Fig

About 800, including:

Symbolism

In the Book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament rotten figs are used as a symbol for destruction, and in the New Testament Jesus rebukes an unfruitful fig tree.

Related Topics:
Book of Jeremiah - Old Testament - New Testament - Jesus

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Because of the peculiar form of the flower of figs, ancient Indians regarded the fig as a flowerless tree. Buddhist and Hindu texts sometimes refer to 'seeking flowers in a fig tree' to indicate something that is pointless or impossible, or to indicate the total absence of some quality (compare the Australian English language expression 'why search for the bunyip?'). References to the flowers of a fig may also be used to indicate great rarity- roughly comparable to the English expression 'rare as hen's teeth'. P?li scholar K.R. Norman collected references to fig flowers in the P?li canon in his translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, as well as writing an article entitled Rare as Fig Flowers that was published with his collected papers by the P?li Text Society.

Related Topics:
Flower - India - Buddhist - Hindu - Australian English - Bunyip - Hen - P?li - K.R. Norman - P?li canon - Samyutta Nikaya - P?li Text Society

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