the fig tree: the common fig tree of the Bible lands, grown for its sweet fruit and known for its broad, shade-giving leaves.
The word names one specific, familiar plant, the common fig tree. Along with the grapevine and the olive, it was one of the mainstays of daily life in the land, valued for its fruit and for the deep shade of its wide leaves. A person resting under his own fig tree was a stock picture of a settled, peaceful life, so the tree carried a warmth in the imagination that goes beyond its wood and fruit.
Because the tree was so well known, the Gospels lean on it to teach. It leafs out late in the year and its new growth signals that summer is near, so Jesus points to it as a plain sign to read the season: when the branch turns tender and puts out leaves, you know the time is close. A fig tree in full leaf was also expected to carry at least early fruit, so a leafy tree with nothing on it became a ready picture of promise without substance.
That picture lies behind the tree's most memorable New Testament scenes:
- the fig tree Jesus curses for its empty leaves, which then withers to the roots
- the parable of the fruitless fig tree given one last year to produce
- Nathanael sitting under a fig tree before Jesus ever meets him
Even where the tree stands for something more, it is first of all a real tree doing what fig trees do: leafing, fruiting or failing to, and dropping its early figs when shaken, the very image Revelation uses for stars falling from the sky. The fruit itself is a separate word (σῦκον); this word is always the tree.