Figs in the Bible

Figs on a fig tree, one green, one dead ripe

It recently occurred to me that figs are mentioned in the Bible in a number of places, and in a number of ways. I am listing some of them, with annotation, in this post.

The first mention, of course, is that Adam and Eve are said to have made themselves garments of fig leaves, after the Fall, in Genesis 3:7.

In Numbers 13:23, the twelve spies, including Caleb and Joshua, brought back figs as part of their evidence that the land of Israel was fruitful.

Abigail pacified David's righteous anger with a gift of food, including figs.

I Kings 4:25 uses the idea of people sitting under their vine and fig tree as a way to describe peace. So do other passages. Jeremiah uses the loss of the fig harvest as a way to emphasize what enemies would do. In another passage, he uses a lack of a fig harvest as a way to describe spiritual poverty. Jeremiah, in chapter 24, uses spoiled versus good figs as a way to describe God's salvation, and also punishment, of the Israelites.

Isaiah used a cake of dried figs as a cure for a medical problem to heal someone. Isaiah also used leaves falling from a fig tree as a way of describing the end times.

Hosea uses the first harvest of figs from a planting to describe the former spiritual loyalty of the people of Israel.

In his prophecy of the locusts coming on Israel, Joel mentions damage to the figs as one of the kinds of destruction that is coming on them.

In Habakkuk 3, one of the great chapters in the Bible, the prophet says:
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19a God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.

In Matthew 7:16, Jesus says that we shall know people's loyalty to Him by the fruit they produce. Thistles, he says, don't give us figs. Later, James presents the same idea.

In Matthew 21, Jesus demonstrates his authority and God-hood by causing a fig tree to wither and die.

In Matthew 24, Jesus tells the disciples about the end times, and uses the sequence of events in fig tree seasonal growth to illustrate that there will be signs of these events.

One of the parables in Luke 13 tells about how God gives people a chance to follow Him, but, if they don't, they will be destroyed like an unfruitful fig tree would be.

In John 1, Jesus tells Nathanael that he saw him before they met, when Nathanael was under his fig tree.

Lastly, in Revelation, the stars are said to fall, like ripe figs fall from tree in the wind.

So figs are mentioned quite a bit in the Bible. So are grapes, and other crops. Maybe I'll consider them later.

Thanks for reading!

Figs

Figs on a tree

The Wikipedia says that there are about 850 species of figs. However, in another article, it also says that the plant that we use is the common fig, Ficus carica. Most of my knowledge of this plant comes from that article.

Figs have been cultivated by humans since about 9,000 B. C., and may have been the earliest cultivated plants. The first evidence for this comes from the Gilgal archaeological site, which is near Jericho.

Figs may be eaten as they are, or made into jam or preserves, or dried. They don't keep well for transport, so are often sold as dried figs. One form of dried figs is fig newtons.

The fruit is sweet, all right. Nearly 48% of a fig's weight is carbohydrate. The good news is that less than 1% is fat. The fruit is almost 10% fiber, by weight. They are a good source of Calcium and flavonols. As some of you probably know, they have a laxative effect.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of fig life is the way in which fig flowers are fertilized. In the first place, what we think of as a fig fruit hides the flowers, which were, presumably, inside the green fig shown above in the photo. So how are they fertilized? There are wasps, fig wasps, which live inside these fruit/flowers, and move from one to another, pollinating as they goes. In fact, the Wikipedia on fig wasps says that we may be eating wasps when we eat figs. Apparently the wasps are very small. For more on this topic, including photos, see here.

There are videos, from PBS, available here, and here (several segments of an originally longer video). I am not clear as to whether the fig shown in these videos are the figs we grow and eat.

This post is on many of the times figs are mentioned in the Bible.

Thanks for reading!