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Summary
- Jesus cursed a fig tree that was in leaf but had no fruit, on the road from Bethany into Jerusalem (Mark 11:12–14; Matthew 21:18–19).
- Mark puts the curse and the withered tree on either side of the cleansing of the Temple, so the barren tree pictures a Temple that had stopped being “the house of prayer” for all nations (Mark 11:17).
- Mark says “the time of figs was not yet”: ripe figs come about June and August, but a fig tree that will bear fruit carries small green figs as soon as its leaves appear in spring, so leaves with no figs meant no fruit that year.
- In Matthew the tree withered “presently”, in front of the disciples; in Mark they found it “dried up from the roots” the next morning.
- Jesus drew a lesson on faith, prayer and forgiveness from the withered tree (Mark 11:22–25).
- Luke tells a parable instead, in which a barren fig tree is given one more year (Luke 13:6–9).
- The sign concerned the Temple and its leaders in that generation; the Catholic Church’s Nostra Aetate (1965) says the Jews “should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God”.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (public domain, via BibleGateway): Genesis 3:7; Deuteronomy 8:8; 1 Kings 4:25; Song of Solomon 2:13; Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11, 8:13, 19:11, 24:2; Hosea 9:10; Micah 4:4, 7:1; Habakkuk 3:17–18; Matthew 21:19–22, 24:32; Mark 11:11–28, 13:2; Luke 13:3–9; John 1:48.
- E. W. G. Masterman, “Fig, Fig-Tree”, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (1915), Bible Study Tools: biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/fig-fig-tree.html
- Commentaries on Mark 11:13 (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, Expositor’s Greek Testament, Pulpit Commentary, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary), Bible Hub: biblehub.com/commentaries/mark/11-13.htm
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, New American Bible, Revised Edition, notes on Mark 11: bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/11
- John Chrysostom, Homily 67 on Matthew, translated by George Prevost and M. B. Riddle (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 10), New Advent: newadvent.org/fathers/200167.htm
- Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 39 on the New Testament (Sermon 89), translated by R. G. MacMullen (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 6), New Advent: newadvent.org/fathers/160339.htm
- Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate, 28 October 1965, section 4: vatican.va
- Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian, lecture of 6 March 1927, Bertrand Russell Society: users.drew.edu/jlenz/whynot.html
- “Jerusalem (Before A.D. 71)”, Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), New Advent: newadvent.org/cathen/08344a.htm
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