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Mat_21:19. Comp. Mar_11:19 ff. Μίαν ] “unam illo loco,” Bengel.
ἐπὶ τῆς ὁδοῦ ] The tree, which was by the side of the public road (not on private property), stood above the road, either projecting over it merely, or occupying an eminence close to it, or the road itself may have been in a ravine. It was a favourite practice to plant fig-trees by the roadside, because it was thought that the dust, by absorbing the exuding sap, was conducive to the better growth of the fruit, Plin. N. H. xv. 19.
ἦλθεν ἐπʼ αὐτήν ] not: conscendit arborem (Fritzsche), but: He went up to it. From seeing the tree in foliage, Jesus expected, of course (for it was well known that the fig-tree put forth its fruit before coming into leaf), to find fruit upon it as well, namely, the early boccôre, which, as a rule, did not ripen till June, and not the harvest-figs, Kermuse, that had been on the tree all winter, and the existence of which He could not infer from seeing leaves. Comp. Tobler, Denkbl. aus Jerus. p. 101 ff. On the disappointed expectation of Jesus, Bengel observes: “maxima humanitatis et deitatis indicia uno tempore edere solitus est.” It is a perversion of the text to say, with Chrysostom, Euthymius Zigabenus, that He did not expect to find fruit upon the tree, but went up to it merely for the purpose of working the miracle. Moreover, the hunger is alleged to have been only a σχηματίζεσθαι (Euthymius Zigabenus), or an esuries sponte excitata (Cornelius a Lapide). The account of the withering of the tree, contained in Mar_11:12 ff., Mar_11:19 f., is more precise and more original (in answer to Köstlin, Hilgenfeld, Keim). Matthew abridges.