Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

And in the morning--of Tuesday, the third day of the week: He had slept, as during all this week, at Bethany. as they passed by--going into Jerusalem again. they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots--no partial blight, leaving life in the root; but it was now dead, root and branch. In Mat 21:19 it is said it withered away as soon as it was cursed. But the full blight had not appeared probably at once; and in the dusk perhaps, as they returned to Bethany, they had not observed it. The precision with which Mark distinguishes the days is not observed by Matthew, intent only on holding up the truths which the incident was designed to teach. In Matthew the whole is represented as taking place at once, just as the two stages of Jairus' daughter--dying and dead--are represented by him as one. The only difference is between a mere summary and a more detailed narrative, each of which only confirms the other.