The same Gospel confirms that this was the meaning of the dry fig tree. When Jesus later delivers his last sermon, he begins by talking about the destruction of the Temple (Mk 13,2). In the middle he talks about his ruin again (Mc 13,14) and in the end relates this fact to the fig tree and its leaves (Mk 13,28-29). Everything points to that, in Marcos, the fig tree and the Temple are connected.

Mateo, however, preferred to give another meaning to the episode of the fig tree. As he writes for a Christian community of Jewish origin, he did not want to be so harsh with the Temple of Jerusalem. Then he modified the story of Mark, so that Jesus first lived the incident of the Temple and the next day he cursed the tree. Thus, the episodes were separated. And what does it mean, then, in Matthew to wither from the fig tree? It is no longer a teaching about the end of the Temple, but about the power of faith and prayer (Mt 21, 18-22).

DR