Looking further into the story of Jesus and the fig tree after Bible Study this morning, I fell upon a most interesting website written from the perspective of a Christian fig farmer (https://sites.google.com/site/thefiggfarmer/jesus-and-the-fig-tree). Here are a few excerpts:
“…generally speaking, on a “common” fig tree one might find some early figs before Christmas (in the southern hemisphere), depending on the age and size of the tree. These figs are called “breba”. These “breba” figs come below the new leaves. One can actually see the “breba” figs even in the previous winter if you know where to look. Not all the breba figs will ripen. So early in the season one might find a handfull of breba figs but most of them will abort and drop off.
But the main crop that will start from February is huge. One of the amazing things about the fig tree is that behind every leaf you will find a fig (sometimes two). So if you have five hundred leaves on a tree, you would expect to get around 500 figs from the main crop, but maybe only a handful of “breba” if you are lucky.
The expression “if haply he might find anything thereon”, found in Mark’s account, points to the high odds against finding figs on the tree. This is how I tell my children to go and look for some “breba” figs. They mostly protest saying: “There is nothing there, Dad” but I reply, saying: “Just go! You might find a few figs there.”
The fig farmer goes on to say:
“Matthew’s account is shorter than Mark’s account on details. Only Mark mentions: “for the time of figs was not yet.” Still both of them are short on details.
There are two reasons for that. The details were common knowledge in their day. …
The details, that justify the behaviour of Jesus, are lacking because they were in the heads of their audience. It is part of the common knowledge of a place where the fig tree commonly grows. …
There is also another reason. I doubt if Matthew and Mark knew that a fig tree grown from a seed can be a non-fruiting tree. They probably thought, like most people nowadays, that one can grow a “fruiting” tree from any seed. This incident is a historical document showing that a “fruit” tree can produce no fruit, if grown from a seed.
This “Botanical” dig, (not only the difference between main crop and Breba crop, but that a tree from a seed can result in very disappointing variety) proves that the man called Jesus at one point in time actually went to look for a few Breba figs, but he also found that the tree did not have even a main crop.”