mmsen:
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas:
The only book that deals with young Jesus, it indicates that Jesus was a strong-willed child who one historian describes as "Dennis the Menace as God." The book reveals that at age five, Jesus may have killed a boy by pushing push him off a roof and then resurrected him. Perhaps too disturbing for inclusion in the Bible, this book seems to contain traditions, also known to the Koran.

sukkot:
[b]good question bro, how much of the gospel stories are allegories ? all of it is allegories but you have to understand that because a story is allegory does not mean it didnt happen. however it is written in a way to hide the actual people and the actual event from the public. let me give an example, the biafran war ?. its an actual event right ? now let me tell that story allegorically. i will call nigeria > joseph and i will call biafra > matthew. so here is the story > joseph was the father of matthew but matthew wanted independence from his father joseph so he fought his father but did not prevail and he couldnt leave home as he had planned to if he got his independence '. now thats what an allegory is. does matthew exist ? no. does joseph exist ? no. so the story when taken literally did not happen. but if you get behind it allegorically then you can tell it is the war of independence of biafra trying to break away from nigeria. so the event is real but the literal story is not. now for you to be able to understand the allegory and take out the real story behind it takes the spirit of GOD[/b]

now apply this concept to the story of Jesus calming the storm and walking on water. they are all allegories

Sirwallace:


guy, the reason you gave up there are as crappy as lame. cursing an innocent tree to teach them about faith! that's lame.

secondly, God created heaven and heart not Jesus Christ.

lastly, admit he made a ridiculous mistake which was not supposed to be documented in the bible. common sense will tell all the right thinking man that what he does is inappropriate and needless.

Strawman:


If you're tired of reading troll comments, I think I can help you with your question.

@bolded part, first of all, of course it wasn't the plant's season, but let me tell you something: Fig trees bear fruit before they start to grow leaves. So on seeing "in a distance a fig tree covered with leaves", they all expected it to have produced plenty fruit already. Some plants happen to produce fruit early and before their season, it happens.

Now, for why he cursed the plant? Jesus was teaching his disciple a lesson. There's a lot of symbolism that fig tree could teach on; about faith, about "fruitless" people, about Israel as a whole etc. you've probably heard most of it. The act is simply just like your school teacher cutting off some plants, or killing an animal to bring to class and teach his students one or two things - it's normal. And it's not like the tree was someone's property or something so...

sukkot:
[b]good question bro, how much of the gospel stories are allegories ? all of it is allegories but you have to understand that because a story is allegory does not mean it didnt happen. however it is written in a way to hide the actual people and the actual event from the public. let me give an example, the biafran war ?. its an actual event right ? now let me tell that story allegorically. i will call nigeria > joseph and i will call biafra > matthew. so here is the story > joseph was the father of matthew but matthew wanted independence from his father joseph so he fought his father but did not prevail and he couldnt leave home as he had planned to if he got his independence '. now thats what an allegory is. does matthew exist ? no. does joseph exist ? no. so the story when taken literally did not happen. but if you get behind it allegorically then you can tell it is the war of independence of biafra trying to break away from nigeria. so the event is real but the literal story is not. now for you to be able to understand the allegory and take out the real story behind it takes the spirit of GOD[/b]

now apply this concept to the story of Jesus calming the storm and walking on water. they are all allegories

MuttleyLaff:
Then God said,
"Let the earth produce vegetation: plants bearing seeds, each according to its own type,
and fruit trees bearing fruit with seeds, each according to its own type." And so it was.
- Genesis 1:11

I would curse a worthless living thing to death, especially if in due season, it is not useful, not beneficial, not positively productive and not fruitful

It will be good riddance.

The tree, as seen in Genesis 1:11 above, was already blessed, in line with,
there is an appointed time for everything, like the appointed time to pluck fruit buds from that fig tree

Galaxydon1:
jesus is not the creator of the whole world. God is the creator, and jesus is the son of God.

ogwumgbe:

Oh boy your allegorical theory is bullshit. Are you insinuating that Jesus Christ didn't actually calmed the storm or cursed the fig tree?

PastorAIO:
Can you give me an explanation as to what was actually happening when Jesus calmed the storm?

emis8:
bro, its all in the scripture.
if you read the whole chapter, you'll get to hear when Peter acknowledged that the tree he cursed actually died.

Why did he curse the fig tree
1. Jesus is the creator of the world
In the beginning, all trees he created rought forth fruits in and out of season, there was always fruits for Adam and Eve to eat. As the creator, he expected that the fig should have fruits wether its his season or not. The fig should have responded to His demand at least.
Remember Jesus said, everyone of us who does not bear fruit, my father will uproot, and those of us who do bear fruits, He will trim so that we bear even much fruit.

2. He cursed the tree to teach them about Faith
when Peter acknowledged that the fig tree he cursed actually died, Jesus told them to "have faith in God"
He told them that if they have the slightest level of Faith, they can speak to a mountain to move from where it is to another place and it will happen as it happened to the fig tree.

As a Christian, if you put the little faith you received (as you got born again ) to use, nothing shall be impossible to you. You can speak to anything including money and it will answer you.

Have a glorious Sunday Service.

sanandreas:
He that does not bear fruit will wither away like the Fig tree. As Christians we must bear good fruit.

sukkot:
lol nah its symbolic story. the man is not growing spiritually and he was cast out of the congregation is the message here. you have to understand that all sacred texts are written allegorically and symbolically so as to hide the messages . ALL SACRED TEXTS ARE CODED AND WRITTEN AND HIDDEN IN SYMBOLISM. these texts are written like such because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven is not given to everyone.

EternalBeing:
Imagine that after so much effort and time , the manufactured Computer, says "leave me, leave me I don't want to serve the purpose for which I was created!" What would u as the manufacturer do?

mmsen:


He demonstrated faith in himself by killing a defenceless tree?

EHMIR:
this is a lame attempt at justifying jesus' brutal act towards d innocent tree..its of general knowlege that everything ve their own seasons,including trees.

Clearly it wasnt the season of the fig tree to bear fruits,nd jesus knw this,yet he went ahead to 'murder' the tree...

Wickedness.


Pls @ d bold,iam still waiting for ur lots to move mountains

PastorAIO:

The way I was taught the meaning of this passage, I personally found it very racist/anti-semitic and nasty. The writer of Mark was a nasty Racist and helped to bring about 2000 years of antisemitic terrors on Jewish people.

[size=13pt]
The Fig Tree is a prophetic symbol of Israel. The Jewish people are the Fig tree. This is a symbolic passage in Mark.

In Jewish religion the Fig Tree means Jewish people. That's how they understand it when it is mentioned in their scriptures.

"I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first fruits on the fig tree in its first season." Hosea 9:10

For a nation has come up against My land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. He has laid waste My vine, and ruined My fig tree Joel 1: 6 -8

So once you understand that in parables the fig tree is a symbol for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people in general then you understand what it means when Jesus comes to the Fig tree and finds that it has not fruit.

There is a penalty in prophetic speech for fig trees that do not bear fruit, or that bear nasty fruit. Check what Jeremiah has to say about them.

[/size]

Jeremiah 24:

the Lord showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. 2One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. 3And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

4Then the word of the Lord came to me: 5“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

8“But thus says the Lord: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9I will make them a horrora to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. 10And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”


[size=13pt] Good figs are blessed. nasty figs are despised and put through horrors.

This is basic Judaism symbolism. So when Jesus comes to the fig tree, ie when he comes to Israel, and finds that Israel does not yield it's fruit to him he curses it. Furthermore, 'no one shall eat figs from him again' is a total discrediting of Judaism and Jewish people as a part of God's plan. This sentiment comes from the assault on the Jewish faith launched by Paul and other hellenistic christians. It has led to 2000 years of revolting attacks on an innocent people. Christianity at it's very root is, it seems, a virulently racist antagonistic movement.

[/size]

raphieMontella:

i believe what inspired this allegory was the destruction of jerusalem(temple) in 70AD by the romans...

ogwumgbe:


You have no part in this discussion, be concerned with the affairs of Lucifer your master. This thread is for the Children of God please

EHMIR:
The chararcter of jesus is a conflicing one..

I dont knw why a "harmless nd peaceful" will place an eternal curse on an innocent fig tree...i mean what sin has d fig tree commintted to ve recieved such treatment?


Is it that jesus is not what bible portrays him to be...somebody had better explain this

EHMIR:
The chararcter of jesus is a conflicing one..

I dont knw why a "harmless nd peaceful" will place an eternal curse on an innocent fig tree...i mean what sin has d fig tree commintted to ve recieved such treatment?


Is it that jesus is not what bible portrays him to be...somebody had better explain this

Sirwallace:


guy, the reason you gave up there are as crappy as lame. cursing an innocent tree to teach them about faith! that's lame.

secondly, God created heaven and heart not Jesus Christ.

lastly, admit he made a ridiculous mistake which was not supposed to be documented in the bible. common sense will tell all the right thinking man that what he does is inappropriate and needless.

hopefulLandlord:
So, Jesus is walking from Bethany and he’s feeling a bit peckish. He encounters a fig tree, but unfortunately it is barren as it’s the off season for figs. Annoyed, Jesus demands the fig tree bear him fruit, however the fig tree doesn’t respond (it’s a tree), so Jesus, in an act of uncharacteristic rashness, curses the fig tree to death. This story is bizarre for many reasons, but mainly for how little it means to the Jesus story and how Jesus seems to react so harshly. OK, so he’s hungry, and we all get a little cranky when hungry, but come on, the fig tree had done nothing wrong. This just seems like abuse of powers to me.



The moral of this story? I honestly can’t think of one. This story seems so unimportant and purposeless yet both Mark and Matthew mention it so it must have some importance.

The best I can think of is: don’t disobey Jesus, even if you’re an inanimate tree.

KORLAR:


In my opinion, he should have blessed the tree instead of cursing it to show his magnanimity.

@EHMIR
Are you a Christian? If yes then what you should be doing is getting an understanding of why Jesus did what he did. Its quite funny you make a soulless tree look like a victim, whereas you have probably cleared your backyard of "Unwanted innocent weeds" who have done absolutely nothing but grow naturally.

@KORLAR
When your Biology teacher wants to teach you practicals of the digestive system of a rabbit, does he bring a live rabbit to class to explain or one that has been killed and the stomach ripped open?

@hopefulLandlord
You have quite an interesting write-up . However like many others you keep missing the point. Jesus wasn't angry, if he was the bible would have recorded it. You went on to make this statement which I find a little bit hilarious "...Jesus demands the fig tree bear him fruit, however the fig tree doesn’t respond (it’s a tree)" . Your argument for the tree refusing to respond to Jesus is based on the fact that its a tree? Seriously?? How come this same tree responded to a curse?

Jesus spoke to the waves, Matt 4:39
Jesus spoke to a little boys meal, Luke 9:16
Jesus spoke to Fishes, John 21:6
Jesus spoke to a Dead Man, John 11:43

In your closing remarks you also said "..This story seems so unimportant and purposeless yet both Mark and Matthew mention it so it must have some importance" . Shouldn't you be willing to understand why Mark and Matthew wrote about it?

Finally, Jesus never hurt anyone. Even the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery was not condemned by Jesus. He walked in love, so don't try to equate the story of the fig tree to the character of Jesus.

@SirWallace
What makes the tree "innocent"? You are missing the point about faith here, but if you are ready to take time to understand then I would enlighten you a bit. The Post's by Strawman & Chukzyfcb below have actually explained most parts but there is an additional point I want you to understand. Hebrews 11:1 states that "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not seen."

Notice the part where it says EVIDENCE, which means PROOF or TITLE DEED. Question is how can you have the evidence of something you have not seen? Now that's FAITH. FAITH is that EVIDENCE. Taking you back to the incidence with the fig tree, when Jesus noticed the tree was barren, he caused the tree saying "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever" . The exciting part of this scripture is that although it was immediately recorded in the following sentence that the fig tree immediately withered, it was not seen physically by the disciples.

Notice when he caused the tree, there was no comment from anyone. The disciples must have wondered in their hearts "...but the leaves of the tree are still green", but they kept quiet. Now as they returned Peter noticed that the tree had dried up and called the attention of the Master to it. This is also another remarkable part of this scripture, Jesus wasn't surprised. He didn't yell "Oh really"? which is what most people do when they try to act in faith and it happens by chance or coincidence. Jesus was 100% sure that tree died when he cursed it even though no one could notice it with their physical eyes. The tree died immediately from the roots and the response Jesus gave to Peter was also remarkable.

In Mark11:22 Jesus said, "22“Have faith in God,” Jesus said to them. 23“Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and has no doubt in his heart but believes that it will happen, it will be done for him . 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours".

Notice the part I highlighted. That was what Jesus was trying to communicate to them using the fig tree. He had no doubt in his heart that the tree didn't die when he cursed it and he got exactly what he said. In summary, one of the lessons here is that DOUBT cripples FAITH. No matter how much you scream or shout, as long as you harbor doubt you are not functioning in FAITH and therefore have no EVIDENCE of that which is unseen.

I hope this with the posts below would help most people understand this a lot better.

cc: chinnyness122

Strawman:


If you're tired of reading troll comments, I think I can help you with your question.

@bolded part, first of all, of course it wasn't the plant's season, but let me tell you something: Fig trees bear fruit before they start to grow leaves. So on seeing "in a distance a fig tree covered with leaves", they all expected it to have produced plenty fruit already. Some plants happen to produce fruit early and before their season, it happens.

Now, for why he cursed the plant? Jesus was teaching his disciple a lesson. There's a lot of symbolism that fig tree could teach on; about faith, about "fruitless" people, about Israel as a whole etc. you've probably heard most of it. The act is simply just like your school teacher cutting off some plants, or killing an animal to bring to class and teach his students one or two things - it's normal. And it's not like the tree was someone's property or something so...

Chukzyfcb:
Studies have shown that the fruit of the fig tree generally appears BEFORE the leaves, and, because the fruit is green it blends in with the leaves right up until it is almost ripe.
Jesus saw the leaves from afar off and expected it to have fruits but upon close inspection he couldn't find any. so he used that opportunity to teach the importance of bearing fruits in the Christendom.


Yes it may not have been the season but because the Leaves appeared on the true, it was EXPECTED of it to bear fruits, that is how a FIG tree operates. This is why The bible let's us know we are branches and Jesus is our true vine, any if we don't bear fruit we are CUT OFF! that's the significance of the parable bro

1KINGKYLE:

The Catholic doctrine states so.Let "us"make man in our own image and likeness. Indicating many people involved in the creation story.The Catholic says that it indicates the existence of the holy Trinity I.eGod the father,God the son (Jesus) and God the holy spirit only in one God.

EHMIR:
this is a lame attempt at justifying jesus' brutal act towards d innocent tree..its of general knowlege that everything ve their own seasons,including trees.

Clearly it wasnt the season of the fig tree to bear fruits,nd jesus knw this,yet he went ahead to 'murder' the tree...

Wickedness.


Pls @ d bold,iam still waiting for ur lots to move mountains

EyeofHorus:
I think he was very upset with someone. He transferred his aggression to the tree so that people won't say he has 'anger issues'.


****This is my own opinion

EHMIR:
this is a lame attempt at justifying jesus' brutal act towards d innocent tree..its of general knowlege that everything ve their own seasons,including trees.

Clearly it wasnt the season of the fig tree to bear fruits,nd jesus knw this,yet he went ahead to 'murder' the tree...

Wickedness.


Pls @ d bold,iam still waiting for ur lots to move mountains

MSHEKS:
innocent fig tree really?? but den we humans go about felling trees in a whole forest... Innocent fig tree indeed