re: #894 Cato the Elder

This is something I never understood, that story.

Jesus goes to a fig tree and finds no fruit on it. Well, the bible account says as a matter of fact that it wasn’t the season for them. So he curses the fig tree (what was it supposed to do, put forth fruit because he was Jesus? and if he could raise the dead, surely he could command a fig tree, no? so why is it the fig tree’s fault?) and it withers.

Just some divine funnin’ around, or am I missing something deep?

Something deep.

In Israel at that time it could be expected that a fig tree, if it had leaves, would have figs. (10 out of twelve months). Jesus had recently arrived to great fanfare only to find that much of it was false and that, in fact, the leaders of the Pharisees were using their position for personal wealth and not to actually lead the people to heaven. Thus it looked green but there was no fruit. Not only a parable but an Act.

This is why any Christians believe that it is only G-d that can judge a man’s soul.