Fig

The fig (te'enah in Hebrew; suke in Greek) was one of the most important food plants of ancient Palestine and one of the seven species that characterized the goodness of the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 8:8). Fig trees produced two annual crops — an early crop of large figs in June and a main crop of smaller figs from August through October — and their large leaves, used by Adam and Eve after the fall (Genesis 3:7), are among the first natural details recorded in Scripture.

"Each man under his own vine and fig tree" became the proverbial image of peaceful prosperity in Israel (1 Kings 4:25; Micah 4:4; Zechariah 3:10), and the withering of the fig tree was a sign of judgment (Joel 1:7, 12; Hosea 9:10). Jesus's cursing of the barren fig tree (Matthew 21:18-22; Mark 11:12-25) bracketing the temple cleansing is widely understood as a symbolic enacted judgment on unfruitful Israel, while the fig tree's budding in the Olivet Discourse serves as a sign of the approaching summer of the kingdom (Matthew 24:32).