Commentaria in Judices
Note secondly, that in apologues, parables and similitudes certain things are added for the beauty and elegance of the apologue or parable, which need not be adapted to the thing signified by it, indeed are sometimes impossible to adapt. Wherefore here it is not necessary to apply singly the things that are repeated about the olive, the fig and the vine; yet most of them can be applied.
Note thirdly, that the tree here is man, but inverted (for a tree has its roots downward and its branches upward; but man has the roots of sense and motion in the head, upward, and the feet as branches downward), and is capable of counsel and reason. The olive, fig and vine, which refuse the kingdom offered them by the trees, are Othoniel, Debbora and Gedeon, says Lyranus, who were the earlier Judges, and the best, because they took up the principate unwillingly and compelled as it were by God. Hear Lyranus:
The Hebrews say that by the olive is signified Othoniel, who was of the tribe of Juda, as was said above, chap. iii. Now the tribe of Juda is called an olive; Jerem. xi, 16: “The Lord called thy name a fruitful olive tree, fair, beautiful, and of goodly fruit.” By the fig, which has sweet fruit, is understood Debbora; whose name is written in Hebrew Debbora, and is interpreted a bee, which makes sweet honey, and like the fig bears sweet fruit, so that the property of this tree corresponds to the interpretation of the name. By the vine is understood Gedeon, who was of the sons of Joseph, because Joseph was called a growing son, Gen. xlix; and the branch of the vine grows notably in one summer. Thus far Lyranus.
Again, more aptly, the same Lyranus says: By the olive, from which oil is pressed, and the fig, which has sweet fruit, and the vine, which produces very much fruit, are understood the other sons of Gedeon, who were fat in riches, sweet in meekness, and multiplied in offspring. But by the bramble, which is a vile tree, is understood Abimelech, who was of an ignoble mother, and who reigned after the others were slain.
More fully and more universally: the olive, fig and vine denote men fit and apt for command in whatever way; and Arias indeed takes the olive for the wise, the fig for the rich, the vine for the gentle and modest; but the bramble (which, although it so little excels among trees that it is not even a tree or timber but a shrub, only slender, sharp and pricking thorns, yet at once seizes the dominion offered among the trees) signifies those unfit for command and tyrants.
Again, more aptly, by the fig you may take mild, gentle, sweet men; by the vine, fervent, keen and effective in action: for these are fit to rule, for they imitate the wisdom of God who governs all things, which “reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly,” Wis. viii, 1. Rule therefore sweetly, but mightily, and as kings wisely. The olive denotes men merciful and fat with goodness, and as it were well-fed with charity. For charity, as it is the queen of virtues, so is it of men.
They therefore who abound in charity rule best. Rebuke, punish, chastise; but show that you do this not from hatred but from love, and you will please those whom you rebuke and chastise. Hence Christ, about to set Peter over the Church, said: “Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these?” and when he answered: “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,” he added: “Feed my lambs,” and the second time, “Feed my sheep,” and the third time, “Feed my sheep,” John xxi, 15. Let him therefore who rules be a fig by sweetness, a vine and wine by fortitude, an olive and oil by compassion and charity.
Note fourthly, that the olive, fig and vine answer with one voice that it does not suit them to abandon their fatness, sweetness and wine, in which both men at feasts and gods in sacrifices delight, in order to be promoted to be kings; this signifies only that private persons can attend to themselves and their own perfection and advantages; but those who preside over others in public matters are so occupied with public affairs and cares that, if they wish, as is right, not to enjoy things but to take counsel for them, they can scarcely attend to themselves and their own; and whoever loves this, let him abstain from rule. Again, kings and princes ought to pour all their fatness, sweetness and joy into their subjects, and as it were out of their own poverty to enrich them, if they wish to be truly good kings and benefactors, that is, beneficent. Arias gives another reason: “No plant of all kinds,” he says, “represents the pursuit of avarice more aptly than the fig: whose roots, to draw up moisture on every side, are very numerous, and some are found so long that they reach wells and springs and marshes distant by a long interval, and so shrewd that within houses they have learned to seek out, enter and secure the places where jars, pitchers and other water-vessels are set, and there are wont to cling for a long time.” In the same way avaricious kings burn with thirst for other men’s wealth, and to seize it they spread out into a thousand hands and arms, they creep into public and private slaughters, they try, feel and assail purses, bags, treasures, whatever is hidden and laid up. But this reason is irrelevant to this place.
But that the bramble answers insolently: “Rest under my shadow,” is as if the tyrant said: Come under my protection, which is none, or only such as is thorny, pricking, afflicting and dangerous (because if it once catches fire, that will spread through all and burn everything near), and give yourselves wholly to me to be ruled. For the bramble is slender; hence it scarcely casts a shadow to protect, and pricks and goads those who shelter under it; but if not, “let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Libanus.” The sense is, as if to say: The tyrant will send ruin even on his own noblest subjects through his lictors and soldiers, by which, however, he himself also will be struck and perish, as histories relate happened with most tyrants. However the matter falls out, then, from a tyrant no benefit, but the greatest destruction, is to be expected. It is therefore just and ready to hand that the same should befall you also, O Sichemites, who chose not fit men refusing the rule, but the tyrant Abimelech seeking it; that the same, I say, in the same way be done with you and with your king Abimelech, the sacrilegious parricide, and that discord, strife and war be stirred up among you, that both of you may perish. So Arias, nearly.
Bede gives an allegory in his Questions on this place: The trees of the forest, he says, are men; over these the olive, fig and vine deservedly would not rule, because they scarcely deserved it: for the olive signifies the grace of the Holy Ghost and the unction of peace; the fig has the image of the sacred law: whence the father of the family plants a fig tree in his vineyard, that is, the law; the vine signifies Christ, as Christ says, John xv, 1; the bramble denotes Antichrist, who will lay waste the human race with all harshness and fierceness; but fire shall come out of the bramble, that is, the iniquity of Antichrist, and shall devour together all who trust in him.
Again St. Jerome, on chap. ii of Aggeus, takes the trees as impious men, the olive, fig and vine as the three persons of the Holy Trinity, and the bramble as the devil.