THE FIG TREE. 265 



fruit, which they do, like so many little buttons, with their flowers, 

 small and imperfect as they are, inclosed within them. 



When this intelligent traveller visited Palestine, in the latter end 

 of March, the boccore was far from being in a state of maturity ; 

 for, in the scripture expression, ' the time of figs was not yet' 

 (Mark xi. 13,) or not till the middle or latter end of June. The 

 'time' here mentioned, is supposed by some authors, to be the 

 third year, in which the fruit of a particular kind of fig tree is said 

 to come to perfection. But this species, if there be any such, needs 

 to be further known and described, before any argument can be 

 founded upon it. Dionysius Syrus, as he is translated by Dr. Lpf- 

 tus, is more to the purpose: 'it was not the time of figs,' he re- 

 marks, because it was the month Nisan, when trees yielded blos- 

 soms, and not fruit. It frequently happens in Barbary, however, 

 and it need not be doubted in the wanner climate of Palestine, that, 

 according to the quality of the preceding season, some of the more 

 forward and vigorous trees will now and then yield a few ripe figs, 

 six weeks or more before the full season. Something like this may 

 be alluded to by the prophet Hosea, when he says he ' saw their 

 fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time' (ch. ix. 10 ;) 

 and by Isaiah, who, speaking of the beauty of Samaria, and her 

 rapid declension, says, she 'shall be a fading flower, and as the 

 hasty fruit before the summer ; which, when he that looketh upon 

 it seeth, while it is yet in his hand, he eateth it up,' ch. xxviii. 4. 



When the boccore draws near to perfection, then the kennouse, 

 the summer fig, or caricse, begin to be formed, though they rarely 

 ripen before August ; at which time there appears a third crop, or 

 the winter fig, as it may be called. This is usually of a much lon- 

 ger shape and darker complexion than the kermouse, hanging and 

 ripening on the tree, even after the leaves are shed ; and, provided 

 the winter prove mild and temperate, is gathered as a delicious 

 morsel in the spring. We learn from Pliny, that the fig tree was 

 bifera, or bore two crops of figs; namely, the boccore, as we may 

 imagine, and the kermouse ; though what he relates afterwards, 

 should intimate that there was also a winter crop. 



It is well known, that the fruit of these prolific trees always pre- 

 cedes the leaves ; and consequently, when our Saviour saw one of 

 them in full vigor having leaves (Mark xi. 13), he might, according 

 to the common course of nature, very justly 'look for frnit;' and 

 haply find some boccores, if not some winter figs, likewise, upon it. 

 But the difficulties connected with the narration of this transaction, 

 will not allow of its dismissal in this summary manner. We say, in 

 the narration, for we apprehend that the remark of Dr. Shaw is 

 quite satisfactory as to the reasonableness of our Lord's conduct on 

 the occasion, notwithstanding the multiplied objections \vliich igno- 

 rance and irreligion have urged against it 



We now look at the construction of the passage, which has occa- 

 sioned so much embarrassment to commentators, and has given rise 

 to more discussion, perhaps, than any other narrative in the New 

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