Charles Ellicott Commentary Mark 11:12-14

"And on the morrow, when they were come out from Bethany, he hungered. And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season of figs. And he answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit from thee henceforward for ever. And his disciples heard it." — Mark 11:12-14 (ASV)

And on the next day.—On the chronological difficulty presented by this verse, see Note on Matthew 21:18-19.

For the time of figs was not yet.—It has been sometimes urged that this gives the reason for our Lord’s coming to seek if haply he might find fruit. The fig season had not come, and therefore the fruit, if any had been borne, would not have been gathered.

There is nothing, however, against taking the words in their more natural sequence. The precocious foliage had suggested the thought that some of the early ripe figs might be already formed; but it was no exception, as far as fruit was concerned, to others of its kind. For it, as for them, the season, even of the earliest fruit, had not come.

The seeing the fig-tree afar off, is a touch peculiar to St. Mark, and adds force to the narrative, as implying a keener pressure of hunger than St. Matthew’s description.