Fig

The fig tree is one of Scripture's most domestic plants. It belongs to the standard catalogue of the Promised Land, supplies food in cake and dried form, sits beside vines as the picture of national peace, and lends Jesus and the prophets a steady image for fruitfulness, judgment, and the turning of the seasons.

A Native of the Land

The fig grows so naturally in Palestine that the spies bring its fruit back as proof of what the land yields. From the valley of Eshcol they cut "a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it on a staff between two; [they brought] also of the pomegranates, and of the figs" (Nu 13:23). Moses lists it among the seven species that mark the land as good: "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 reign is remembered the same way, with each household sitting "under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba" (1Ki 4:25), and the writer of 1 Maccabees borrows the formula to describe the rest Simon won for his people: "every man sat under his vine, and under his fig tree: and there was none to make them afraid" (1Ma 14:12). Egypt, by contrast, is the land where Yahweh "struck their vines also and their fig trees, And broke the trees of their borders" (Ps 105:33) — the plagues are described in part by what they destroyed.

Food, Storage, and Trade

Fresh figs ripen in summer (Mr 11:13), but the fruit travels best as a pressed cake. The young Egyptian David finds in the wilderness has been three days without food until "they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him" (1Sa 30:12). When Abigail intercepts David before he can avenge himself on Nabal, her provision is bulk and portable: "two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five seahs of parched grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys" (1Sa 25:18). Figs also figure in marketplace trade and the reforms that police it: Nehemiah catches Judah breaking the Sabbath by "treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading donkeys [with them]; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day" (Ne 13:15). The faithful keeper of an orchard gets a proverb of his own: "Whoever keeps the fig tree will eat its fruit" (Pr 27:18).

A Healing Cake

Pressed figs were also a medicine. When Hezekiah lies sick to death, "Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered" (2Ki 20:7). The episode is filed under both remedy and miracle: the prophet's word and the simple poultice work together for the king's healing.

Leaves for Covering

The first appearance of fig leaves in Scripture is not as fruit but as garment. After the eyes of Adam and Eve are opened, "they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons" (Ge 3:7) — the earliest improvised craft in the Bible, and the first attempt to cover shame with what the garden itself supplied.

The Tree in the Allegory

In Jotham's parable, the trees go out to anoint a king. They ask the olive, then the fig, then the vine, then the bramble. "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 9:11). Each fruitful tree refuses the crown; only the bramble, with nothing of its own to offer, accepts.

Two Baskets Before the Temple

Jeremiah is shown a vision after Jeconiah's deportation. "Yahweh showed me, and, look, two baskets of figs set before the temple of Yahweh… 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 24:1-2). 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 and the bad fruit will become Yahweh's two ways of speaking about the exiles and those left behind.

The Barren Fig Tree

Jesus tells the parable of an owner who looks for fruit and finds none. "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none" (Lu 13:6). The owner orders it cut down, but the vinedresser asks for one more season: "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 13:7-9). The parable holds together three themes — the test by fruit, the patient probation given to Israel, and the demand for an actual harvest at the end of it. The same picture turns up enacted on the road to Jerusalem when Jesus comes to a fig tree in leaf "and… found nothing but leaves; for it wasn't the season of figs" (Mr 11:13). The display without fruit becomes its own indictment. James presses the underlying logic in another direction: "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.

A Sign of the Season

Jesus also turns the fig tree into a calendar. "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.

Failure and Catastrophe

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). Habakkuk holds his confidence in Yahweh against the same scene: "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" (Hab 3:17). In John's vision, cosmic upheaval borrows the same picture: "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).

Under the Fig Tree

The tree provides shade in domestic 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 under which a man sits, like the vine and fig tree of Solomon's day and Simon's day, is a small picture of settled, unafraid life — and Jesus, by naming it, shows that the settled, private moment was already known.