Thus to His Divine tenderness did Jesus add a strange fierceness, as tliough to teach that in faith's war with darkness lightning has its. place. See art. Anger.
pro- into the
FIG-TREE (in NT cvktj, in OT njxp tfcmlh ; the Fitus Carica, L. ).— 1. The fig is the principal shade- and fruit-tree of Palestine, growing in all li.u t~. in many places spontaneously. It selilom uiii,, - 20 ft. [Post, in Hastings' 'DB, s.v. ' 1 i;j- ,., - i , ft.] in height, but has a spread of from i!.") to :;u !i. Its welcome shade and refreshing fruit make it the emblem of peace and prosperitv (Dt 8', Jg 9'"- ", IK 4'=. Mic 4^ Zee 3'», 1 Mac 14;=). Besides this general symbolism, two characteristics of the tree,
appealing respectively to the eye and to the palate, have led to further comparisons.
(rt) The tig-tree is conspicuous iu early spring by the expanding of the tips of its twigs into little green knobs called d'js paggiiii (Gr. bXvvBoi., Ca 2" KV ' green figs ') which are the flower-fruit buds, and together with the leaf-bud, which expands shortly after and soon overshadows the pag, or fruit rudiment, serve as the herald of the coming summer (Mt 24^- and jj). This phenomenon of ' all the trees' (Lk 21-'") is particularly noticeable in the tig-tree because of its early and conspicuous verdure. The ripening of the paq follows the ' ap- pearance of the flowers on the earth,' and accom- panies the ' blossoming of the vine ' as the feature of the advancing season and the time of mating (Ca 2"). In the same connexion may be mentioned the phenomenon of the dropping of great quantities of the immature fruit in consequence of imperfect fertilization, so that the scattered jjfig'jyi/rt covering the ground under the tig-trees become to the author of Bev 6" a symbol of the stars fallen to earth from the firmament, ' as a tig-tree casteth her un- ripe figs when she is shaken of a great wind. '
(b) The tig-tree has tivo (not three) successive crops of fruit eacli year. The first-ripe tig (Heb. n-H33 bOc- kurah. Is 28^, Jer 24-, Hos 9'", Mic 7') is produced upon tlie old wood of the preceding year, the buds which remained undeveloped through the winter swelling into the little green paggim already de- scribudr towards the end of the season of spring rains (March-April), and coming to maturity in June. The n:x,7i tc'enuh, or autunm fig, is the tig of commerce, and is produced on the new wood of the same year. The leaf-bud, which expanded shortly after the pag and soon distanced it in growtli, puts out in its turn a flower-fruit bud which matures in August, or later, according to the variety, the fruit hanging on the boughs until winter, when the branches are again left naked, grey, and straggling.
■fhis phenomenon of successive fruitage in the fig-tree is doubtless the source of the description of the fruit-trees of the New Jerusalem (Ezk 47'=, Rev 22= 'the tree of life') as 'bearing fruit every month.' In the Talmud it is a symbol for the acquisition of learning, which, to be permanent, must come by little and little (Hamburger, ME i. 3, s.i'. 'Feige,' p. 360 with references). Hence the saying, ' Whoso sees a fig-tree in his dreams, his learning shall be safe from forgetf ulness ' {Bern- khoth, 57). The capacity of the tree for prolonga- tion of its bearing season leads in fact to certain representations which easily pass over into ex- aggerations and misunderstandings important to avoid.
Edersheim (Life and Times, bk. iv. cli. xvi. p. 246) refers to 'a "species (the Bcnoth Shuach) men- tioned in Skebh, v. 1, of which the fruit required three years for ripening,' but which may more reasonably be understood as simply a late-bearing variety whose fruit reached maturity only in ex- ceptionally favourable seasons, not oftener than once in tliree years. So with the rhetorical passage of Josephus (BJni. x. 8) celebrating the delightful climate of the plain of Gennesaret. His statement that ' it supplies the principal fruits, as grapes and figs, uninterruptedly during ten months of the year,' cannot reasonably be made to prove more than the fact that in that semi-tropical depression, tiOO ft. below sea-level, fresh fruit, including tigs, 1 ould be obtained almost to the end of winter.
To explain the narrative of Mk 11'^ two other facts have been advanced of doubtful value and trust-worthiness. It is asserted that neglected relics of the autumn crop sometimes cling to the branches of the fig-tree throughout the winter; but Post {^c p. 6) was unable during a residence
fIG-TRE]2
J'IG-TREE
of 33 years in Syria to iind, or hear of, such. The statement of Edersheim {I.e. V. ii. p. 374) that such left-over fruit about April 1 ' would of course be edible ' becomes admissible only by inserting a 'not' after 'of course.' It is also asserted that the pcig, or green fruit, was eaten, even Benzinger {PBE^ s.y. ' Fruchtbaume,' p. 304) declaring that 'Jesus might expect to iind such winter tigs (the paggini) on a tree already in leaf at the season of Passover, that is before the time of the ripening of figs.' In the sense that the rudimentary fruit- buds would be discoverable under the leaves, upon examination (unless the tree had become sterile by reversion to the wild type, as sometimes occurs), this statement is true ; the present writer has found such dry tasteless 'figs' at 'Ain Far a near Jeru- salem, on March 1, the size of an olive, though the tree was leafless. Boys sometimes nibble these buds, but to speak of the paggim at tliis season as ' winter figs ' is misleading. The evidence for the edible quality of the pag, drawn by Edersheim from the Talmud (Bk. v. ii. p. 375, referring to Shebh. iv. 7 and Jerus. Shebh. Sob, last lines) sug- gests only that at a later season the unripe fruit was sometimes used as a condiment 'with bread.' This, however, was after the paggim ' began to assume a red colour,' and not when the foliage had only just begun to cover the setting fruit-bud. Apart from the question whether a tree could be properly rebuked for the absence of a quite excep- tional product, the alleged phenomena, whether of neglected relics of the autumn harvest, or use of the unripe fruit, have neither of tliem any real bearing on the difficulty that Jesus should ai)proach a way- side fig-tree, with the intention of staying His hunger, when, as so frankly stated in the record itself, ' it was not the season of tigs. '