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The Incident of the Withered Fig Tree in Mark 11: A New Source and Redactional Explanation

The two-stage incident of the fig tree in Mk 11.12-14 and 20-25 is almost always interpreted as a Markan redactional feature aimed at symbolising the coming fate of Israel and its Temple. The aim of this article is to challenge this view. Having first exposed the serious weaknesses in the dominant redactional explanation, I propose instead that Mark found the two stages of the incident (Jesus’ cursing of the tree one day and the discovery of its withered condition the next) in an early Jerusalemite source he utilized in parts of Mk 11-14. This source probably formed the early part of one that Theissen, using ‘local colour’ arguments, has already detected underlying Mk 14-16. Mark has retained this difficult incident, probably because of its significance in relating the only miracle Jesus was believed to have worked in his last days, but has struggled in his redaction to make sense of it. He does so not in relation to judgment impending on Jerusalem and the Temple, but in line with his presentation elsewhere in the Gospel of Jesus’ teaching on faith and prayer.