Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Matthew 21:18 - 21:19
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat_21:18-19
18Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. 19Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, "No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you." And at once the fig tree withered.
Mat_21:18 "Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city" The time sequence in Mark is slightly different (cf. Mar_11:12-14; Mar_11:20-21). Apparently Jesus was returning from Bethany, which was two miles from Jerusalem (cf. Mar_11:12).
Mat_21:19 "Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it" It was legal for a traveler to stop and take food from a fruit tree or a field (cf. Deu_23:24-25).
▣ "and found nothing on it except leaves only" Mar_11:13 adds "it was not the time for figs." This makes this a prophetic act of rejection of the Jewish leaders or of the nation. Outwardly they looked prosperous, spiritual, and religious but there was no supernatural fruit (cf. Col_2:21-23; 2Ti_3:5; Isa_29:13).
▣ "No longer shall there ever" Jesus spoke Aramaic but thought in Hebrew terms. See Special Topic following for the words "ever" or " forever" taken from my OT commentaries.
hyperlink
▣ "and at once the fig tree withered" Mar_11:20 records that the withering happened the next morning. There is a related parable found in Luk_13:6-9. This was an object lesson against the ostentatious religious exhibitionism of the Jewish leaders and the abominable absence of love and commitment to God.