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: 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.