God didn’t name the trees except for one. In the Garden of Eden two important trees are spoken of, both of which have an important task in the development of the newly-created world, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The only tree that is mentioned by name is the fig tree.
Already in the creation story in paradise, the fig leaves are mentioned during God’s first judgment, when He banished the first humans from the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, realizing their nakedness, covered themselves with fig leaves.
Since then, the fig tree has appeared several times in biblical history and is one of the seven fruits in the Promised Land, together with wheat, barley, grapes, pomegranates, olives and dates. The fig tree has always been an important fruit tree in Israel, along with the olive tree and grapevine, and was popular as a provider of shade because of its large leaves. The fig leaves were so large that even Adam and Eve used them to cover their nudity, so if you will, the fig leaves were the first fashion statement.
Perhaps the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a fig tree, because when you suddenly realize you are naked, you grab the nearest thing to cover yourself.
When Moses sent the men to spy out the land of Canaan, we read:
“They came to the valley of Eshkol, and there cut a vine with a bunch of grapes, and had them carried by twos on a pole, along with pomegranates and figs.”
Both the fig tree and the vine symbolize a prosperous economy in the land where peace and security prevail.
“Judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan to Beersheba; everyone sat under his vine and his fig tree as long as Solomon lived.” (1 Kings 5)
When King Hezekiah was dying, the prophet Isaiah, son of Amos, came to him and said:
“Thus says the Lord: Order your house; for you will die and not live!”
And what did Isaiah do, he “brought a mass of dried figs! And when they brought one, they put it on the boil, and he was healed.”
The prophet Jeremiah presents two baskets of figs as a symbol of Israel’s future. There were two baskets of figs in front of the Temple after the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jehoniah the king of Judah captive to Babylon.
“One basket contained very good figs, like the early figs in the other basket, but were very bad figs, which one could not eat for wickedness.”
The vision of good and bad fruit is carried over to the Babylonian Exile, and King Zedekiah, who remained in the land of Judah, and his followers, to whom divine judgment is announced.
According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus cursed the fig tree before cleansing the Temple, and the next day the disciples saw the tree withered. The fig tree had leaves but no fruit, even though it was summer and therefore the time for the fig harvest. James warns against the abuse of the tongue and asks whether a fig tree can bear olives or the vine can bear figs. As a salty spring cannot give sweet water, so a tongue cannot bless and curse.
Like the prophets before Jesus, the cursed fig tree is often interpreted as a symbol for the people of Israel, who refuse to believe, bear no fruit, or denied Jesus and the New Testament. A number of exegetes in Church history have gone so far as to say that the curse expressed a renunciation of “ancient Israel,” the withered fig tree symbolizing the rejection of Israel. God broke the covenant with His chosen people Israel because they rejected Jesus, and now the Church replaces biblical Israel. But this contradicts God’s promises to Israel.
See: Evangelical Eschatology and the Elephant in the Room
So the curse means judgment. Like the earlier prophets, Jesus here also completes a line in which the fig tree represents barren and punished Israel. The fig tree thrives in hot climates and knows how to get its water from the ground. It’s not about the tree, it’s about the need to follow God and be fruitful no matter where we are.
