Fig Tree
He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who looks after his master will be honored. Proverbs 27:18.
When John records Jesus speaking to Nathanael, he says to him, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you." (John 1:48) The Jewish parallelism from Proverbs 27:18 helps to explain what he meant. The fig tree, in Biblical times, was a symbol of authority. "Sitting under a fig tree," would then mean to sit under someone's authority, and in this case, most likely, a rabbi. To "eat its fruit" would be to abide or follow the rabbi's (master's) teachings.
This section of the VIA website is called "Fig Tree" because we want to sit under our rabbi Jesus, and many others who have sat under him as well. Our learning comes not from Scripture alone, but from other people who have spent years studying and following Jesus. We have listed a few resources here that will help in that journey.
Segments like these are always evolving. Thank for your grace in this site's incompleteness and growth.