Malachi151

In Mark and Matthew, Jesus curses a fig tree and it dies. What does this relate to? I'm assuming that this has something to do with some midrash of the time.

Wisdumb

I think it serves two purposes.
1. To show the power of faith.
2. The fig tree without figs is a metaphor for a person with no faith, worthless. The tree would be better off dead than alive if it doesn't produce any fruit.

Also look at the timing. He was hungry and found no fruit on it. Had he not been hungry he wouldn't have made an example out of it. So the hunger is clearly symbolic of say......Jesus delivering his message and people of little faith (fig tree) receiving it. With no faith(fruit) they are of no service to his mission (hunger) or to God in general I presume.

aa5874

I think the author of the story shows that Gods have the power to destroy anything for no reason at all. That is, whether you have sinned or not, they can destroy you at anytime.

douglas

Good question. And why does it wither immediately, but in the Mark version it withers overnight? For me, it's a clear example of Matthew showing unhappiness with Mark's version and correcting it. Mark's Jesus was not nearly as powerful as Matthew wanted him to be.

Malachi151

Perhaps its better to just forget Matthew, I should have quoted Mark.

I'm still puzzled about this story element. It seems that virtually every event in Mark (and Matthew) has a basis in the scriptures. I'm just wondering where this element came from? "Mark" doesn't seem to make many things up on this own, and since I can't find any parallels for this in the "OT", I figure that it must come from midrash or some extra-biblical scriptures.

Surely Mark wasn't the first to use this metaphor, he seems to have come up with almost nothing on his own, so I suspect this metaphor comes from somewhere else.

HeretiKc

GodHatesFigs.

douglas

Perhaps the answer lies in the fig tree itself? Here are some fig-ish facts...

• Fig trees only bear fruit twice a year. Once in the spring, and a bigger harvest in the fall, so it would have been something of a seasonal delicacy.
• The fig is a picturesque deciduous tree, to 50 ft tall, but more typically to a height of 10 - 30 ft.
• Their branches are muscular and twisting, spreading wider than they are tall. Fig wood is weak and decays rapidly.
• The sap contains copious milky latex that is irritating to human skin.
• The fig is known to be the oldest cultivated "crop."

So, I assume to Mark's audience, the fig tree was an important source of food, shade, and looked nice. Mark may have simply been using a visual image that was familiar to his audience. If he was living in Ohio, he probably would have used an apple tree.

There are OT stories involving trees, vines, and bushes (and didn't Adam cover his pee pee with a fig leaf?). A secondary meaning behind this story is that it illustrates Jesus' mastery over time itself. To ancients, the growth and death of a tree or vine was slow and almost imperceptible. Jesus and God could speed up or slow this process down at will.

No Robots

The fig tree symbolizes Israel, which Christ is cursing. SOP for prophets. See here.

Malachi151

Well, if I'm getting this right, then the fig tree represented the Jews, whom Jesus was cursing as they were never bear fruit for him, thus they would wither and die.

Seems reasonable, but I still think that this story came from somewhere else and Mark didn't make it up himself.

HeretiKc

I can't remember who it was, but I think it was in one of Robert M. Price's book reviews that this particular author was interpreting this episode as Jesus's actual disappointment that he was not greeted with an abundance of vegetative growth, per some prophecy that said the Messianic Age would be a time of unprecedented flowering and plant growth.

This seems a pretty fringe interpretation, though, for several obvious reasons--the main one that sticks out to me is that it wouldn't make much sense to preserve such tarnishes on the character of Jesus in Jesus tradition. Although one could then argue, per Maccoby, etc., that this is actual historical Jesus, and that other incidents of Jesus's failure (I'm thinking the interpretation that Jesus was indeed expecting some type of great miracle/insurrection on the Mount of Olives, before his arrest) were indeed preserved in tradition.

EDIT: Actually, Maccoby may have been the author.