The story of the fig tree can be found in Mark 11:12-26 and in Matthew 21:17-22 . Most Christians I have encountered say it is a metaphor. But is it? If you read the following passages, it is not a metaphor, but a continuous narrative on that day before Jesus and his gang went to Jerusalem. Jesus was hungry and went up to a fig tree to get something to eat — and subsequently cursed the tree to death because it had no fruit.
Now, is this the way this “Jesus loves me” thing is supposed to act? Aside from the obvious question as to why Jesus, being so big on forgiveness here, did not forgive the fig tree (or even heal it). He even cursed it! In my interpretation, Jesus just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, that’s why he’s too crabby on that day. Anyway, the Fig-tree enigma just tells me that Jesus is not “all-good” as what Christian fundies are saying. It’s a myth. If the New Testament is as accurate as these fundies would have me believe, its main character, Jesus, is a dolt.
We can summarize the story so far as:
1. Jesus was hungry.
2. He looked for figs on a tree.
3. But it was not fig season.
4. So, because the moron didn’t get his way, Jesus killed the poor tree in retaliation.
Why did Jesus (if he’s a god) cannot even tell if it’s fig season? Can”t this nut even tell if its fig season? Remember that it is Passover season. Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) begins on the eve of the fifteenth day of the month of Nisan according to the Jewish lunar calendar. The date varies from year to year according to the English calendar, falling in March or April (that falls in springtime.) So, it’s not even a season where fig trees are supposed to have fruits! I thought Jesus is god and a god is supposed to be all-knowing?
If it wasn’t fig season, why would this moron look for figs? Is killing a tree for not bearing fruit out of season a reasonable response by any standard?
Now, what is the moral of that story? As a good Christian, if you asked for something and the guy failed to give it to you, kill him! Is that what your Jesus likes to teach? Sounds more like the MAFIA to me.
Furthermore, the Fig-tree story is another proof of biblical inconsistency. Compare Matthew 21:17-22 to Mark 11:12-14 and 20-26. Look closely, in the Matthew version, when Jesus cursed the poor fig-tree, it died immediately and his apostles saw it happened. On Mark’s version, the poor tree died sometime and was already dead when Jesus and his gang passed by it from Jerusalem. (Talk about accurate reporting huh.)
Now the Christians want me to believe that an All-Good God named Jesus exists, but the Bible says otherwise. Then, the Jesus is God concept doesn’t exist.
the fig tree was symbolic of Israel he was cursing the tree because it did not bear good fruit aka Israel. The temple was destroyed within 40 years which is a generation. By the Romans. Jesus Gave the Jews 40 years to repent. then they would be cursed. from that point onward Unrepentant jews have never gone back until todays generation.
This just means that Jesus is the son of God has the same power as the Father. It’s just show that if u have faith nothing is impossible. He chosen the fig tree to be the sign that when the fig tree bloom again that is the seAson of the second coming of him. The fig tree bloomed in 1948 accdg.from the encyclopedia , so it means that we are in the season of the coming of Jesus Christ, we just know the time and the date. Praise the Lord!
are you a genius? or just an idiot accusing gods work if you don't really know what is behind the story and you are making your own study the go to hell… it is written in 10 commandment that….You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain…. who ever not follow his commandment shall burn in everlasting fire…. you better use your knowledge in a positive way not accusing somebody or the son of god…
Im juz curious,im not against anyone.Did it ever dawned on you while drinking your beverages[juz lyk the photos at d bottom] at the same tym ruminating of a good lyf amounting fr scholarly character and extraordnry perception juz wat u r manifesting..Feeling inevitably thankful or grateful but suddenly reminded that THERE IS NO ONE TO THANK{of course u can thank ur fellow atheist,but im curious 4 whoever superior amongst u thanking some1 'most' superior than him}..its human 4u 2 use the word 'thank u' for one of ur aparent commentators here..Does that mean directly..?isnt it that an odd feelng..Im juz curious from an atheistic psych from you..
im not a religious fanatic, but i dont consider myself as an atheist either. i just cant see why a lot of people waste so much time studying other people's religion and criticizing it just to feel that they have enough chromosomes. what a bunch of losers, i guess you guys have nothing better to do after you check your facebook and watch a lot of porn on the internet. do not flatter me by retaliating on my post, this is the first and last time im going to be here.
LOL. idiot!
This is the first and last time you're going to be here? @ see ya…Well…see ya.
Please remember under your present condition, godless or as a little demigod, never attempt to join a 12 step program; because failure is your only reasonable assessment in do so! Remember a high power…must be the tree and Jesus! Get into a good recovery program to return "back" to humanity's circle of life….which includes God! Release your hate and identify your transference fixations with the aid of a good mental health professional.
Case Study: Dan Thrapp
Dan Thrapp: Male, Age: Unknown
Other than a poor comprehension with reality, we find Dan Thrapp suffers in paranoia and hysteria. Reading Dan Thrapp’s article, we hind him too pre-occupied with the thoughts of atheist loathing. It seems Dan Thrapp is suffering from manic-depressive illness (Axis II DSM-IV-TR).
Base on his article, Dan Thrapp may have a background of childhood physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or physical/emotional neglect. So in order for him to have a normal social life, Dan Thrapp is now venting his emotional/psychological issues with the people he hated most; the atheist.
Dan Thrapp is using atheists as a self-reflection, and self-rumination of his own depression. Since he also shows symptoms of mild schizophrenia (F23.3), he has this uncontrollable anger over people who don’t seem to agree on what he believes as true. He then accuses them of psychological illness in which he is now suffering.
This anger is fueled more by a “fox and grape” complex in which because of Dan Thrapp’s inability to refute atheistic arguments, he become votive, detached from reality and sociopathic.
Precutions:
When Dan Thrapp encounters any article that criticized his belief system (e.g. Jesus, God, Christianity, Bible), this triggers a combo of fight reflex and pure rage. There will be an alteration of emotion and subject usually starts to go berserk.
Symptoms:
Under this emotional breakdown episode, subject’s consciousness is altered which gives Dan Thrapp a different personality. The subject will be detaches from reality and develops an elaborate inner world which is illogical and fantastic.
Physical symptoms will follow:
His blood pressure rises.
Pupils dilates.
Shaking of lips and fluttering of eyelids.
The subject’s muscles tighten and become rigid with rage.
There is also an over flow of saliva.
There are cases in which after reading an atheistic article, Dan Thrapp suffers diarrhea and bed-wetting at night.
On worst scenario, after reading such article, Dan Thrapp may immediately suffer involuntary bowel discharge. If this is the case and if you have seen the other physical symptoms above stay away from him as possible.
Please do not let the subject get in touch to any atheistic articles. If that would happen please call your emergency number and notify his psychologist.
You can also call the following number:
Panic Disorder Information Hotline
800- 64-PANIC
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
1-800-950-NAMI (6264)
Help Finding a Therapist
1-800-THERAPIST (1-800-843-7274)
Thank you.
Free Thinkers……Hmmmm….that is odd! Atheism and Atheist are not free nor thinkers. However, Atheism and Atheist do find themselves trapped, "fixated", or even bi-polar on the issue of God. It is so sad… a mind is a terrible thing to waste….always being disrespectful, disruptive, obsessively ignoring, disparate to reasoning fixations, & socially unacceptable. According to recent studies reported in the AMA journal Atheist suffer more mental disorders than society at large! Atheism today and throughout human history finds Atheist's only survival means being loneliness, rejections, or avoidance by concealment to personal thoughts in any & all social settings! Even in your gay community which you hide in rejection is yours, but allows you to stand socially isolated! Maybe you should really think about your behavioral causes and begin adding life to your agenda! Oh….my goodness the mental health professional make their living from your self battle as little gods! However, I wish to thank you for you kindness in helping me to retire nicely:) Even a tree would be a better partner or god than your delusional rational reasoning abilities presently! God Bless
Jesus is just a man,who is enlightened. Just like Buddha. He's also a man.
If Jesus is just a man just like Buddha then he wouldnt be enlightened at all…for claiming that He is also God.
He didn't claim divinity. His clowns did.
John 10:30-33 – "I and the Father are one." 31 The Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, "I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?" 33 The Jews answered Him, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God."
while everyone's trying to find the reason for killing the tree, has anybody considered the power needed in killing that tree? i mean everyone's out proving that he is not god and still talking about the power of his word! and can anyone tell me the reason why pinoyatheist are out finding a GOOD REASON why, what they don't beleive exist, GOD, killed a tree!…Just a thought
i think you missed the point of the debate here, the argument is about why the portrayal of the jesus character suddenly turns into super-villain mode, contrary to previous descriptions of him being all-loving, compassionate and full of forgiveness.
you could actually replace "jesus" with "satan" in the story and it would make better sense because it'd be easier to imagine the devil killing an incompetent minion to strike fear in the hearts of his other subordinates by "making an example" out of those who failed to please him.
i have yet to comprehend the reasoning behind such "mercy" shown for the incompetent tree but not to the believers.
Jesus wasn't all knowing when He was on the earth! He humbled himself, and bought HImself down to the abiltiy of HUMANS so he didn't have full knowledge unless God the Father told him though the Holy spirit… ! 😀 which He didn't ( and for this reason, it says we can do all things He has done and more( raising the dead, miracles etc, other wise Chrisitianity would be silly because we havn't actually changed, but Jesus lived a sinless life while He had the same capability of sinning as us Humans, thats why HE MAKES A PERFECT SACRIFICE for everyones sins :D:D so He is pure, but He only knew what God the father told Him on the earth, and about killing the fig tree it is a metaphor for fruit, and so when we are given stuff, if we don't use what we got, it's gonna get taken away, so ye appreciate and make the most of what you have and more will be given :D,
and JESUS does get hungry! He was human while on this earth!
@abaam:
So now we need another guru or teacher that will enlighten us “why [the guru] Jesus did such thing”.
How many gurus does it take to change a light bulb?
I contemplated deeply on this Fig Tree incident. So many insights about the Lord Jesus came to the surface as a result. The main insight I had was that being a carpenter, Jesus had sizeable interests in the logging and timber industry. Killing the fig tree he set an example (nay, the EXEMPLAR) of economic behaviour for man.
A very anthropocentric economic decision.
GabbyD says:killing the true doesnt preclude it from being used for other purposes. after its been killed, theres no reason for it not being used for whatever else purpose. he didnt talk about this other purpose – coz the alternative purpose, whatever that is, is not the point of the passage.
Human has imperfect knowledge or capacity to understand things. May be that story requires little "Intelligence". Me too don't understand what is the reason behind, why he need to curse that Fig tree. My point is we need a guru or teacher that will enlightened us "why Jesus did such thing".
Sorry for my poor English.
"Never stop inquiring and stop speculating"
There are principles of Biblical Interpretation. And even if one may claim that there can be a variety of interpretations there is no denying the fact that there is a universally accepted method of interpreting texts– whether literary, Biblical or historical.
My only point perhaps is that we try to study first this method so that we can all have a common ground in our arguments on interpretations. We will end up nowhere if, in the first place, we fail to adhere to the standards of scholarly interpretation.
By the way, in case we worry about whether or not such standard is bias, I encourage everyone to search for books from the social sciences and literature dealing with the issue of interpretation. At least these are from the scholarly perspective, not religious.
A good place to start is with the science of interpretation called hermeneutics.
🙂 Good day and God bless you.
If there is such thing as Toby's Dictionary there will be such entry:
Catholic Hermeneutics: Interpreting a text to make it appear morally acceptable and psychologically sane.
I was planning not to responce to most of the comments here…but…
Issue 1: Is the fig tree story a metaphor or a parable?
Most Christians rely to the excuse that the story found in Mark 11:12-26 and in Matthew 21:17-22 arer just metaphor or a parable. Why? Simple…a benevolent God-Man will not act as barbaric, ill tempered SOB as how the gospel writers pictured him. But…is the excuse valid?
Let us first define what a parable and a metaphor is: A metaphor is an analogy between two objects or ideas, conveyed by the use of a word instead of another, while a parable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson. So far, so good…
Now what is a continues narrative? It has something to do with ordering events and thoughts in a coherent sequence.
If I will accept the Jesus story as a work of fiction, it still won't justify Mark 11:12-26 and Matthew 21:17-22 as a parable or a methapor. The said story is a part of Jesus' biography.
Notice how the paragraph was structured…
"The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 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. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it." – Mark 11:12-14
In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!" Mark 11:20-21
Jesus wasn't telling a story here. He's a part or a character of the said situation. An account of the series of events in someone's life is not a methapor nor a parable.
The fig tree here is not a symbol. Will Jesus eat a symbol? When Mark said that "after leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry", was the author making a metaphorical statement?
According to some Christian commentators, the symbols were "acted-out". That means in the narrative, Jesus killed the fig-tree to give a methapor or a representation of Israel…yet that still doesn't give Jesus to kill an innocent life to demostrate his cockiness and explain his point…or just because he was hungry and wanted to get something to stuff is belly!
The cursing of the fig tree is just a (spitefully) demostration of Jesus power…but its moral implication is quite devastating. Why will this benevolent Man-God curse a fig tree who doesn't bare fruit…while knowing quite well that it's not even fig tree season? Will you expect a mango to bare fruit if it's not mango season?
i'm just wondering, setting aside the question of metaphor and theology…
"yet that still doesn’t give Jesus to kill an innocent life"
by life, we mean the tree…
what would give a person the right to kill a tree?
what are good reasons to kill a tree?
Why don't you try to answer that, @GabbyD? What are the good reasons for killing a tree, or an innocent life for that matter? 🙂
i think there are lots of good reasons to cut trees. humans can cut trees for many reasons. example: if u plant a tree, and the tree is not useful, then a tree ought to be cut.
am i missing someting?
i'm wondering about pinoyatheists' reasons. what are the valid reasons for killing trees?
@GabbyD:
I agree that there are good reasons for cutting trees like using them for lumber to build houses. However, Jesus did not cut the tree; he simply cursed it and caused it to die. Can you think of a good reason for that? Jesus did not get any lumber from the tree, or even firewood. He did not even uproot the tree in order to make space for planting a new tree. He simply made it wither.
Now I'm wondering why you're wondering about Pinoyatheist's 'reasons' to justify the killing of the fig tree, because as far as I understood from the article, Pinoyatheist is condemning the killing of the tree. (Please correct me, @Pinoyatheist if I misrepresented your stand.)
first: killing the true doesnt preclude it from being used for other purposes. after its been killed, theres no reason for it not being used for whatever else purpose. he didnt talk about this other purpose – coz the alternative purpose, whatever that is, is not the point of the passage.
second: he killed it for a reason — as a metaphor/teaching example of nob being fruitful.
so color me confused — whats the problem?
you may disagree with the teaching, but you cant disagree that he had reason to do it.
GabbyD wrote: "you may disagree with the teaching, but you cant disagree that he had reason to do it."
– Agreed. I agree that he had a 'reason' to kill the tree. But I disagree that his reason was 'good'. I noticed in your previous comments you used the adjective 'good' to describe 'reason', but in your latest post it's only 'reason'.
Innerminds: Now I’m wondering why you’re wondering about Pinoyatheist’s ‘reasons’ to justify the killing of the fig tree, because as far as I understood from the article, Pinoyatheist is condemning the killing of the tree. (Please correct me, @Pinoyatheist if I misrepresented your stand.)
John the ATHEIST: That is correct.
To GabbyD:
The issue here is not "cutting trees" but, "Will you kill or take away "life" just to prove your damn point?"
Yes…it's OK to kill something to prove your point…if you're a mafioso or a member of the Chinese triad. But to say or insist that God or Jesus is good…and then kill a defenses life form. Now…uh…it seems there some kind of a problem with that…eh…hello?
i thought jesus was born a man rather than a divine being which means he is still man in some aspects. I mean have you read the story how jesus was angry on how the people made a temple into a market, i mean if he was the incarnation of god in earth he shouldn't be angry and understand people are making a living.
We, Catholics, believe that He is both.
hypostatic union, having two natures: that of his humanity and divinity.
And you persecuted and exiled me for it, too.
You are very much correct…this is neither a parable nor a metaphor, rather an account in the life of Jesus Himself.
I am a theist. However, I do not agree that Jesus is a true God. Jesus is human in nature while God is spirit. A human like Jesus and everyone of us is subject to human weaknesses such as being hungry. While God who is spirit in nature does not get hungry.
You wrote your article as if you have extensive knowledge of the Bible, where in fact, you do not have. I pity those who weren't given the privilege to understand the Bible in its pristine form, yet they seem to do so.
Please examine the verses carefully:
1)The day when the fig tree was cursed and when the disciples noticed it were two consecutive days.
2)The tree was immediately withered after being cursed. Take note that HE alone went to the tree while the apostles ONLY heard Him cursing and actually did not see it in its withered state until next day.
3) There is absolutely nothing wrong about killing the fig tree. Consider this:
All things in heaven and on earth were put under Christ power.
Fig trees are things on earth.
Therefore, Christ has power over fig trees (including the power to kill them).