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The Fig – A Holy Land Summer Fruit
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Figs can be seen ripening under the summer sun throughout Israel, their distinctive aroma perfuming the air around springs and streams from Caesarea Philippi in the north to Ein Gedi in the south. The word fig is one of several in English that probably comes from Hebrew: paga means an unripe fig. The fruit gave its name to two villages on the Mount of Olives. One is Bethphage, Beit Pagi, which means “house of unripe figs,” through which Jesus passed before the triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Matt. 21:1, Mark 11:1, Luke 19:29). The other is Bethany, Beit Te’enah, which means ‘house of the fig.” It was near Bethany, the home of Simon the Leper (Matt. 26:6) and of Lazarus, Mary and Martha (John 11:1), that Jesus cursed a fig tree that produced leaves but no fruit (Mark 11:12-14). Normally, a fig produces its leaves and its first fruit at the same time, but obviously in this case it did not. Visitors will see many wild figs whose fruit won’t be tasty, because as Proverbs 27:18 notes, figs had to be carefully tended to produce a good harvest. The fig tree is also known for its sap, which was used to curdle cheese. A fig poultice was even made to treat King Hezekiah’s boil (Isaiah 38:21). Jesus cited the fig tree as a metaphor for signs of the times, noting that when “its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near” (Matt. 24:32). Summer visitors to Israel can recall that “each man sitting under his own vine and fig tree” (I Kings 4:24-25) is a biblical symbol of peace.
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