Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered. 20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked. 21 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it… In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!" 22 "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel." Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God." The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" (John 1:29-36)

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:13-17)

John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them. (Luke 3:16-18)

When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." (Luke 3:21-22).

“As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.” Mark 1:9.
When the Spirit descended on Jesus, Mark says that: “And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." (Mark 1:11)

“Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month… When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” (Luke 1:36, 41-44)

What is the point and purpose of this story, in one or both of its manifestations? why do most Christains pray, believe and still receive nothing? can you guys please explain why Jesus, the creator, God of the universe, didn't know it wasn't the season for figs?

mazaje:

why do you post threads like these you and huxley? they're unassailable and don't leave much room for discussion. It's just BAM!, party's over. . . . . .

Bastage:

LOL. This is a question for botanists.

Here's the answer:

"The facts connected with the fig tree are these. Toward the end of March the leaves begin to appear, and in about a week the foliage coating is complete. Coincident with this, and sometimes even before, there appears quite a crop of small knobs, not the real figs, but a kind of early forerunner. They grown to the size of green almonds, in which condition they are eaten by peasants and others when hungry. When they come to their own indefinite maturity they drop off. These precursors of the true fig are called taqsh in Palestinian Arabic. Their appearance is a harbinger of the fully formed appearance of the true fig some six weeks later. So, as Mark says, the time for figs had not yet come. But if the leaves appear without any taqsh, that is a sign that there will be no figs. Since Jesus found "nothing but leaves" - leaves without any taqsh- he knew that "it was an absolutely hopeless, fruitless fig tree" and said as much."

Can't knock it. It makes solid sense.
Jesus Christ. Messiah and expert on Fig Trees.

arramyjay:

Very interesting.
@ poster,There so many versions of the bible.

Image123:

Christians should interpret or explain these passages so that?

We're telling you about freedom and peace and joy available in Christ Jesus,you here busy copying and pasting some mumbo-jumbo questions.

Bastage:

LOL. This is a question for botanists.

Here's the answer:

"The facts connected with the fig tree are these. Toward the end of March the leaves begin to appear, and in about a week the foliage coating is complete. Coincident with this, and sometimes even before, there appears quite a crop of small knobs, not the real figs, but a kind of early forerunner. They grown to the size of green almonds, in which condition they are eaten by peasants and others when hungry. When they come to their own indefinite maturity they drop off. These precursors of the true fig are called taqsh in Palestinian Arabic. Their appearance is a harbinger of the fully formed appearance of the true fig some six weeks later. So, as Mark says, the time for figs had not yet come. But if the leaves appear without any taqsh, that is a sign that there will be no figs. Since Jesus found "nothing but leaves" - leaves without any taqsh- he knew that "it was an absolutely hopeless, fruitless fig tree" and said as much."

Can't knock it. It makes solid sense.
Jesus Christ. Messiah and expert on Fig Trees.

bindex:

What has that got to do with my post?

arramyjay:

Every thing,Just wanted you to knw that they are alot of versions to the bible so the difference in texts.

And do me a favour,belt up.

This below from The California Rare Fruit Growers Website:httphttp http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/fig.html seems to disagree with your post. Just because a fig tree doesn't have a spring crop (some do, some don't) doesn't mean it is barren and won't have a main crop in the fall, it's normal harvest time. According to this site, it doesn't sound like unripe figs are even edible at all and there is no record of palestinian peasants eating unripened figs.

Fig trees are in season in the fall, so we can place this event sometime not in the fall.

  Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered. 20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked. 21 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it… In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!" 22 "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

Bastage:

Guy, are you asking me to state when Jesus made the fig tree wither!!!??

That's impossible for me to do simply because I don't believe he made it wither in the first place. The fig story is simply another allegorical tale of which there are loads of examples in the NT.

bindex:


When did the Fig tree wither? was it immediately as said by Matthew or the next morning as said by Mark? beside that what did Jesus really say? did he say "May you never bear fruit again" or "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." Keep in mind that Mark went ahead and said "And his disciples heard him say it". If his diciples heard him say it then why the very different and contradictory accounts? The two statements are very different statements that are not the same, there is a great difference between not bearing friuts again and people never eating fruit from a tree again. A tree could still bear poisonous fruits which would make people not to eat from it again, that is different from not bearing fruits at all. Since there are no records of Jesus ever doing any of this things beside those recorded in the bible I believe that says a lot about the veracity of all the events recorded therein.

If the deciples of jesus really wrote the gospels as alleaged by bible apologist when are some of the gospels written in koine greek (when non of the writer is greek) or written in the third person ? why are the gospels written like a narrative fiction? why do we have parts where only jesus was present? why were the gospels written about 60(a long time for someone to live in those days, let alone remember what happened all those decades ago ) years after the death of jesus?

Is that all you have to say?how has your statement explained anything?

Is that all you have to say?how has your statement explained anything?

~Lady~:

I am Nigerian my main language is Benin and yet I speak English. Italians also speak and write in English. Do you get it? You don't have to come from England to write and speak english.

Most of the people living in Jesus' time spoke and wrote greek. Ever heard of greco-roman? For someone with "knowledge" you seem to know little.

The gospels are not written like a narrative fiction, you view it as fiction. However it is a narration and that's why it is in third person, considering the fact that the writer was not the only person present at these events of Jesus' life

The gospels were not written to be scripture.None of the books in the Bible or at least the New Testament were written to be scripture. .  

They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet.  [c] 21[b] Every living [/b] thing that moved on the earth perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the[b] earth[/b], and all mankind.

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh,  For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.  

During a time of persecution the eyewitnesses were dying quickly and they thought it best to write down these narratives so as to have records of what happened before it got lost in time. While Jesus walked the earth, the disciples weren't reporters who carried notebooks and tape recorders to capture every thing that was said

Most of the gospels were not even written to be read universally, they were written to a specific people, that is why each writer describes things differently. For example Matthew was writing to the Jewish Christians and therefore used images that identified with the Jewish people. Luke wrote to the gentiles who were associated with greek philosophers and therefore used images that identified with them. One example of this is the beatitudes sermon. Matthew describes Jesus as sitting on a Mountain likening him to Moses and Moses is viewed as authority, while Luke has Jesus on a plain likening him to the greek philosophers as most of them gave their speeches on a plain, on level ground.

So you see the gospels or any of the books in the Bible cannot be appraoched or read as if it was written today and to us. It must be understood as it was written, understanding the message one can then apply it to today's life. If I were to write a narrative of Jesus giving a sermon, I would create an environment that had him on stage with a podium with a presidential sign as this is symbolic of power and authority to people living today  

So oga if you truly want to understand it, you have to first be willing to do the work. Learn the culture of the people then and how they reasoned. Then and only then will you fully understand the messages in the Bible

Bobbyaf:

As regards the fig tree.

Fig trees normally bear fruit when their foliage is plenty.  This one in particular had a lot of leaves but no fruits. Jesus expected it to be fruitful, but found it fruitless at a time when it was most needed. He cursed it and further used it to highlight the hypocracy of the religious leaders of the day, who show signs on the outside to indicate fruitage, but under closer examination they are indeed bare.

As for Jesus not knowing that the tree in question was not bearing is really irrelevant.  Was it expected of Him to know?

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it… In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!" 22 "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

did you read the passage according to mark?

how can jesus expect it to be fruitful when it was not yet time for figs? why was jesus expecting the fig tree to do that which it can not do? it was'nt the season for figs how did jesus the creator of the fig tree not know that it was'nt time for the fig tree to produce figs? jesus highlighted the hipocracy of the leaders how? by expecting them to do what they can't do like he expected the fig tree to produce out of season?

how does this explain anything? the people that alleagedly witnessed all the events were hebrew not greek. i have never heard of greco-hebrew.

the gospel according to matthew, mark ,luke and john is what is written in the bible, the gospel according to what they witnessed and saw as deciples of jesus, your claim of other people present is BOGUS. if there are other people then please let us know who their names are.

what is this lady?    do you really believe what you have written? what about a place in the new testament where it was written that all scriptures are inspired by god? 2 timothy 3:16 says "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,  " what does that statement mean and what now becomes of your assertion? the other day on another thread you claimed that noah's flood did not happen globally because noah wrote the story according to his understanding of the world when the bible clearly say it was a global flood(i wanted to point that fact to you but i was busy). here is what your bible says

Genesis 7 said that the flood destroyed "all" mankind and "every" land animal and presumably insects included. If he had meant those in a certain locale and not the entire earth, he could have said so. when describing the destruction of Sodom there was no problem in saying the inhabitants of a certain geographical area were the ones destroyed, not all mankind:

and remember when the biblical god was giving noah the warning this is what he said.

this is another lame excuse. the bible gave it as the report of the diciples of jesus according to what they witnessed not according to what they and others witnessed. what about the parts where it was written that jesus was alone? how did they get to know what happened and what jesus said when he went and prayed alone? there is no where in the gospels where it was written that jesus went and prayed alone came back and shared what he did or said when he was alone to his diciples. how did they know and write about it 60 years later?

this is BOGUS.  jesus came to save the world as the bible claims yet you say that the account of events written about him were not written to be read universally?

what has that got to do with the very contradictory report of events? like when did jesus and his diciples eat the last super? was it before the passover feast(first of the seven anual festival) or on the feast of unleaved bread(second of the seven anual festival), when did the tree wither? is it immediately or the next morning?

what did god say and to whom when the dove came down on jesus after he was baptised?

remember mark even said "and his diciples heard him say this" yet their account of the same event were very different and contradictory.

this is not true, you are traying to rationalize what is written in the bible, some christains try to rationalize the bible thats why we have christains who believe that non christains will go to heaven, women can preach in churches with men, homosexuals should be accepted etc when the bible unequivocally says other wise. this analogy is ridiculous. by the way those accounts of events were written 60 years after the alleaged death of jesus, that alone says a lot about the veracity of what is written as the accounts of eye witness.

so madam i have seen that you are really a mental gymnast. since the contradictions does not support and makes a mess of what is clearly written in your holy scriptures, you have to try and cloud what is written, twist it and reshape it to make it fit with reality.

Bobbyaf:

@ mazaje

Yes I did.

Because the tree had plenty of foliage. As I have explained one of the indications of fruitage is when its foliage is plenty. The fact is fruit trees have been known to bear out of season. So why did Jesus approach the tree, do you think, if He never expected it to have borne fruits? Do you think He might have been confused by His hunger, lol?

On the other hand Jesus could have approached the tree with the idea of providing an object lesson for His disciples. Since it was expected that plenty of foliage on a fig tree was a strong indication of much fruitage, and no such fruits were found regardless of it being in season or not, then cursing the tree as an act had far more implications than just a mere physical cursing of a tree.  I hope you appreciate where I am coming from.

Even the very question as to whether the Creator of the fig tree knew if it bore or not would suggest that He had a far greater lesso

Let me answer on Mazaje's behalf (I hope he doesn't mind) You have turned the story into an allegorical account knowing that it clearly doesn't add up.

Matthew and Mark reported it as an event not an allegory, on what basis does a person take biblical story as an allegory?

As you said the tree had foliage which indicated that it was ready for fruit. Thats not what I am interested in.

Did the tree wither immediately as written by Matthew or the next morning as written by Mark? The new testament is alleged to have been the writings of the deciples of Jesus who were with him and witnessed all the alleged events, why then are their account of events so contradictory?

These events were only recorded in the bible, if their accounts are so conflicting then it goes to show that the alleged eye witness did not write any of the books as the bible claims.