MARK 13:28-29

Q: Doesn't the fig tree stand for the nation of Israel in these verses?

I have seen that interpretation in print but doubt that there is any truth to it. Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject:

1. That particular explanation is usually followed by a series of calculations beginning with the date of the modern state of Israel's founding. I am always suspicious of any attempt to even roughly guess at the timing of future events.

2. Israel is often symbolized as a grape vine, but virtually never as a fig tree (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery).

3. Mark 13:28-31 is best understood as one of the portions of Jesus' answer to the first question of the apostles regarding the destruction in 70 AD, not their second question regarding the End Times (at least according to my own detailed literary analysis of the parallel passage in Matthew 24).

4. Practically all commentators take verses 28-29 as a simple parable comparing a physical event to a deeper event. If one views the fig tree as a stand-in for Israel, then that is combining two types of figurative language by piling a symbol on top of a parable, which seems to be unduly complicated.