch Abraham, the forefather of the nation of Israel according to the flesh.