266 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



Testament. In our translation, the passage stands thus, which is 

 strictly according to the order of the words in the original text : 

 4 And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he (Je- 

 sus) was hungry: and seeing a fig tree afar off, having leaves, he 

 came, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came 

 to it, he found nothing hut leaves ; for the time of figs was not yet. 

 And Jesus said unto it, " No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever/' ' 

 Mark xi. 12 14. Here the whole difficulty results from the con- 

 nexion of the two last clauses of the 13th verse: 'And when he 

 came to it he found nothing but leaves for the time of figs was not 

 yel' for the declaration, that it was not yet fig harvest, cannot be 

 (as the order of the words seem to import) the reason why there 

 was nothing but leaves on the tree ; because, as we have seen, the 

 fig is of that tribe of vegetables on which the fruit appears before 

 the leaf. Certainly, fruit, says Mr. Weston, might be expected of a 

 tree whose leaves were distinguished afar off, and whose fruit, if it. 

 bore any, preceded the leaves. If the words had been, ' He found 

 nothing but green figs, for it was not the time of ripe fruit,' says 

 Campbell, we should have justly concluded that the latter clause was 

 meant as the reason of what is affirmed in the former, but, as they 

 stand, they do not admit this interpretation. 



All will be clear, however, if we consider the former of these clau- 

 ses as parenthetical, and admit such a sort oftrajedio as is not un- 

 frequentin the ancient languages, though in translating into modern 

 ones a transposition ought to be adopted, to adapt such passages to 

 the genius of those languages ; and such is here employed by Dr. 

 Campbell. The sense of the passage will then be asfollows: 'He 

 came to see if he might find anything thereon (for it was not yet the 

 time to gather figs) ; but he found leaves only ; and he said,' &c. 

 Similar inversions and trajections have been pointed out by com- 

 mentators in various other parts of the New and Old Testaments, 

 and Campbell particularly notices one in this very gospel (ch. xvi. 

 3, 4) : ' They said, Who shall roll us away the stone ? and when 

 they looked, the stone was rolled away, for it was very great' that 

 is, * They said, who shall roll us away the stone, for it was very 

 great,' fee. 



The spiritual application of this transaction to the case of the Jews, 

 is sufficiently obvious. 



In the East, the fig tree grows to a considerable size; so large, 

 indeed, as to afford the wearied traveller a convenient shelter from 

 the rays of the sun. Hasselquist says, that when travelling from 

 Tiberias to Nazareth, they refreshed themselves under the shade 

 of one of these trees, under which was a well, where a shepherd and 

 his herd had their rendezvous, but without either tent or hut. So 

 Moryson, 'Coming to a little shade of fig trees, near Tripoli, in 

 Syria, we rested there the heat of the day, and fed upon such vict- 

 uals as we had.' These extracts will remind the scripture reader of 

 1 Kings iv. 25 ; Mic. iv. 4 ; Zech. iii. 10 5 and John i. 48, where 

 the friendly shade of this tree is evidently referred to. 



