Augustine's Fig Tree ("Confessiones" 8.12.28)
This article simultaneously expands and refines the interpretive space within which we understand Augustine’s statement that he lay down under a fig tree when he converted to Christianity in 386 (conf. 8.12.28). It rejects the claim that this fig tree is a reference to Nathanael’s fig tree at John 1...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Villanova Univ. Press
[2016]
|
| In: |
Augustinian studies
Year: 2016, Volume: 47, Issue: 2, Pages: 181-200 |
| IxTheo Classification: | HA Bible KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity NBE Anthropology |
| Further subjects: | B
Augustinus, Aurelius Saint (354-430) Confessiones
|
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article simultaneously expands and refines the interpretive space within which we understand Augustine’s statement that he lay down under a fig tree when he converted to Christianity in 386 (conf. 8.12.28). It rejects the claim that this fig tree is a reference to Nathanael’s fig tree at John 1:48 on both philological and contextual grounds. Nathanael is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit (John 1:47), but this is inconsistent with the Augustine whose life is narrated in conf. 1–8. Instead, Augustine’s fig tree is best interpreted in the context of the fig leaves of Gen. 3:7, the withered fig tree of Matt. 21:18–22 and Mark 11:12–14 and 20–25, and the good and bad trees of Matt. 7:15–20 and Luke 6:43–45. Together, these biblical passages indicate that the Augustine who lay down under the fig tree was still a liar by profession and deceived in his philosophical beliefs. Thus, his departure from the tree is symbolic of his conversion from the mendacious life he once led as a Manichee and rhetorician. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0094-5323 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Augustinian studies
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5840/augstudies201672724 |