Fig Tree

The fig tree is the most heavily worked plant in scripture. It belongs to the standard catalogue of the Promised Land, frames Israel's picture of settled peace, supplies a remedy in the prophets and a covering in Eden, and gives Jesus a parable of probation, an enacted curse, and a sign of the season. Where the page on Fig follows the fruit, this page follows the tree: a botanical fixture of Palestine that becomes Israel's mirror.

Among the Trees of the Land

When the catalogue of trees in scripture lists the species of Palestine, the fig tree always appears with the vine, the olive, and the pomegranate. Moses describes the inheritance as "a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey" (De 8:8). Solomon's kingdom is recalled by the same picture: "Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon" (1Ki 4:25). Micah projects the formula into the future: "they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none will make them afraid: for the mouth of Yahweh of hosts has spoken it" (Mi 4:4). The writer of 1 Maccabees borrows it for the rest Simon's victories had earned: "every man sat under his vine, and under his fig tree: and there was none to make them afraid" (1Ma 14:12). Proverbs makes the tree's domestic side a small wisdom saying: "Whoever keeps the fig tree will eat its fruit; And he who regards his master will be honored" (Pr 27:18).

The Tree in Allegory

Jotham tells the men of Shechem a fable of trees looking for a king. Each fruitful tree refuses the crown in turn. "And the trees said to the fig tree, You come, and reign over us. But the fig tree said to them, Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to wave to and fro over the trees?" (Jud 9:10-11). Only the bramble, with nothing of its own to offer, accepts. The fig tree's sweetness and good fruit make it a poor candidate for the empty work of swaying above its neighbors.

A Healing and a Cover

Pressed figs serve as medicine when Hezekiah lies near death: "And Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered" (2Ki 20:7). The earliest use of the tree's leaves comes far earlier, in the garden, where the first opened eyes find their first work waiting: "and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons" (Ge 3:7). The tree supplies covering before it supplies food.

Jeremiah's Two Baskets

After Jeconiah's deportation Jeremiah is shown two baskets of figs set before the temple. "One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad" (Jer 24:2). Asked what he sees, the prophet answers, "Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that can't be eaten, they are so bad" (Jer 24:3). The good fruit and the bad fruit become Yahweh's two ways of speaking about the exiles and those left behind — a parable carried by the tree's own produce.

The Barren Fig Tree

Jesus tells a parable in which the tree is on probation. "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, Look, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: therefore cut it down; why does it also cumber the ground?" (Lu 13:6-7). The vinedresser asks for an extension: "Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I will dig about it, and dung it: and if it bears fruit from then on, [very well]; but if not, you will cut it down" (Lu 13:8-9). The same demand surfaces in the proverb-like saying of James: "Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Neither [can] salt water yield sweet" (Jas 3:12). The kind of tree determines the kind of fruit, and the absence of fruit pronounces its own sentence.

The Cursed Fig Tree

On the road to Jerusalem the parable becomes an enacted sign. "And seeing a fig tree far off having leaves, he came, if perhaps he might find anything on it: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for it wasn't the season of figs" (Mr 11:13). The display without fruit is the indictment. "And he answered and said to it, No man eat fruit from you from now on forever. And his disciples heard it" (Mr 11:14). The next morning's return finishes the picture: "And as they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance says to him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed is withered away" (Mr 11:20-21). Leaves without fruit is the same charge the parable in Luke had named: a tree that takes ground without giving back to it.

The Tree as Calendar

Jesus also turns the fig tree into a sign-reading. "Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch has now become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you⁺ know that the summer is near" (Mr 13:28). Luke records the same image with all the trees alongside it: "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees: when they now shoot forth, you⁺ see it and know of your⁺ own selves that the summer is now near. Even so you⁺ also, when you⁺ see these things coming to pass, know⁺ that the kingdom of God is near" (Lu 21:29-31). The leafing branch is a public, ordinary sign — anyone who has watched a year pass can read it.

Under the Fig Tree

The tree provides shade in private life as well as image in prophecy. When Philip brings Nathanael, Jesus tells him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you" (Jn 1:48). The tree a man sits beneath, like the vine and fig tree of Solomon's day and of Simon's day, is a small picture of settled, unafraid life — and Jesus, by naming the spot, shows that the settled, private moment was already known.

Failure of the Tree, Failure of the Land

When the prophets describe judgment on the land, the fig tree is among the first casualties. Joel mourns that "the vine is withered, and the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field are withered: for joy has withered away from the sons of man" (Joe 1:12). Amos lists the tree among Yahweh's disciplinary instruments: "I have struck you⁺ with blasting and mildew: the multitude of your⁺ gardens and your⁺ vineyards and your⁺ fig trees and your⁺ olive trees has the palmer-worm devoured: yet you⁺ have not returned to me, says Yahweh" (Am 4:9). Haggai marks the sterile ground before promised blessing: "Is the seed yet in the barn? And even the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not brought forth; from this day I will bless [you⁺]" (Hag 2:19). Isaiah pictures the heavens themselves dropping their host "as the leaf fades from off the vine, and as a fading [leaf] from the fig tree" (Isa 34:4). Hosea looks back to early Israel as "the first-ripe in the fig tree at its first season" (Hos 9:10), only to grieve its turning to Baal-peor. Habakkuk holds his confidence against the worst case: "For though the fig tree will not flourish, Neither will fruit be in the vines; The labor of the olive will fail, And the fields will yield no food; The flock will be cut off from the fold, And there will be no herd in the stalls" (Hab 3:17). Micah feels his generation as a man who comes to the harvest after it is gathered: "Woe is me! For I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat; my soul desires the first-ripe fig" (Mi 7:1). In John's vision the tree carries cosmic upheaval: "the stars of the heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts her unripe figs when she is shaken of a great wind" (Re 6:13).

The Tree Among the Trees

The fig tree never stands quite alone in scripture. It is paired again and again with the vine and the olive, listed with the cedar and palm and pomegranate, set in vineyards, asked to reign with other trees, learned from alongside all the other trees of the field. Its prominence in the topic comes from how often it is asked to do figural work: covering, healing, ruling, fruiting, withering, signaling, sheltering. The literal tree is botanical; the topic is what Israel sees when it looks at the tree — its own life, its own probation, and the kingdom now near.