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 for having no fruit, when none could reasonably be expected, has led to the supposition, among other conjectures, that "the time of figs" signified the time of gathering the ripe fruit; and that the text should read thus: "Seeing a fig-tree afar off, having leaves, He came, if haply He might find anything thereon; for the the time of [gathering] figs was not yet [over], and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves.":

The commentators have endeavoured, by conjectures and arbitrary alterations of the text, to clear up an obscurity which has no existence but in their own minds. They have cut the knot instead of untying it. Subsequent investigation has proved, as it has done in other cases, that after all the ingenious pains taken to explain a supposed inaccuracy, there is no inaccuracy to explain. Nay, in the very difficulty attempted to be removed, lies the chief point of instruction.

The incident recorded in the Gospel occurred a few days before the Passover, which took place that year in the beginning of April. The figs do not ripen till the middle or end of June. Why, then, was fruit expected so long before the season? The botanist can give a reason, founded on facts, in place of the theologian's conjectures.

In the fertile tree, the fruit appears. A tree, therefore, having leaves, might be fairly expected to have fruit in an eatable state. It was a rule with the Rabbins, that the leaves of the fig-tree began to appear about the time of the Passover, and our Lord refers to it as a common sign of the season: "When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near."