Fig; Fig-Tree

There are several kinds of fig-trees, but the well-known tree called the Ficus Carica is common in Palestine and very productive. It also agrees with the description of "sitting under the fig-tree" for repose, its branches and leaves giving protection from the heat of the sun. It was one of the trees in the garden of Eden, of the leaves of which Adam and Eve made aprons. Gen 3:7; 1Ki 4:25; Joh 1:48. The figs were made into cakes by being pressed together. 1Sa 25:18; 1Sa 30:12. The trees bear figs at different times, hence the expressions ’first-ripe figs,’ and also ’untimely figs.’ Nah 3:12; Rev 6:13. The fruit is produced before the leaves; so that leaves being found, there should have been fruit on the fig-tree cursed by the Lord, although the ordinary fig-season had not arrived. Mat 21:19-20; Mar 11:13; Mar 11:20-21. This was typical of Israel which had been compared to a fig-tree, bringing forth its first-ripe figs, Hos 9:10; but in the days of the Lord, Israel had plenty of leaves, professing to be God’s favoured people, but producing no real fruit to Him. Luk 13:6-7. As a nation in the flesh no fruit will ever be found on it.

fig´trē (תּאנה, t^e’ēnāh, plural תּאנים, t^e’ēnı̄m, specially “figs”; פגּים, paggı̄m, “green figs” only in Son 2:13; συκῆ, sukḗ, “fig-tree,” σῦκον, súkon, “fig”):

1. Fig-Trees in the Old Testament

The earliest Old Testament reference to the fig is to the leaves, which Adam and Eve converted into aprons (Gen 3:7). The promised land was described (Deu 8:8) as “a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates,” etc. The spies who visited it brought, besides the cluster of grapes, pomegranates and figs (Num 13:23). The Israelites complained that the wilderness was “no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates” (Num 20:5). When Egypt was plagued, the fig-trees were smitten (Psa 105:33); a similar punishment was threatened to unfaithful Israel (Jer 5:17; Hos 2:12; Amo 4:9). It is only necessary to ride a few miles among the mountain villages of Palestine, with their extensive fig gardens, to realize what a long-lasting injury would be the destruction of these slow-growing trees. Years of patient labor - such as that briefly hinted at in Luk 13:7 - must pass before a newly planted group of fig-trees can bear profitably. Plenitude of fruitful vines and fig-trees, specially individual ownership, thus came to be emblematical of long-continued peace and prosperity. In the days of Solomon “Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree” (1Ki 4:25). Compare also 2Ki 18:31; Isa 36:16; Mic 4:4; Zec 3:10; 1 Macc 14:12. Only a triumphal faith in Yahweh could rejoice in Him “though the fig-tree shall hot flourish” (Hab 3:17).

2. Natural History of the Fig-Tree

The Ficus carica, which produces the common fig, is a tree belonging to the Natural Order Urticaceae, the nettle family, which includes also the banyan, the India rubber fig-tree, the sycamore fig and other useful plants. Fig-trees are cultivated all over the Holy Land, especially in the mountain regions. Wild fig-trees - usually rather shrubs than trees - occur also everywhere; they are usually barren and are described by the fellahin as “male” trees; it is generally supposed that their presence is beneficial to the cultivated variety. The immature flowers harbor small insects which convey pollen to the female flowers and by their irritating presence stimulate the growth of the fruit. Artificial fertilization has been understood since ancient times, and there may be a reference to it in Amo 7:14.

Fig-trees are usually of medium height, 10 or 15 ft. for full-grown trees, yet individual specimens sometimes attain as much as 25 ft. The summer foliage is thick and surpasses other trees of its size in its cool and dense shade. In the summer owners of such trees may be seen everywhere sitting in their shadow (Joh 1:48). Such references as Mac Amo 4:4; Zec 3:10, etc., probably are to this custom rather than to the not uncommon one of having a fig-tree overhanging a dwelling.

3. Figs

The fruit of the fig-tree is peculiar. The floral axis, instead of expanding outward, as with most flowers, closes, as the flower develops, upon the small internal flowers, leaving finally but a small opening at the apex; the axis itself becomes succulent and fruit-like. The male flowers lie around the opening, the female flowers deeper in; fertilization is brought about by the presence of small hymenopterous insects.

There are many varieties of figs in Palestine differing in sweetness, in color and consistence; some are good and some are bad (compare Jer 24:1, Jer 24:8; Jer 29:17). In Palestine and other warm climates the fig yields two crops annually - an earlier one, ripe about June, growing from the “old wood,” i.e. from the midsummer sprouts of the previous year, and a second, more important one, ripe about August, which grows upon the “new wood,” i.e. upon the spring shoots. By December, fig-trees in the mountainous regions of Palestine have shed all their leaves, and they remain bare until about the end of March, when they commence putting forth their tender leaf buds (Mat 24:32; Mar 13:28, Mar 13:32; Luk 21:29-33), and at the same time, in the leaf axils, appear the tiny figs. They belong to the early signs of spring:

“The voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land;

The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs” (paggim) - Son 2:12, Son 2:13.

4. Early Figs

These tiny figs develop along with the leaves up to a certain point - to about the size of a small cherry - and then the great majority of them fall to the ground, carried down with every gust of wind. These are the “unripe figs” (ólunthos) - translated, more appropriately in the King James Version, as “untimely figs” - of Rev 6:13. Compare also Isa 34:4 the King James Version - in the Revised Version (British and American) “leaf” has been supplied instead of “fig.” These immature figs are known to the fellahı̄n as taksh, by whom they are eaten as they fall; they may even sometimes be seen exposed for sale in the markets in Jerusalem. In the case of many trees the whole of this first crop may thus abort, so that by May no figs at all are to be found on the tree, but with the best varieties of fig-trees a certain proportion of the early crop of figs remains on the tree, and this fruit reaches ripe perfection about June. Such fruit is known in Arabic as dafūr, or “early figs,” and in Hebrew as bikkūrāh, “the first-ripe” (Isa 28:4; Jer 24:2; Hos 9:10). They are now, as of old, esteemed for their delicate flavor (Mic 7:1, etc.).

5. The Cursing of the Barren Fig-Tree

The miracle of our Lord (Mat 21:18-20; Mar 11:12, Mar 11:13, Mar 11:10, Mar 11:21) which occurred in the Passover season, about April, will be understood (as far as the natural phenomena are concerned) by the account given above of the fruiting of the fig-tree, as repeatedly observed by the present writer in the neighborhood of Jerusalem. When the young leaves are newly appearing, in April, every fig-tree which is going to bear fruit at all will have some taksh (“immature figs”) upon it, even though “the time of figs” (Mar 11:13 the King James Version), i.e. of ordinary edible figs - either early or late crop - “was not yet.” This taksh is not only eaten today, but it is sure evidence, even when it falls, that the tree bearing it is not barren. This acted parable must be compared with Luk 13:6, Luk 13:9; now the time of judgment was surely coming, the fate of the fruitless Jewish nation was forcibly foretold.

6. Dried Figs

While fresh figs have always been an important article of diet in their season (Neh 13:15) the dried form is even more used. They are today dried in the sun and threaded on strings (like long necklaces) for convenience of carriage. A “cake of figs” (d^ebhēlāh, literally, “pressed together”) is mentioned (1Sa 30:12); Abigail gave 200 such cakes of figs to David (1Sa 25:18); the people of North Israel sent, with other things, “cakes of figs” as a present to the newly-crowned David (1Ch 12:40). Such masses of figs are much used today - they can be cut into slices with a knife like cheese. Such a mass was used externally for Hezekiah’s “boil” (Isa 38:21; 2Ki 20:7); it was a remedy familiar to early medical writers.

(óõêῆ, óῦêïõ, ὄëõíèïò)

Apart from the three references in the Gospels (Mat_7:16, Mar_11:13, Luk_6:44), figs are mentioned only twice in the NT (Jam_3:12, Rev_6:13). In James the ordinary words óõêῆ, ‘fig-tree,’ and óῦêïí, ‘fig,’ are used, but in Rev. ὄëõíèïò is the word employed to denote the fruit. The latter term designates a fig which grows during the winter under the leaves, but seldom ripens.

The meaning of Jam_3:12 is clear: a tree is known by its fruits; a fig-tree cannot bring forth olives, neither can an olive-tree bring forth figs; a man’s ‘works’ are, in short, an infallible index to his ‘faith’ (Jam_2:18). In Rev_6:13 figs form part of the imagery in the vision of the Opening of the First Six Seals. The Seer beholds the stars of heaven falling to the earth ‘as a fig-tree casteth her unripe figs, when she is shaken of a great gale,’ In the ordinary way these winter figs (ὄëõíèïé) did not ripen, so here the judgment predicted is not about to cut off prematurely those who if spared would develop into matured and useful fruit, but those who are ‘without hope and without God in the world’-in short, the ‘cumberers of the ground.’

The fig-tree is native to Palestine and is found either cultivated or wild all over the country. Those which are wild are usually barren or at all events boar no edible fruit, and they are known as ‘male’ fig-trees. There are many varieties of fig-trees cultivated, some of which yield a sharp, bitter fruit, and others a sweet, mellow one. It is noticeable that in the description of the Promised Land (Deu_8:8) fig-trees are mentioned as one of its leading natural characteristics. They are of moderate sine, though sometimes attaining a, height of 25 ft, while the stem is sometimes over 3 ft. in diameter. The bark is smooth, and the size and thickness of the leaves readily explain the point of the Jewish proverb-‘to sit under one’s own vine and one’s own fig-tree’ (1Ki_4:25, Mic_4:4, Zec_3:10). As a matter of fact, its foliage affords better shade and protection than any other tree in Palestine. It is one of the earliest trees to shoot, and its first fruit-buds appear before its leases (cf. Mat_24:32, Mar_13:28, Luk_21:29-30). The fruit is an enlarged succulent hollow receptacle, containing the imperfect flowers in its interior; consequently the flowers are invisible till the receptacle has been opened. The figs are eaten both fresh and dried, and they are often compressed into a cake (cf. 1Sa_25:18; 1Sa_30:12, 1Ch_12:40). The time the tree comes into leaf and fruiting varies according to the situation, and is later in the hill-country than in the plains. On the hills, the branches which have remained bare and naked all through the winter put forth their early leaf-buds about the end of March, and at the same time diminutive figs begin to appear where the young leaves join the branches. These tiny figs Continue to grow with the leaves until they reach about the size of a cherry, then the majority of them fall to the ground or are blown down by the wind. These are the ὄëõíèïé of Rev_6:13 (see above).

Literature.-H. B. Tristram, Natural History of Bible10, 1911, p. 350f; H. B. Swete, Apocalypse of St. John2, 1907. p. 93; W. M. Thomson The Land and the Book 1910 ed., p. 333; J. C. Geikie, The Holy Land and the Bible, 1903 ed., pp. 66, 74. Cf. also Hastings’ Single-vol. Dictionary of the Bible , p. 262f; Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) ii. 5, 6; Encyclopaedia Biblica ii. 1519-1522.

P. S. P. Handcock.