Jerome
Patristic
c. A.D. 347–420
“(Verse 17.) For the fig tree will not blossom, and there will be no fruit on the vines. The work of the olive tree will deceive, and the fields will not produce food. The flock will be cut off from the fold, and there will be no cattle in the stalls. According to the Septuagint: For the fig tree will not bear fruit, and there will be no blossoms on the vines. The work of the olive tree will deceive, and the fields will not produce food. They have vanished, because the sheep have been devoured, and there are no cattle in the stalls. According to the Hebrew text as we have mentioned before: Let rot enter my bones and let it spread beneath me, so that I may rest in the day of trouble. Let me ascend to our prepared people. What has gone before will be connected to what follows. Therefore, I have chosen to endure tribulation for now, and afterwards ascend to our strong people. For a day of trouble and necessity will come, and to those who are established in distress, I will rejoice in your majesty. For the fig tree will not blossom, and there will be no fruit on the vines. The work of the olive tree will deceive, and the fields will not produce food, and so on. Since these things do not differ much from the Septuagint, let us likewise discuss their interpretation. When the day of tribulation comes and I ascend to the people with whom I have once traveled as a pilgrim, or certainly when the day of the destruction of Judah comes and the former people and daughter of Zion are abandoned, like a tent in a vineyard, and like a hut in a cucumber field, and like a city that is besieged, I, who have been chosen from the perishing people (of whom it has been said, 'Unless the Lord had left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah, similar to them'), will join myself to the disciples of Christ, whom he teaches on the mountain, leaving the crowds and the weak below, I will ascend to the mountains. For indeed the fig tree did not bear fruit, to which the Lord came in the Gospel hungry, and did not find any fruits on it, and he cursed it, saying: You shall not bear fruit forever (Matt 21:19). And consider carefully what he said: You shall not bear fruit forever, not until forever and ever, but when this age has passed, and the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then this fig tree will also bear its fruits, and all Israel will be saved. This is the fig tree to which the master of the house came for the third time, and wanting to uproot it because it was not producing fruit. For this reason, the farmer, to whom it was entrusted, pleads that he give it more time and says: Master, let it be for another year, until I dig around it and put manure, and if indeed it bears fruit: but if not, then you can cut it down (Luke 13). This farmer is either Gabriel or Michael, to whom the people of Judah have been entrusted, who pleads with the Lord during his suffering and says: Lord, give them time for repentance, and do not uproot them, and if indeed they bear fruit: but if not, then uproot them. If they produce fruit, he said, he did not say what they endured; nor did he say, if they produce fruit, they will remain as they were; but if they produce fruit, the sentence is suspended, so that it may be understood, you will transfer them into the Church of the Gentiles, and you will transplant them into another vineyard. The Lord came a third time, and did not find fruit in them. He gave the Law first through Moses: second, he spoke through the prophets: third, he himself descended. And after the Passion, with forty-four years given for repentance, because they did not produce fruit, they were overthrown on the fourth occasion. However, it is left to our understanding. For in the parable it is not written what the master of the house did afterwards, but only what the farmer prayed for. From this we understand that those who have made fruit from this fig tree have been transferred to the people of the nations, to whom the prophet also ascended, saying: I will rest on the day of tribulation, so that I may ascend to the people of my pilgrimage. However, those who did not bear fruit and remained in their hardness have been uprooted. This very thing signifies the voice of John in the Gospel: Behold, the axe is laid at the roots of the trees. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matt. III, 10; Luc. III, 9) We have spoken about the fig tree, showing that it represents the Jewish people: let us also speak about the vineyard, which will be easily understood by those who have read Isaiah: The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting. (Isai. V, 1). And afterwards: And I waited for it to bring forth fruit: but it made thorns, and not judgment, but outcry. And in Jeremiah: But I planted you as a fruitful vineyard, all of it true: how have you turned into the bitterness of a foreign vine (Jer. II, 21)? And more clearly in the Psalms: You brought a vine out of Egypt, you drove out the nations, and you planted it (Ps. LXXIX, 9). This therefore is the vineyard to which the master of the house often sent his servants (Matth. XXI), to receive from it the wine that gladdens the heart of man, but it has turned into bitterness, and finally it even dared to kill the son of the master of the house, not producing grapes, but thorns, and not judgment, but outcry: Crucify him, crucify him! And we have no king but Caesar (John 19:15). Therefore, the boar from the forest has destroyed it, and the savage beast in the field has devoured it (Psalm 79:14). Moreover, the olive tree will clearly represent the people of the synagogue, who, by breaking off the branches of the olive tree, will be grafted in as wild olives (Romans 11), and we, being grafted in from the wild olive tree, will understand that the multitude of the Jews has been cut off, but the election of the apostles has been preserved at its roots, and we will remain grafted in if we bear fruit, and it will be said of us: Your children are like olive saplings around your table (Psalm 128:3). Many people think that the fig tree, vine, and olive tree are symbols of the Holy Trinity. The fig tree represents the sweetness of the fruits, which is understood as the Holy Spirit. The vine is our Lord Jesus Christ himself, as he said in the Gospel: 'I am the vine' (John 15:1). The olive tree represents God the Almighty Father, from whom all things are illumined, and from whom light proceeds. We can say to Him: 'O olive tree, in your light we shall see light' (Psalm 36:9), meaning that in the Son we shall see the Holy Spirit. In the book of Judges (Chapter 9), there are fruitful trees and a very fertile vineyard. However, unfruitful trees come and ask to reign over them. But never does the olive, fig, or vine, which are owed to the fire, reign over the trees of the forest. Rather, the bramble full of thorns commands them, and the hedgehog-like creature that dwells in Babylon and always moves about in the pits. This little tree not only has thorns, but also fire, injuring and burning whatever it touches. Finally, the fire went out and consumed the wood of the forest. But so that you may know, according to the higher understanding in which we have received from the synagogue, it is said: The fig tree will not bear fruit, and there will be no offspring in the vineyards. It is not about the fruits, but about good deeds. In the olive, the riddle is clearly revealed and it is said: The work of the olive will lie. For the fruits that should have been brought forth are shown in deeds. But the work of the olive, promising one thing and doing another, saying to Moses: We will do everything that the Lord has spoken (Exod. 24:7), they did not want to believe in him who was preached by Moses. The fields also will not produce fruit. Consider that Jerusalem, which once was situated on mountains, and the mountains surrounding it (Ps. 124:2), and its foundations were in holy mountains (Psalm 86:1), is now called lowly and flat, which not only does not feed humans, that is, rational animals, but not even animals such as sheep and cows, of which Solomon speaks in Proverbs: Take care of the regions that are in the field, and tend the grass, and gather hay so that you have food for the sheep to eat. Cattle also will not be in the mangers: because where the mangers are full, the strength of the ox is evident (Prov. XIV, 4). The ox is a worker: the ox of the Lord bearing the yoke: blessed is the one who follows in its footsteps. All these things will be taken away from the people, because they have acted unjustly towards their Creator God. But if you are willing (or unwilling) to accept the day of tribulation, the day of consummation, you will see that all those who claim to be of the Church but do not have the works of justice will be referred to them. Both the fig tree and the vine and the olive, namely the mystery of the Trinity, do not bring forth their fruit in them, and not only the grains and food of the rational ones; but neither do they have food even for their livestock in their fields and their stables are empty, and they are turned from lofty mountains to plains and low places.”