Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When its branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near:
All Commentaries on Mark 13:28 Go To Mark 13
Tertullian of Carthage
AD 220
As the sproutings of small trees afford a sign of the approach of summer time, so do the great conflicts of the world point toward the kingdom by preceding it. Both sign and thing signified belong to the same One who orders all. So if conflicts are signs of the kingdom, as sproutings are of summer, then the kingdom also is the creator’s, to whom the conflicts are ascribed, which are the signs of the coming kingdom.
