Posted: Jan 05, 2012 3:20 pm
I think also Barney does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, whereas the fig and the fig-tree are quite common symbols. Thus, Hosea, 9: 10: "I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree in the beginning."
I think it is reasonable to assume that a Jewish audience would be fairly conversant with the basic tropes of Jewish rhetoric.
GakuseiDon has also shown quite neatly how the two 'ends' of the fig-tree story frame the story of the visit to Jerusalem, and the overturning of the tables in the temple. Thus it seems reasonable to see it as a rhetorical framing device; Israel is a busted flush, and requires new grafting, new plants, ('I am the vine'), and new fruit.
I think it is reasonable to assume that a Jewish audience would be fairly conversant with the basic tropes of Jewish rhetoric.
GakuseiDon has also shown quite neatly how the two 'ends' of the fig-tree story frame the story of the visit to Jerusalem, and the overturning of the tables in the temple. Thus it seems reasonable to see it as a rhetorical framing device; Israel is a busted flush, and requires new grafting, new plants, ('I am the vine'), and new fruit.