Mark 11:13

seeing a fig tree The very name Bethany means "the place for dates," while Bethphage is "the place for the green or winter fig," a variety which remains on the trees through the winter, having ripened only after the leaves had fallen.

having leaves It stood alone, a single fig-tree, by the wayside(Matthew 21:19), and presented an unusual show of leaves for the season.

if haply Rather, if therefore, if, as was reasonable to expect under such circumstances, fruit was to be found.

for the time of figs was not yet that is, the ordinaryfig-season had not yet arrived. The rich verdure of this tree seemed to shew that it was fruitful, and there was "every probability of finding upon it either the late violet-coloured autumn figs, which often hung upon the trees all through the winter, and even until the new spring leaves had come, or the first-ripe figs (Isaiah 28:4; Jeremiah 24:2; Hosea 9:10; Nahum 3:12), of which Orientals are particularly fond." Farrar, Life, II. 213. But this tree had nothing but leaves. It was the very type of a fair profession without performance; a very parable of the nation, which, with all its professions, brought forth no "fruit to perfection." Comp. Luke 19:42.