Cursing of the fig tree

James Tissot: The Accursed Fig Tree (between 1886 and 1894)

The cursing of the fig tree in Bethphage (Greek: Βηθφαγή; Aramaic בית פגי "house of (unripe) figs") by the Christ on the morning after Palm Sunday, i.e. on Holy Monday, is described in the Gospels according to Matthew and Mark. In Mark, the narrative frames the cleansing of the Temple, which according to Matthew had already taken place the day before.

Gospel of Matthew

„18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. 20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” 21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”“

– Matthew 21:18–22

Gospel of Mark

„Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.

The Lesson from the Withered Fig Tree

20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, 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. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”“

– Mark 11:12–25

Spiritual background

According to Rudolf Steiner, the fig tree is a symbol of the old natural clairvoyance, as is the related Bodhi tree under which the Buddha experienced his enlightenment, but which belongs to a different species of fig, namely the ficus religiosa. The old natural clairvoyance, which must disappear to make way for new more conscious forces of spiritual knowledge, was fed by the same pure etheric forces that underlie reproduction. These forces are indicated by the fig tree or the fig leaf. Since antiquity at the latest, therefore, figs, in which, as in all fruits, astral forces are also active in addition to etheric forces, have always been regarded as aphrodisiacs. The initiates of pre-Christian times were able to make use of the pure etheric powers for spiritual vision. This is also indicated in the Gospel of John by the conversation of the Christ with Nathanael:

„47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”“

– John 1:47–51

Emil Bock, one of the co-founders of the Christian Community, writes about this:

„Once we have crossed the summit of the Mount of Olives, coming from Jerusalem, and we slowly walk back down the valley on the other side, where the subterranean magic mirror of the Dead Sea glistens towards us from the depths of the Judean Desert, we come halfway between the Mount of Olives and Bethany to a place enclosed in high walls. Black cypresses tower above the walls and point up to heaven like solemn signs. Here was a small settlement at the time of Jesus: Bethphage, "the house of figs". We must not think of this settlement as a village like other villages. The group of people who had moved their common life here was held together by a special spiritual-religious striving. The simple huts that may have stood there were surrounded by a grove of fig trees, from which the place took its name. But these fig trees were more than useful plants, they were sacred trees to the people who lived there, visible signs of their spiritual aspirations. They were people who sought to preserve within their circle the spiritual secret of ancient humanity, which also appears once within the New Testament in the story of Nathanael. The people of Bethphage cultivated "sitting under the fig tree", the state of supersensible seeing, which was achieved through partly physical, partly immersive exercises.

Bethphage, the house of figs, was a place where the old seeing was cultivated. From here, in the early morning of Palm Sunday, Jesus sent for the donkey and the donkey's foal through Peter and John. As there were sacred trees there, so there were sacred animals there. The donkeys that were kept there were not farm animals. They too expressed a mystery within this circle of people. In the Old Testament tradition, the magician who had once been summoned from Babylonia to curse the Israelites to prevent them from entering the land of promise was still clearly remembered. Balaam was presented as riding on a donkey. But it was known that the riding on the donkey did not only mean the way of moving. They also saw in it the expression of a very specific state of rapture, namely that somnambulistic state of soul in which the Babylonian magician once began to speak, not out of his human consciousness, but as if out of a spiritual possession, only that when he wanted to hurl the magical curse against Israel without knowing what was happening to him, it became a blessing. The sacred animals of Bethphage show that the vision cultivated there was of an unawake nature and bound to the physical body; after all, the donkey is the imaginative expression of the physical human body right up to the folk tales of modern times.“ (Lit.: Bock, p. 328f)

Literature

• Emil Bock: Die drei Jahre, Urachhaus Verlag, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-87838-229-4