Clivedurdle

History of the fig

Is this another relationship between xianity and Buddhism?

Dharma

Buddha sat under a bodhi tree I think, not a fig tree. I don't remember Buddha cursing trees and such.

Clivedurdle

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One fig tree led to enlightenment - another one - out of season - was not bearing fruit. This might be an allusion to Buddhism and the difficulties buddhist missionaries were having in Palestine!

Vorkosigan

The fig tree is a traditional symbol for Israel. Pertinent to the Fig tree cursing are numerous OT passages

Perhaps the scene is based on Psalm 37:35-6. More likely is Micah 7:1, where "the imagery of a search for figs is a figure for God's search for righteous Israelites, and the image of a barren or withered fig tree is occasionally used to represent national failure as a manifestation of divine judgment" (Brown 2002).


What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. (NIV)

Also standing behind this may be Hosea 9:15-6, where the wicked are driven from the house of the Lord and the image of barrenness is found in conjunction with the Temple:


15 "Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious. 16 Ephraim is blighted, their root is withered, they yield no fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring." (NIV)

Jesus' search for fruit on the fig tree is usually interpreted as an allegory based on the use of the fig tree to represent Israel in the OT, including Jeremiah 8:13, 29:14, Joel 1:7, Hosea 9:10, and 9:16. For example, Jeremiah 8:13 notes:


13: When I would gather them, says the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them."

Thomas L. Thompson (2005, p78) points out that the writer is saying that it is not the tree but Jesus who is out of season. The righteous (Israel) should be ready for the messiah whenever he comes. He also observes that Jer 24:1-10 offers a scene of two baskets of figs outside the Temple, one representing the remnant of Good people who will be taken into exile when Jerusalem is destroyed, the other representing the very bad.

Chili

No he didn't and this was temporary for Jesus. If I remember correctly, Siddhartha was away from his kingdom and while at rest under a Bodhi tree in the valley of the Ganges his enlightenment came about.

Three things: his mind was vacant, he was relaxed about it, and lingered along the river of life while in the comfort of his tradition.

The Yew tree is Hardy's Fig Tree when he heard "voices from the graveyard."

The fig tree represents faith (Israel if you wish) and Nathanael under the fig tree is the Incarnation of faith (we have a statue called "The Incarnation" of Joseph and Jesus with the vine linking these two together). I think fig trees get old and are quite old before they bear fruit?

. . . but faith must be exhausted and therefore the fig tree no longer had fruit to offer Jesus and was allowed to whither (it is just a parallel of the temple ruckus). Some never bear fruit and should be uprooted to say that the unexamined life is not worth living . . . but give it some time first.

Notice that it was located outside of Bethany but also not in Jerusalem. The movement here is bringing faith to understanding and if the old Jerusalem is the conscious mind, Bethany is the subconscious mind.

Dharma

whoops! I didn't know the Bodhi tree was from the fig family, I always think fig newton when I think fig...well, go figure! :thumbs:

Dharma

In other words, this was supposed to mean that there was no faith in palestine, and Jesus cursed Israel to have no faith forever?

Chili

There was no faith left in Jesus . . . who was the reborn Joseph = religion coming to an end. Judaism will continue to be (Israel is actually to be without faith if it is the home for Jews between the Tigris and Euphrates (eu = bright and phrates = mind).

Dharma

Interesting stuff...how about the fig tree supposedly being out of season...is there any old testament precedence? Do they mean that this fig tree full of green leaves, shouldn't even have been green?

Chili

Sorry I know nothing about the OT.

That is just Mark who looks at the physical most obvious and concludes that when there are no figs it must be out of season for figs.

Note that according to me Mark was written to remove Judaism from the Gospels and so Mark is void of the effect religion has on people ( = no birth etc.). So Mark is the naked framework for salvation to which the metaphysics are added in Luke (Catholicism is an inspired religion) to end up with a working Gospels for Catholics in John.

Mark would never know why it would be whithered but he does report that his disciples heard what Jesus said. That is important because they are his ousia's that brought about the parousia = the forms that created the Final Form or the cause for the daily rounds of samsara that led to the Final Round of Samsara (cf. 'daily mass and final 'Christmas'). I hold that the Gospels are a metaphysical event but here they are exposed to insert the metaphysics for the New Testament . . . since we go by example and therefore we should understand and be able to explain etc.