Texts in Conversation
In Luke, the gardener pleads for one more year to dig and fertilize the unfruitful fig tree. The Apocalypse of Peter merges this with the Olivet parable, identifying the tree as Israel and the reprieve as Israel’s last chance before the end.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Luke 13:8
New Testament
6 Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 So he said to the worker who tended the vineyard, ‘For three years now, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and each time I inspect it I find none. Cut it down! Why should it continue to deplete the soil?’ 8 But the worker answered him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year too, until I dig around it and put fertilizer on it. 9 Then if it bears fruit next year, very well, but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Apocalypse of Peter 1:8
Revelation of Peter
Early Christian
8 The Lord answered and said to me: Do you not understand that the fig tree is the house of Israel? It is like a man who planted a fig tree in his garden, and it bore no fruit. He sought its fruit for many years, and when he found none, he said to the keeper of his garden: Pull up this fig tree, so it does not make our ground unfruitful. And the gardener said to God: Let us rid it of weeds, dig the ground around it, and water it. If then it bears no fruit, we will at once remove its roots from the garden and plant another in its place. Have you not understood that the fig tree is the house of Israel? Truly I tell you, when its twigs have sprouted in the last days, false Christs will come and stir up expectation, saying: I am the Christ, who has now come into the world. And when Israel perceives the wickedness of their deeds, they will turn away from them and deny him, even the first Christ whom they crucified, and in this they sinned a great sin. But this deceiver is not the Christ. And when they reject him, he will slay with the sword, and there will be many martyrs. Then the twigs of the fig tree, that is, the house of Israel, will sprout forth: many will become martyrs at his hand. Enoch and Elijah will be sent to teach them that this is the deceiver who must come into the world and do signs and wonders to deceive. Therefore those who die at his hand will be martyrs, and will be counted among the good and righteous martyrs who have pleased God in their life.
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Notes and References
“... This is the parable of the barren fig tree, elsewhere found only in Luke’s Gospel (13:6-9). I have argued elsewhere that the author has drawn this parable not from Luke, but from some independent tradition of the parable. The important point, however, is that the author is doing what other early Christian interpreters of the parables also sometimes did: he is assuming that the imagery common to the two parables must have a common meaning. Therefore one parable can be used to interpret the other. The second parable, the barren fig tree, tells how for many years the fig tree failed to produce fruit. The owner proposes that it be rooted out, but the gardener persuades him to allow it one more chance of fruiting. This fruiting of the fig tree is treated by our author as equivalent to the sprouting or budding of the fig tree in the parable of Matthew 24. He correctly perceives that in the parable of the barren fig-tree, the fig tree represents Israel, and the contribution which this parable makes to the interpretation of the other is that it establishes that the fig tree is Israel ...”
Bauckham, Richard
The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses
(pp. 181-182) Brill, 1998
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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