The Fallible Study Bible

The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

Matthew21:18–22

The Barren Fig Tree

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Matthew 21:18–22 — The Barren Fig Tree. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

18

In the morning, as Jesus was returning to the city, He was hungry.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Prōi epanagōn eis tēn polin epeinasen

Word by word7 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
Light connective, left untranslated in BSB.
ΠρωῒPrōiIn the morningG4404
√ πρωΐ — at dawnAdverb
prōi: at dawn The narrative begins in the dark end of the morning watch. Ellicott notes that this was the usual Jewish hour for the day's first food, so the hunger is ordinary, not staged; the extraordinary thing is that the Lord of the temple walks up to it hungry, on foot, with nothing.
ἐπανάγωνepanagōnas [Jesus] was returningG1877
√ ἐπανάγω — to lead up on, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
epanagō: to lead up on A rare verb (the Verifier finds it in only three verses), used of putting out to sea at Luke 5:3 and 5:4. Here the sense is topographical: Jerusalem is up, Bethany is down, and the participle keeps him in motion for the whole verse. The withering is not a detour; it happens on the way in to the temple.
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
πόλινpolincityG4172
√ πόλις — a town (properly, with walls, of greater or less size)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
polis: a walled town The city, unnamed and definite. Everything in this unit stands between Bethany and this accusative: the tree by the road, the temple inside the walls, and the mountain he is standing on.
ἐπείνασενepeinasenHe was hungryG3983
√ πεινάω — "pine")VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
peinaō: to hunger, to pine The aorist states it as fact and refuses to explain it. Gill grounds it in the early rising; Pulpit in a night of prayer and self-forgetfulness; Ellicott infers from Luke 21:37 and John 18:1 that most of the night was spent outdoors. ⚙ The hunger is what makes the tree's leaves a lie: there is a real appetite here that the tree's advertisement invited and could not feed.
19

Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. “May you never bear fruit again!” He said. And immediately the tree withered.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai idōn mian sykēn epi tēs hodou ēlthen ep’ autēn kai heuren ouden en autē ei mē monon phylla Ou genētai eis ton aiōna ek sou karpos mēketi kai legei autē kai parachrēma hē sykē exēranthē

Word by word36 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἰδὼνidōnSeeingG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
horaō: to see, to attend to Aorist participle. Barnes and Gill both bring in Mark 11:13, where he sees it "afar off" and comes "if haply he might find anything thereon." Gill insists the expectation was human and reasonable, and defends it against the Jewish objection by pointing to Isaiah 5:2, where God himself is said to look for fruit and find none.
μίανmianaG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
heis: one A numeral, and every commentator in the brief who touches the Greek flags it. One tree in leaf among leafless brethren. Cambridge builds the whole reading on it: this species fruits before it leafs, so leaves here were a claim about fruit.
συκῆνsykēnfig treeG4808
√ συκῆ — a fig-treeNounAccusative Feminine Singular
sykē: a fig-tree The fig is a standing figure for the covenant people at ease and at judgment. The Verifier's own candidate list shows how tightly this word binds the Gospels: Mark 11, Mark 13:28, Matthew 24:32, Luke 13:6 and 7, Luke 21:29, John 1:48 and 50, James 3:12, Revelation 6:13. It occurs in only fifteen verses of the New Testament, and this unit holds four of its instances.
ἐπὶepibyG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τῆςtēstheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ὁδοῦhodouroadG3598
√ ὁδός — a roadNounGenitive Feminine Singular
hodos: a road Ellicott notes that fig-trees were often planted by the roadside "under the notion that dust suited them"; Pulpit and Barnes both argue from the location that the tree was common property, so no owner was wronged by its loss.
ἦλθενēlthenHe went upG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπ’ep’toG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
αὐτήνautēnitG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Feminine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaibutG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εὗρενheurenfoundG2147
√ εὑρίσκω — to find (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
οὐδὲνoudennothingG3762
√ οὐδείς — not even one (man, woman or thing), iAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
oudeis: not even one Placed emphatically before the verb: not one thing did he find. The absolute negative sets up the "if not leaves only" that follows.
ἐνenonG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
αὐτῇautēitG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Feminine 3rd Person Singular
εἰeiexceptG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
μόνονmonon. . .G3440
√ μόνον — merelyAdverb
φύλλαphyllaleavesG5444
√ φύλλον — a sprout, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
phyllon: a sprout, a leaf A rare noun, in only five verses of the New Testament, and three of those are fig-tree passages (here, Matthew 24:32, Mark 13:28). Leaves are what the tree said about itself. Pulpit: "all outward show, promise without performance." Henry, Benson, Geneva and Cambridge all read the leaves as profession without power.
ΟὐOuvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
γένηταιgenētaiMay you never bearG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Singular
ginomai: to come to be, to be generated Aorist middle subjunctive with καρπὸς as subject: the sentence is passed on the coming-to-be of fruit. ⚙ The same verb returns in v. 21 as γενήσεται, "it will come to be." One word of Christ ends a coming-to-be; the believing word he authorises begins one. That is a real lexical link inside the unit, not a claimed quotation.
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸνton. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
αἰῶναaiōna. . .G165
√ αἰών — properly, an ageNounAccusative Masculine Singular
aiōn: an age "Unto the age": the horizon of the sentence is not the season but the age. This is why Ellicott calls the words "a solemn judgment" rather than disappointment, and why Benson can gloss them "as thou art now fruitless, continue always so."
ἐκek. . .G1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
σοῦsou. . .G4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
καρπὸςkarposfruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounNominative Masculine Singular
karpos: fruit as plucked Nominative, and therefore the grammatical subject of the curse. Fruit is what a tree hands over; the word is the standard measure of a life or a nation in Scripture and in the Baptist's preaching (Matthew 3:8, 3:10). Luke 13:6 and 7 share this lexeme with the present verse in the Verifier's reckoning.
μηκέτιmēketiagainG3371
√ μηκέτι — no furtherAdverb
mēketi: no further "No longer, never again." Together with ou and "unto the age" it makes the sentence irreversible. BSB's "again" is the whole of this in one syllable.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγειlegeiHe saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
legō: to lay forth, to say Historic present among aorists: the narrative stops at the word itself. What acts in this miracle is speech, which is precisely the point Christ draws out in v. 21.
αὐτῇautēG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Feminine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
παραχρῆμαparachrēmaimmediatelyG3916
√ παραχρῆμα — at the thing itself, iAdverb
parachrēma: at the thing itself Not simply "fast" but on the spot, at the very thing. Ellicott notes that English "presently" once meant exactly this and has since been worn down by human delay.
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
συκῆsykētreeG4808
√ συκῆ — a fig-treeNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἐξηράνθηexēranthēwitheredG3583
√ ξηραίνω — to desiccateVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
xērainō: to desiccate Aorist passive: it was dried up. Mark 11:20 supplies "from the roots," and Gill and Poole and Pulpit all record the harmonizing question of when the disciples saw it. ⚙ The same verb stands in John 15:6 of the branch that does not abide: what is severed from the source dries.
20

When the disciples saw this, they marveled and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai hoi mathētai idontes ethaumasan legontes Pōs hē sykē exēranthē parachrēma

Word by word11 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiWhenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
μαθηταὶmathētaidisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
mathētēs: a learner Matthew says "the disciples" collectively. Barnes and Gill both note from Mark 11:21 that Peter actually spoke, and Pulpit compares Matthew 26:8 with John 12:4 as the same habit of generalizing.
ἰδόντεςidontessaw [this]G3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
horaō: to see Ellicott and Pulpit and Poole all reckon from Mark that this seeing came the following morning, so Matthew has compressed two days into one view. The compression is Matthew's; it is not an error to be explained away, and Barnes argues the unforced difference between the accounts is itself evidence of honest witnesses.
ἐθαύμασανethaumasanthey marveledG2296
√ θαυμάζω — to wonderVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
thaumazō: to wonder The disciples respond to power, not to meaning. Cambridge distinguishes dynamis and teras from sēmeion here, and Pulpit says plainly that Christ did not help them read the sign: the connection between miracle and teaching is left to meditation and prayer.
λέγοντεςlegontes[and] askedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΠῶςPōsHow {did}G4459
√ πῶς — an interrogative particle of mannerAdverb
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
συκῆsykēfig treeG4808
√ συκῆ — a fig-treeNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἐξηράνθηexēranthēwitherG3583
√ ξηραίνω — to desiccateVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
xērainō: to desiccate Their verb is the narrator's verb, unchanged and still passive. They describe the effect exactly and understand nothing of it.
παραχρῆμαparachrēmaso quicklyG3916
√ παραχρῆμα — at the thing itself, iAdverb
parachrēma: on the spot Repeated from v. 19. What astonishes them is the speed; ⚙ what should have arrested them is that a word did it, and that they had been hearing such words for three years.
21

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Amēn legō hymin de ho Iēsous Apokritheis eipen autois ean echēte pistin kai mē diakrithēte ou monon poiēsete to tēs sykēs alla kan eipēte toutō tō orei Arthēti kai blēthēti eis tēn thalassan genēsetai

Word by word34 · parsed
ἈμὴνAmēnTrulyG281
√ ἀμήν — properly, firm, iHebrew Word
amēn: firm, faithful The interlinear parses it as a Hebrew word carried untranslated into Greek. It is a covenant oath-word used in the Old Testament to answer God; on the lips of Christ it precedes and guarantees his own speech, which is a claim no prophet makes.
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἈποκριθεὶςApokritheisrepliedG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
apokrinomai: to conclude for oneself, to answer The passive participle plus "said" is Septuagint Greek. Christ answers a question about mechanism with a word about trust.
εἶπενeipen. . .G2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautois. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἐὰνeanifG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
ἔχητεechēteyou haveG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
πίστινpistinfaithG4102
√ πίστις — persuasion, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
pistis: persuasion, conviction Gill restricts this to the faith of miracles, faith in the power of God to do what is above nature, and distinguishes it explicitly from saving faith in the promises and person of Christ; he adds that it was for want of just this that the disciples could not cure the epileptic boy (Matthew 17:20). Barnes agrees that the promise is bounded, and turns it toward the trials of apostolic preaching. ⚙ Their caution is worth keeping: the text says what faith can do, and says nothing that licenses treating God as a mechanism.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μὴmē{do} notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
διακριθῆτεdiakrithētedoubtG1252
√ διακρίνω — to separate thoroughly, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Passive2nd Person Plural
diakrinō: to separate thoroughly The commanded temper is undividedness. Cambridge points to Acts 10:20, where Peter is told to go "nothing doubting," for the same verb in the same sense, and James 1:6 uses it of the wave-tossed man. ⚙ The fig tree failed by being two things at once, leaf without fruit; the disciple is warned against the same duplicity in the mind.
οὐounotG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
μόνονmonononlyG3440
√ μόνον — merelyAdverb
ποιήσετεpoiēsetewill you doG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
poieō: to make or do Future indicative: a promise, not a permission slip. Gill is careful that Christ does not say they will do this particular thing, and doubts that they ever did.
τὸtowhat was doneG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
τῆςtēsto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
συκῆςsykēsfig treeG4808
√ συκῆ — a fig-treeNounGenitive Feminine Singular
sykē: a fig-tree The fourth occurrence of this noun in four verses, and the last: the sign is now named as the floor of what faith does rather than its ceiling. Gill measures it exactly so, calling the drying up of a tree by a word a lesser sort of miracle beside what the promise holds out. ⚙ Note the direction of the comparison: the lesser work was a judgment, and the greater works are set in the context of prayer.
ἀλλὰallabutG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
κἂνkaneven ifG2579
√ κἄν — and (or even) ifAdverb
εἴπητεeipēteyou sayG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
τούτῳtoutōto thisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounDative Neuter Singular
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
ὄρειoreimountainG3735
√ ὄρος — perhaps akin to G142 (αἴρω)NounDative Neuter Singular
oros: a mountain "This mountain," spoken on or beside the Mount of Olives, in sight of Moriah and the temple he had just cleansed. Gill takes it as Olivet and the sea as the distant Mediterranean; Pulpit allows either Olivet or Moriah crowned by the temple, and records Lange's reading that theocratic Judaism must be cast into the sea of the nations. Ellicott holds the whole phrase to be a recognised hyperbole for overcoming difficulty, as at 1 Corinthians 13:2.
ἌρθητιArthētiBe lifted upG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbAorist Imperative Passive2nd Person Singular
airō: to lift up Aorist passive imperative to an inanimate mass. Pulpit notes that the verb here is not the one used at Matthew 17:20, so this is a fresh formulation, not a fixed formula.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
βλήθητιblēthētithrownG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbAorist Imperative Passive2nd Person Singular
ballō: to throw, more or less violently The second passive imperative. Strong's marks the verb as forceful: the mountain is not escorted, it is flung.
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
θάλασσανthalassanseaG2281
√ θάλασσα — the sea (genitive case or specially)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
γενήσεταιgenēsetaiit will happenG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ginomai: to come to be Future middle, answering the aorist subjunctive of v. 19. ⚙ Both ends of the unit turn on this one verb, which is the strongest verbal thread inside the passage itself.
22

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai pisteuontes lēmpsesthe panta hosa an aitēsēte en tē proseuchē

Word by word10 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πιστεύοντεςpisteuontesIf you believeG4100
√ πιστεύω — to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
pisteuō: to have faith in A present participle, and the last word Christ leaves with them before the temple controversies resume. Pulpit summarizes the condition as stringent: no latent doubt, no debating whether the thing can be done, absolute trust in the power and good will of God, and belief that what he says comes to pass (Mark 11:23).
λήμψεσθεlēmpsestheyou will receiveG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbFuture Indicative Middle2nd Person Plural
lambanō: to take, to receive Future middle. Gill presses it as full and free reception from God through Christ, whether asked for oneself or for others.
πάνταpantawhateverG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
pas: all, every, the whole The widest word in the sentence, and the one every honest commentator in the brief immediately qualifies: Ellicott by the will of God (Matthew 7:7), Benson by 1 John 5:14, Gill by the covenant, word and promises of God, Barnes by restricting the promise to the apostles and their miracles.
ὅσαhosa. . .G3745
√ ὅσος — as (much, great, long, etcPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἂνan. . .G302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
Contingency particle with the subjunctive; the uncertainty attaches to what is asked, not to whether God hears.
αἰτήσητεaitēsēteyou ask forG154
√ αἰτέω — to ask (in genitive case)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
aiteō: to ask Aorist subjunctive, the verb of a petition made to a superior. Benson records Baxter's line that faith is the soul and prayer the body, and Henry's that it is "but, ask and have; believe and receive."
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
προσευχῇproseuchēprayerG4335
√ προσευχή — prayer (worship)NounDative Feminine Singular
proseuchē: prayer, worship With the article. ⚙ The unit closes where it opened, on an appetite: a hungry Lord walking a road, and disciples told that what they lack they may ask for. Between the two stands a tree that had everything to show and nothing to give.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. A hungry Lord on the upward road — 21:18

The unit opens before the city is awake. Πρωῒ (G4404) is daybreak: Ellicott dates it "probably about 5 A.M." and calls it the usual Jewish hour for the first food of the day; Pulpit identifies it as the term for the last watch of the night; Gill reaches for the Latin prima luce and reconstructs the whole rhythm of that week, out to Bethany at evening, back to Jerusalem by day. The participle ἐπανάγων (G1877) is rare, found in only three verses by the Verifier's count, and used elsewhere of putting a boat out from shore; here it means the climb up to the city, and it keeps the Lord in motion for the length of the verse. Then the flat aorist: ἐπείνασεν, he hungered. Gill draws the doctrine out of it, that this proves a human nature in all respects like ours except sin, and Pulpit refuses the old expedient of making the hunger miraculous or assumed to set the stage. ⚙ The grammar does the theology: the hunger is stated as an event, not a device, and it is the appetite in v. 18 that makes the leaves of v. 19 a lie.

ii. Leaves only, and the sentence passed on the fruit — 21:19 to 21:20

Four commentators in the brief correct the English at the same word. μίαν (G1520) is the numeral "one": Benson gives "a single fig-tree", Gill "one remarkable fig tree", Cambridge and Pulpit both restore the single. Cambridge supplies the horticultural fact on which the whole reading turns: the common fig loses its leaves in winter, but one species puts out fruit and leaves in the very early spring, with the fruit appearing before the leaves, so leaves this early were an advertisement of fruit. From that Cambridge reads Israel, alone among the nations, holding forth a promise. Ellicott adds that this was the tree in full foliage while the trees between Bethany and Jerusalem were bare, and that a few weeks earlier the Lord had already used a barren fig tree as a parable of Israel (Luke 13:6). The sentence itself is more exact than any English: καρπὸς is nominative, the tree is only ἐκ σοῦ, and the negation is tripled, ou and mēketi and "unto the age." Ellicott is right to call it a solemn judgment rather than disappointment; Benson turns it into a proverb, that the sin of unfruitful professors is made their punishment. Henry reads the incident of hypocrisy in general, Geneva of masks discovered, Cambridge and Pulpit of a nation. Barnes alone applies the brake: he grants that the withering illustrates the destruction of the Jewish people admirably, and then says there is no evidence that Jesus intended it as such, and that without evidence we have no right to say so. The disciples, for their part, see only speed. Cambridge notes that the act reached them as a dynamis or a teras rather than a sēmeion, and Pulpit observes that Christ did not help them: he is not wont to explain the spiritual meaning of his miracles, and the total rejection of the Jews was a doctrine they were not yet ready to hear. Pulpit's mercy note deserves its place: he withered a tree, and not a sinful man, by the breath of his mouth.

iii. Amen: an undivided mind, a mountain, and the prayer — 21:21 to 21:22

Christ answers a question about mechanism with a demand for trust. The negative in "do not doubt" is μὴ διακριθῆτε (G1252), an aorist passive subjunctive of a verb whose root sense is to separate thoroughly: Geneva glosses it as a fixing or wavering of mind, "so that we cannot tell which way to take"; Cambridge traces the sense from deciding litigation to disputation to the inward debate of the middle voice, and sends the reader to Acts 10:20; Benson reports Whitby's suggestion that it means "do not discriminate," that is, do not sort tasks into the possible and the impossible. Pulpit reads the whole phrase as the perfection of the grace: a temper that does not stop hesitatingly to consider whether a thing can be done. On the mountain the voices divide honestly. Gill takes it as Olivet, with the Mediterranean many miles off, and holds that Christ neither commanded nor expected such a removal; Ellicott judges the phrase a recognised hyperbole for overcoming difficulty, as in 1 Corinthians 13:2, and notes that no faith described by our Lord would ever take a mountain's removal as the object of its prayer; Pulpit agrees it is hyperbole, cites Zechariah 4:7, and records Lange's alternative that theocratic Judaism itself must be cast into the sea of the nations. Both imperatives are passive, Ἄρθητι and βλήθητι: the disciple speaks and the mountain is handled. The last word is γενήσεται (G1096), the very verb Christ used over the fruit in v. 19. Then v. 22 widens and narrows in one breath: "all things, as many as ever" you ask, but ἐν τῇ προσευχῇ with the article, which Pulpit thinks may point to the taught prayer or a settled form of public worship, and πιστεύοντες, a participle of manner rather than BSB's condition. Every commentator supplies the same fence from elsewhere in Scripture: Ellicott from Matthew 7:7, Benson from 1 John 5:14, Gill from the covenant and promises of God, Barnes by restricting the promise to the apostles outright.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Offered to be tested, not believed on our word. Read from the Greek alone, this unit is one action in two halves, joined by a single verb. In v. 19 Christ says γένηται over a tree and a coming-to-be ends; in v. 21 he promises γενήσεται to a believing word and a coming-to-be begins. The tree is condemned for being divided, leaf without fruit, and the disciple is warned in exactly those terms: μὴ διακριθῆτε, do not be split in two. The same duplicity that killed the fig tree is what disables prayer. Note also what the sentence does not say. The tree is not told to bear; fruit is told never again to come out of it, and the disciple is never told to move anything: he speaks, and the mountain is lifted and thrown in the passive voice. Faith in this passage is not a force, it is a voice that agrees with God, and the Lord who first demonstrates it is standing there hungry. We hold Barnes's caution with both hands, that the promise of v. 22 was given in a specific setting and cannot be lifted out of it whole, and Gill's, that this is the faith of miracles and not the faith that saves. But we cannot follow either into denying the plain shape of the text: Christ grounds an unlimited promise in an undivided heart, and he is that heart. The line set in the pullquote beside this reading is our own sentence, not Scripture.

Leaves are what a tree says about itself; fruit is what it hands over.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same morning in Mark's two days verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark tells the incident in two stages, and Matthew has compressed them. The Verifier finds three low-frequency lexemes shared with Mark 11: πρωΐ (G4404), ξηραίνω (G3583) and συκῆ (G4808). Pulpit sets the sequence out: the curse was uttered on the Monday morning before the cleansing of the temple, the effect was seen and the lesson given on the Tuesday. Poole records the same variation and refuses to resolve it by force, noting that Matthew speaks as though the withering was discerned at once. Barnes turns the difference into evidence: such circumstantial variation where there is no contradiction shows that the writers were honest men and did not conspire.

Mark 11:13 · Mark 11:20 · Mark 11:21

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4404 πρωΐ (in 12 vv), G3583 ξηραίνω (in 15 vv), G4808 συκῆ (in 15 vv), three rare words in one pericope. Greek to Greek synoptic parallel, not a citation of one book by the other.

The tree already given a year: Luke's parable structural / thematic: confirmed

A few weeks before this, on Ellicott's reckoning, Christ had told of a man who came to a fig tree in his vineyard "seeking fruit and finding none," where the sentence "cut it down" was delayed one more year. The Verifier records the shared vocabulary: συκῆ (G4808), καρπός (G2590) and εὑρίσκω (G2147). Cambridge sends the reader to the same parable, and Benson says the withering signified the curse on the nation "which he had before compared to a barren fig-tree." ⚙ We tier this structural rather than verbal: the shared words are common, and what actually binds the two is the pattern of a delayed sentence now executed. Pulpit records that Strauss and his followers went further and made the whole miracle a development of the parable; Pulpit rejects this, and so do we, but the claim is worth knowing.

Luke 13:6 · Luke 13:7

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4808 συκῆ (in 15 vv), G2590 καρπός (in 56 vv), G2147 εὑρίσκω (in 167 vv). The lexemes are too common to carry a quotation claim; the confirmed link is the shared pattern of a fruitless fig tree under a deferred sentence.

No figs on the tree: the prophets' figure for a barren covenant people structural / thematic: confirmed

The figure is not invented here. Jeremiah's verdict is that there are no figs on the tree and the leaf is withered; Hosea remembers Israel as the first ripe fig and then says Ephraim is stricken and will bear no fruit; Joel has the fig tree stripped and the vine laid waste; Micah's cry is that there is no cluster to eat and no early fig that he craves; Isaiah's vineyard is planted, tended, and yields wild grapes. Gill appeals directly to Isaiah 5:2, where God himself looks for fruit and finds none, as the answer to the objection that Christ should have known the tree was bare. Ellicott reaches for Hosea's "first ripe fruit" to date the expectation.

Jeremiah 8:13 · Hosea 9:10 · Hosea 9:16 · Joel 1:7 · Micah 7:1 · Isaiah 5:1-7

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's number is possible and no verbal tier is available. The recorded basis is a shared motif, the fruitless fig or vine as the figure of a covenant people under judgment, which Gill himself invokes from Isaiah 5:2 and Ellicott from Hosea 9:10.

Leaves on the fig tree as the sign that summer is near verbal / quotation: confirmed

Two days later, on the same mount, Christ makes the fig tree's leaves a sign of nearness rather than a lie: when its branch is tender and it puts forth leaves, you know summer is near. Gill brings this passage in from the other side, citing Matthew 24:32 together with the Talmudists to argue that leaf-buds belong to Nisan and ripe figs to five months later. The shared vocabulary is tight: συκῆ and the rare φύλλον, which stands in only five verses of the New Testament, three of them fig-tree sayings.

Matthew 24:32 · Mark 13:28

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G5444 φύλλον (in 5 vv, rare) and G4808 συκῆ (in 15 vv). A confirmed verbal link within the Gospels, that is, shared rare vocabulary in the same speaker's fig-tree sayings; it is not a quotation of one text by another, and we claim no more than the lexemes.

What is severed dries: the branch, the vine, the transplanted cedar structural / thematic: confirmed

The passive ἐξηράνθη returns in John 15:6 of the branch that does not abide in the vine: it is cast out and dries. Ezekiel asks of the replanted vine whether it will not utterly wither when the east wind touches it, and the first Psalm sets the opposite case, the tree planted by water whose leaf does not wither. ⚙ Read together they give the diagnosis this unit withholds: the fig tree did not run out of season, it ran out of source.

John 15:6 · Ezekiel 17:9-10 · Psalm 1:3

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G3583 ξηραίνω (in 15 vv) with John 15:6, a Greek to Greek verbal contact inside a shared motif. The Hebrew refs are cross-Testament and can share no Strong's number, so they are carried on the motif of withering alone.

The great mountain made a plain structural / thematic: confirmed

Zechariah's word to Zerubbabel, that before him the great mountain shall become a plain, is the nearest prophetic form of this promise, and Pulpit cites it here by name. Isaiah has every mountain made low before the coming of the Lord; the Psalm confesses God though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Job says he removes the mountains and they know it not. Ellicott judges the New Testament phrase a settled hyperbole for overcoming difficulty and compares 1 Corinthians 13:2.

Zechariah 4:7 · Isaiah 40:4 · Psalm 46:2 · Job 9:5

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is available and no verbal tier may be claimed. The recorded basis is the shared image of the mountain lifted, levelled, or thrown into the sea by God's power, with Zechariah 4:7 named by Pulpit at this verse.

Answer me, that this people may know: the prayer that is heard structural / thematic: confirmed

Elijah's prayer at Carmel is the Old Testament case of the undivided petition answered visibly, and it is offered precisely so that the people may know who is God. Isaiah promises that before they call God will answer; the Psalm bids delight in the Lord and the desires of the heart will be given. Benson gathers the New Testament fence around this promise from 1 John 5:14, that we ask according to his will, and quotes Baxter that nothing shall be too hard which God has promised, and Henry that it is "but, ask and have." Ellicott supplies the same limit from Matthew 7:7.

1 Kings 18:36-38 · Isaiah 65:24 · Psalm 37:4 · Matthew 7:7 · 1 John 5:14

basis: Mixed Testaments, so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed across the whole set and no verbal tier is claimed. The basis is a shared pattern, believing prayer answered within the will of God, with Matthew 7:7 named by Ellicott and 1 John 5:14 by Benson at this verse.

Leaves for healing: the tree at the end of the story typological

The Verifier lists Revelation 22:2 among the candidates, on the two words καρπός and the rare φύλλον. There the tree of life yields its fruit every month and its leaves are for the healing of the nations. ⚙ Set against a roadside tree with leaves and no fruit, the contrast reads as figure rather than proof: the first tree's foliage promised and gave nothing, the last tree's foliage heals, and nothing in either text asserts the pairing. We mark this reading as our own.

Revelation 22:2

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G5444 φύλλον (in 5 vv, rare) and G2590 καρπός (in 56 vv). The lexical contact is real; the figural reading of barren leaves against healing leaves is ours and is marked novel, not an ancient consensus.

"The time of figs was not yet": a crux and a proposed reading we do not accept flagged: verify source

Mark's clause is the standing difficulty of this pericope, and the brief shows the commentators pulling in different directions. Gill reports one reading in which the sense is that the season of gathering had not come, so fruit should still have been on the tree, and another in which it was simply a poor fig year. Poole records a proposed re-accentuation of the Greek, reading hou for ou so that the clause would say that where he was it was a time of figs, and then rejects it: none of the ancient translations support it, and it seems too bold to read the words against their unanimous sense. ⚙ We flag this rather than tier it, because the link between our verse and Mark's clause depends on which reading and which rendering is taken, and the provenance of the proposed reading is exactly what Poole disputes.

Mark 11:13

basis: The Verifier confirms shared Greek lexemes G4808 συκῆ (in 15 vv), G2147 εὑρίσκω (in 167 vv) and G3762 οὐδείς (in 221 vv) with Mark 11:13, so the textual contact is real. What is flagged is the interpretive and text-critical basis: Poole records a proposed reading hou for ou that he himself rejects as unsupported by the ancient translations, and Gill records competing senses of "the time of figs." Verify before relying on any of them.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The owner comes in person, seeking fruit ancient/widely-held

In Isaiah 5 the vineyard's owner looks for grapes and gets wild ones; in Luke 13 a man comes to his fig tree seeking fruit and finds none. Here the one who comes is not a figure in a parable: he walks up the road on foot, hungry, and he comes to his own. Cambridge states the reading plainly, that Israel alone among the nations held forth a promise and from Israel alone could fruit be expected, but none was found. Ellicott says the sentence was passed not so much on the tree as on that which it represented, and that what he had lately spoken as parable now flashed upon him as the parable embodied. Henry, Benson and Geneva extend the lesson to every flourishing professor: Christ looks for the power of religion in those who profess it. Gill grounds the expectation in God's own posture at Isaiah 5:2. ⚙ The sequence in Mark, which Pulpit sets out, is itself the argument: the tree is cursed on the way in, and the temple is cleansed within the hour. The same Lord inspects both, and finds the same thing in both.

Isaiah 5:1-7 · Luke 13:6 · Luke 13:7 · Mark 11:12-14

The only thing he ever cursed, and the tree he hung on novel

Pulpit notices the restraint and names it mercy: he exemplified the severity of God's judgment on an inanimate object and not on a sentient being, and withered a tree, not a sinful man, by the breath of his mouth. Barnes insists that "curse" here carries no anger, only devoting to destruction. ⚙ Our reading goes one step further than the brief's voices do, and we mark it as ours: this is the single curse the incarnate Christ is recorded as pronouncing, and within the same week he is himself hanged on a tree and made a curse, so that what the fig tree received in figure he takes in fact. Paul's link between Deuteronomy 21:23 and the cross is apostolic and certain; the joining of it to this pericope is our inference, offered to be tested. If it holds, the withered tree by the Jerusalem road is the only creature that ever suffered his curse without his bearing it in its place.

Galatians 3:13 · Deuteronomy 21:23 · 1 Peter 2:24

This mountain, and the temple behind it novel

Where he stood matters. Gill places the saying on or near Olivet; Pulpit allows that he may have pointed to Moriah crowned by the glorious temple, and records Lange's proposal that the words mean theocratic Judaism must be cast into the sea of the nations before the Church of Christ reaches its full development. Pulpit also suggests the promise may intimate that the judgment on the chosen people would come about through the apostles' preaching and its rejection, so that they would indeed do "what was done to the fig tree." ⚙ We record this as one reading among several, not the plain sense: Ellicott's hyperbole and Gill's faith of miracles account for the words with less freight. But the geography is not neutral, and a promise about a mountain, spoken by a man who has just condemned the fruitless and cleansed the temple, is at least aimed somewhere.

Zechariah 4:7 · Matthew 24:2 · Matthew 21:12-13

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers; every parse, gloss and frequency above is taken from that apparatus, and the thread bases are the Verifier's computed shared lexemes. No formula quotation of the Old Testament appears in this unit, so every Old Testament contact listed in the threads is tiered structural or typological, never verbal: Greek and Hebrew texts cannot share a Strong's number, and the Verifier can compute no verbal basis across the Testaments.

Sources: nine of the ten public-domain commentators in the brief are quoted here. JFB is not, because the entry for every verse of this unit is only a heading with a pointer to the expositions at Luke 19:45-48 and Mark 11:12-26, and contains no comment on these words; Poole's own note is filed under 21:22 and his other verses only refer the reader there. The Barnes, Gill, Poole and Pulpit entries for the longer verses are capped in the brief, so quotations were taken from the portions supplied.

Uncertain: the sequence of events. Matthew presents curse and observed withering as one scene; Mark separates them by a day, as Ellicott, Poole, Pulpit and Barnes all note, and we have not harmonized them. Mark's "the time of figs was not yet" remains a genuine crux (see the flagged thread), and the botanical reconstruction on which Cambridge, Ellicott, Gill and Pulpit build (an early-fruiting variety in full leaf among leafless trees) is a reasonable inference, not a statement of the text. The claim that Strong's connects ὄρος (G3735) to αἴρω (G142) is reported as Strong's own suggestion and should not be pressed. The commentators genuinely disagree about the scope of v. 22: Barnes restricts it to the apostles and miracles, Gill to the faith of miracles at v. 21 and then more widely at v. 22, Benson and Pulpit to the praying church under the will of God. We have preserved the disagreement rather than resolving it, and every ⚙ paragraph above is fallible and offered to be tested against the text.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)