Why a fig tree?

[Kristos]

Why did Christ choose a fig tree to curse as his last miracle? Why not an olive tree or something else that could have easily represented the Temple Jews?

Here is an interesting excerpt from St Cyril's Lecture 13:

Adam received the sentence, Cursed is the ground in your labours; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you. For this cause Jesus assumes the thorns, that He may cancel the sentence; for this cause also was He buried in the earth, that the earth which had been cursed might receive the blessing instead of a curse. At the time of the sin, they clothed themselves with fig-leaves; for this cause Jesus also made the fig-tree the last of His signs. For when about to go to His passion, He curses the fig-tree, not every fig-tree, but that one alone, for the sake of the figure; saying, No more let any man eat fruit of you Mark 11:1 ; let the doom be cancelled. And because they aforetime clothed themselves with fig-leaves, He came at a season when food was not wont to be found on the fig-tree. Who knows not that in winter-time the fig-tree bears no fruit, but is clothed with leaves only? Was Jesus ignorant of this, which all knew? No, but though He knew, yet He came as if seeking; not ignorant that He should not find, but showing that the emblematical curse extended to the leaves only.

 

[pugby]

Wow, I have never actually questioned why a fig tree.

 

[mark kennedy]

Why did Christ choose a fig tree to curse as his last miracle? Why not an olive tree or something else that could have easily represented the Temple Jews?

Here is an interesting excerpt from St Cyril's Lecture 13:

Adam received the sentence, Cursed is the ground in your labours; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you. For this cause Jesus assumes the thorns, that He may cancel the sentence; for this cause also was He buried in the earth, that the earth which had been cursed might receive the blessing instead of a curse. At the time of the sin, they clothed themselves with fig-leaves; for this cause Jesus also made the fig-tree the last of His signs. For when about to go to His passion, He curses the fig-tree, not every fig-tree, but that one alone, for the sake of the figure; saying, No more let any man eat fruit of you Mark 11:1 ; let the doom be cancelled. And because they aforetime clothed themselves with fig-leaves, He came at a season when food was not wont to be found on the fig-tree. Who knows not that in winter-time the fig-tree bears no fruit, but is clothed with leaves only? Was Jesus ignorant of this, which all knew? No, but though He knew, yet He came as if seeking; not ignorant that He should not find, but showing that the emblematical curse extended to the leaves only.

I haven't followed you links yet but something stands out that I wanted to address. There was a problem with this fig tree, it should have had at least some fruit. Not only was it not bearing fruit (which takes considerable nutrients to produce) it was soaking up nutrients the other healthy trees needed to produce their fruit in season. Jesus was not ignorant of fig tress, my guess is that the proper thing to do would be to cut the tree down and burn the roots. Jesus cursed it and it was dead the following day.

Those trees were planted for the benefit of travelers and like other parables, if it bore no fruit it was worse then useless. It is interesting the connection made to the fig leaves of Adam and Eve and one could speculate as to a possible prophetic connection. Israel had been given the oracles of God and was visited with many wonderful blessings and yet in their hearts turned from God. My thought is that the curse of the fig tree has at it's core the issue of bearing fruit.

Like I say, I have not gotten as far as the source material you provided but I will check it out. One thing I would point out though, the question of whether or not Jesus wrongly cursed the fig tree never came up in the minds of his disciples.

My point is simply this, there was something wrong with that tree and everyone who was knowledgeable of fig trees in that time would have recognized it.

Grace and peace,
Mark

 

[Kristos]

Mark, I don't think any of the links survived the cut and paste. Here is a link to the Full Lecture 13 of St Cyril if you're interested (I quoted from paragraph 18):

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310113.htm

 

[JTLauder]

Why did Christ choose a fig tree to curse as his last miracle? Why not an olive tree or something else that could have easily represented the Temple Jews?

Here is an interesting excerpt from St Cyril's Lecture 13:

Adam received the sentence, Cursed is the ground in your labours; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you. For this cause Jesus assumes the thorns, that He may cancel the sentence; for this cause also was He buried in the earth, that the earth which had been cursed might receive the blessing instead of a curse. At the time of the sin, they clothed themselves with fig-leaves; for this cause Jesus also made the fig-tree the last of His signs. For when about to go to His passion, He curses the fig-tree, not every fig-tree, but that one alone, for the sake of the figure; saying, No more let any man eat fruit of you Mark 11:1 ; let the doom be cancelled. And because they aforetime clothed themselves with fig-leaves, He came at a season when food was not wont to be found on the fig-tree. Who knows not that in winter-time the fig-tree bears no fruit, but is clothed with leaves only? Was Jesus ignorant of this, which all knew? No, but though He knew, yet He came as if seeking; not ignorant that He should not find, but showing that the emblematical curse extended to the leaves only.

Yeah, I read through that excerpt several times and I still don't understnad what he's saying or how it it answers your question of why the fig tree.

First, the passage in question is Mark 11:12-26. Jesus sees a fig tree in the distance but finds only leaves because it was "not the season for figs". There's a greater theological context that in the middle of all this, Jesus clears out the Temple. There is the analogy with the fig tree fruit and being forgiven to become "fruitful", but since the OP question was in regard to the fig tree incident, I'll focus on that.

The original question is why a fig tree and not another. But I think a more interesting question is how can Jesus curse a fig tree for not having fruit if it was not the season for fruit (or can we be condemned for not being/doing what we are not able or capable of doing)?

The question of why a fig tree and not another, in my opinion, it's probably just as simple as the fig tree was there and it caught the eye of Jesus. Jesus was hungry and was looking for something to eat. I don't imagine you would get filled as easily with olives as you can with figs. Were there other larger fruit common to the area that Jesus could have picked from? I don't know.

But it leads us to the next question of why would Jesus expect figs when it was supposedly known to not be the season for fruit? Was Jesus ignorant of this and just lashed out in anger to curse the tree?
This passage happened right after Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem which would make it sometime late winter/early spring. Even the Bible passage reports this was not the time for fruit.

I don't know much about agriculture or fig trees, so I did a little research on fig trees and here's what I find. Apparently there are 2 crops of fruit on fig trees. The main crop is harvested in the Fall. But there is also a first crop of smaller fruit that is harvested in the Spring. Given the approximate timing of the Biblical passage, there should have been at least fruit buds (unripen fruit) of the first crop. Since they were not yet ripe, it was "not the season" (or ready to be picked).

But Jesus saw only leaves. Now apparently, if a fig tree fails to produce the first crop, there is little chance of the tree being fruitful and produce the second crop. So apparently Jesus judged the tree to be unfruitful and cursed it. (I will leave out the spiritual interpretations and implications of that for another forum thread.)

Another interesting fact I didn't know about figs before looking into them. The fig fruit is actually a receptacle for the smaller fruit inside of it with a small opening at the bottom. Wasps go inside the frg enclosure to pollenate all the fruit flowers inside. The first crop of figs is unpollenated. But the main secondary crop of larger figs are pollenated. Female wasps lay their eggs inside the figs, where they hatched and the larvae mature. The female larvae are fertilized by the male larvae and then fly out when mature. The male larvae on the other hand, are wingless. They die within the fig. So the typical fall harvest fig fruit are filled with dead wasps. I read that modern fig tree farmers uses methods other than wasps to pollenate their figs, but I may never eat a fig again.

Fig & fig wasps:
http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=24017&rendTypeId=4

 

[Ben12]

When Adam and Eve fell in the garden and found them selves naked. The nakedness was do to their lack of a spiritual covering. They were covered by God’s Glory in the Garden. The fig leaf was Adams attempt to cover himself with something other then God’s glory.

When Adam walked with God in the Cool (Spirit) of the day the word cool is also the Hebrew word:

Strong's from 7306; wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; figuratively, life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extension, a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions):

 

[Codger]

The cursed fig tree.

Jesus obviously knew that figs were out of season, so why did he have such a negative response to this particular tree? When did he ever curse anything in the New Testament?

This action always puzzled me because it seemed to be one of those things that was totally out of character for him. This happened just a few days before the crucifixion in or near the town of Bethphage, which is a small town on the mount of Olives between Bethany and the entrance to the temple. It was also the town of the origin of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

There were several traditions that the Jews held as to the two trees that were in the garden of Eden. The two trees of course were the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the other was the tree of life. One tradition was that the tree of good and evil was indeed the fig tree. If this is true - isn’t it interesting that just before he redeemed humanity once and for all - he would curse the very tree by which man fell from his perfect relationship with God?

The name of the town - Bethphage - means “House of unripe figs.” He cursed the “tree of unripe figs” near the town or “House of unripe figs.“ He cursed the tree that was used to test humanity in those early years in the Garden. No one would ever eat of that tree again as they had once done to cause the fall of mankind. Very highly symbolic action which makes some sense out of this puzzling passage of scripture.

 

[Ben12]

The cursed fig tree.

Jesus obviously knew that figs were out of season, so why did he have such a negative response to this particular tree? When did he ever curse anything in the New Testament?

This action always puzzled me because it seemed to be one of those things that was totally out of character for him. This happened just a few days before the crucifixion in or near the town of Bethphage, which is a small town on the mount of Olives between Bethany and the entrance to the temple. It was also the town of the origin of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

There were several traditions that the Jews held as to the two trees that were in the garden of Eden. The two trees of course were the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the other was the tree of life. One tradition was that the tree of good and evil was indeed the fig tree. If this is true - isn’t it interesting that just before he redeemed humanity once and for all - he would curse the very tree by which man fell from his perfect relationship with God?

The name of the town - Bethphage - means “House of unripe figs.” He cursed the “tree of unripe figs” near the town or “House of unripe figs.“ He cursed the tree that was used to test humanity in those early years in the Garden. No one would ever eat of that tree again as they had once done to cause the fall of mankind. Very highly symbolic action which makes some sense out of this puzzling passage of scripture.

I love symbolism is scripture; very nice.

 

[Codger]

I love symbolism is scripture; very nice.

Well as you know the Old testament is just loaded with it. Since you are interested I will continue on...

The tree of life, which is a symbol of Jesus, was held to be the almond tree - the two trees in the garden were real trees. The menorah is a symbolic representation of the tree of life. It is made in the likeness of an almond tree with buds and six branches. The main center lamp is Jesus and the side branches are the people of God.

The Old Testament is full of types and shadows of the reality of Jesus and his new kingdom that was to come. If you carry forward the symbols - then it would mean that Jesus was crucified on an almond tree. Of course the record does not show this, but the symbols do. He was crucified on a literal "tree" you know - it does say that in the record - so forget about the traditional latin cross made of sawn wood used as a pole. Think of a real almond tree stripped of its branches.

The condemned carried the cross piece to which their hands were nailed. The cross piece on their arrival was then nailed to the tree. There were two other thieves nailed to the single solitary tree with him - one on his right hand and one on his left. Traditionally, we think of three crosses - not so. there is a clue to this. If there were three crosses then how did they arrive at Jesus to break his legs last since he was in the middle? The only way you could arrive at his place last is to walk around a single cross after looking at the two thieves first by going behind the cross - get it?

The Sanhedron had a meeting place in the priestly city of Bethpage - which was located outside of the camp of Israel. This was a distance of about 3,000 feet from the Holy of Holies. There was certain business that they had to conduct outside of the camp and this is where it was done - in Bethpage. It was customary that condemned Jews were excommunicated from the camp. If they followed tradition - Jesus the blasphemer was also excommunicated - so he legally died as a gentile.

He was crucified on the Mount of Olives - east of the temple. This is where the red heifer was burned to ashes - which is a type of Christ. The Jewish tradition which was partially preempted by Roman tradition called for the stoning of blasphmers after being hung on a tree. Jesus may have been stoned although the record does not say so. Prophetically it says that his visage was so marred that you could not tell he was a man. Was this from beating or was it from stoning, which was the Jewish custom.

The body of a blasphemer and the tree he was hung on would be burned to ashes. Joseph disrupted this process by quickly securing Jesus' body for burial.

Larry

 

[mark kennedy]

There was something wrong with this tree, it was infertile which is why there were no buds. No, it was not the season for figs but it still should have had those buds and it was soaking up what the other trees needed to produce fruit. Bear in mind the context it was written in, Jesus is entering Jerusalem to go to the cross and Israel is the fig tree if you really want to know about the symbolism.

Was it not unreasonable to curse the tree for being fruitless when, as Mark expressly says, "it was not the season for figs"? The problem is most satisfactorily cleared up in a discussion called "The Barren Fig Tree" published many years ago by W. M. Christie, a Church of Scotland minister in Palestine under the British mandatory regime. He pointed out first the time of year at which the incident is said to have occurred (if, as is probable, Jesus was crucified on April 6th, A.D. 30, the incident occurred during the first days of April). "Now," wrote Christie, "the facts connected with the fig tree are these. Toward the end of March the leaves begin to appear, and in about a week the foliage coating is complete. Coincident with [this], and sometimes even before, there appears quite a crop of small knobs, not the real figs, but a kind of early forerunner. They grown to the size of green almonds, in which condition they are eaten by peasants and others when hungry. When they come to their own indefinite maturity they drop off." These precursors of the true fig are called taqsh in Palestinian Arabic. Their appearance is a harbinger of the fully formed appearance of the true fig some six weeks later. So, as Mark says, the time for figs had not yet come. But if the leaves appear without any taqsh, that is a sign that there will be no figs. Since Jesus found "nothing but leaves" - leaves without any taqsh- he knew that "it was an absolutely hopeless, fruitless fig tree" and said as much.​

Hard Sayings of the Bible by F. F. Bruce

The budding of the fig tree was one of the first signs of summer approaching. (Matthew 24:32-35 Mar 13:28-29 Luke 21:29) Jesus also told a parable about a tree with a similar problem that was given special care. (Luke 13:6-9)

To understand in context the 'withering of the fig tree' it is important to see if Jesus' teaching elsewhere follows similar themes. We read in John 15 that Jesus says he is the true vine. John 15:6 (English Standard Version) says "If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned." . The mainstream Christian view on Jesus' miracle was that Jesus was teaching the disciples that although Israel was God's chosen people (Israel was commonly represented by the fig tree if Israel or any other, claims to be of Christ (or have spiritual life) yet do not keep his commandments (as Christ says this is the sign of his followers) then they shall not have salvation​

The Fig Tree

Unless we bear fruit we will likewise perish.

Grace and peace,
Mark