The fig tree cursed and the temple cleared
Mark 11:12–19; Matthew 21:12–19; Luke 19:45–48
On the way from Bethany Jesus cursed a fig tree full of leaves but without fruit. In the temple he overturned the tables of the money changers and drove out those buying and selling.
He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers!”
Mark 11:17 (World English Bible)
He quoted Isaiah, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations,” and Jeremiah's charge that it had become a den of robbers (Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11). The chief priests and scribes looked for a way to destroy him, but feared the people, who hung on his words. The barren fig tree was a living parable of a nation that showed leaves but no fruit.
Places
Dating notes
The day after the entry (Mark 11:12). Ussher gives no separate date, but his dates for Sunday and Thursday put this on Monday, 30 March. Ussher's dates put the crucifixion on Friday, 3 April AD 33; many scholars prefer Friday, 7 April AD 30, which would move all of Holy Week three years earlier.