Math Osseforth: The One Tree: hiding in plain sight.A new example of contextuality in Saint Augustine’s Confessions.

Various scholars have observed that Augustine in his Confessions adapts classical images to suit his argumentative goals. I have pointed out elsewhere that this adaptation is instrumental to the protreptic character of the Confessions; the recognition of the narrator’s story world by the reader and his subsequent identification with the narrator make it easier for the reader to eventually follow in the narrator’s footsteps.
The depiction of the fig tree, the iconic landmark in the scene of Augustine’s conversion in the garden in book 8, is traditionally interpreted as a biblical reference. I hope to show in this communication that the fig tree also harbours a classical reference, hitherto gone unnoticed, which might have had an even greater impact on the mind of the pagan contemporary reader. By simultaneously appealing to two sets of readers with one double faced image Augustine enhances the protreptic effect of that crucial scene, which would make the fig tree a unique example of contextuality, not only in the Confessions.