The Timing of the Fig Tree

DEFENSE

The challenge involves the sequencing of three key events (in italics, below).

Here is the sequence of events in Matthew:

• Jesus visits the temple (21:12a)
• Jesus clears the temple (21:12b–16)
• Jesus stays in Bethany that night (21:17)
• Returning, Jesus curses the fig tree (21:18–19a)
• The disciples see the fig tree withered (21:19b–22)

  And here is the sequence in Mark:

• Jesus visits the temple (11:11a)
• Jesus stays in Bethany that night (11:11b)
• Returning, Jesus curses the fig tree (11:12–14)
• Jesus clears the temple (11:15–19)
• The disciples see the fig tree withered (11:20–23)

It has been obvious to scholars throughout Church history that the evangelists don’t always arrange material in chronological order (see Day 89). This may have been commented on as early as the first century, when John the Presbyter stated: “Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately, though not in order, whatsoever he remembered of the things said or done by Christ” (Eusebius, Church History 3:39:15).

Sometimes the evangelists use chronology to organize material (e.g., the Crucifixion is always at the end of the Gospels), but other times they use other considerations.

This can be seen from how Matthew handles the material in Jesus’ major ethical and prophetic discourses (Matt. 5–7, 24–25). Much of the same material is in Luke, but it is scattered in different places. Matthew is not contradicting Luke; he’s simply grouping material together by topic.

With the fig tree, Matthew arranges material topically, so he keeps events involving the temple together (Jesus’ visit and clearing of it) and events involving the fig tree together (its cursing and withering).

Mark, by contrast, often arranges material in what scholars have called “Markan sandwiches,” where one event is placed between two others as a way of commenting on it. Thus Mark has the clearing of the temple between the two halves of the fig tree account to show the spiritual barrenness of the temple (see Day 93).