After encountering a fig tree with no fruit.
Mark 11:14 No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.
Mark 11:14 May no one ever eat fruit from you again.
NLT Mark 11:14 May no one ever eat your fruit again!
No longer in this lifetime, may anyone eat fruit from you.
As we near death, we do many things for the last time.
The English translations all put the beginning of the verse at the end. This is misleading because the words at the beginning of the Greek sense are the most important, though Jesus often reverses this, saving his keywords for the end of verses. The phrase translated as "for ever" means "within this lifetime". This statement comes near the end of Jesus's own lifetime so he could be referring to his own lifetime.
This verse is not a command. Though Peter later describes this as a "curse" it is not a command. A command would be in the imperative mood, but this is the optative mood, which expresses a wish or desire for an action to occur where the completion of action is uncertain. This mood was fading away at the time of the New Testament and Jesus seldom uses it. The "may" in modern translations reflect this desire, but it can be seen as the form of possibility, which is the verb mood that replaced the optative.
Rather than a "curse" as this verse is described later by Peter, this verse comes across as a bit of sad rumination about the lack of satisfaction in the future.
The word translated in the KJV as "hereafter" actually means "no more." The combination of "no more" and "no one" sets up a double negative, which is avoided in English, but which is perfectly acceptable in Greek. Both negative forms use the negative of opinion and desire rather than the negative of fact.
- IW - Inserted Word -- The word "man" doesn't exist in the source.
- WM - Wrong Mood - The verb "eat" is translated as a command, but the Greek word a mood that expresses a hope, in this case, a negative one.
- WW - Wrong Word -- The word translated as "of" means "from."
- CW --Confusing Word -- The "for" does not capture the word's specific meaning in this situation.
- MW - Missing Word -- The article "the" is not shown in the English translation.
- WW - Wrong Word -- The word translated as "ever" means "lifetime" or "age."
- MW - Missing Word -- The preposition "within" is not shown in the English translation.
- MW - Missing Word -- The article "the" is not shown in the English translation.
- WW - Wrong Word -- The word translated as "ever" means "lifetime" or "age."
- WW - Wrong Word -- The word translated as "again" means "no longer."
- MW - Missing Word -- The preposition "within" is not shown in the English translation.
- MW - Missing Word -- The article "the" is not shown in the English translation.
- WW - Wrong Word -- The word translated as "ever" means "lifetime" or "age."
- MW - Missing Word -- The preposition "from" is not shown in the English translation.
- WW - Wrong Word -- The word translated as "again" means "no longer."
No -- "No man" is from a word that "nobody", "no one", "not even one", "naught", "good for naught," and "nothing." Jesus much more commonly uses the objective rather than subjective form of this word.
man -- (IW) There is nothing that can be translated as "man" in the Greek source.
eat -- (WM) The word translated as "eat" is one of the two common words used to mean "eat." It means "to eat", "to eat up," and "to devour." However, the unusual mood of this verb, the optative, should be expressed with some helping words such as "hopefully."
fruit -- The word translated as "fruit" primary meaning is "fruit", "seed," or "offspring," but its secondary meaning is "returns," specifically, "profit," as we would say "fruit of our labors."
of -- (WW) The Greek preposition translated as "of" means "out of" or "from." Using "of" means this look like a genitive possessive, which it is not.
thee -- The word translated as "thee" is the possessive form of the second person pronoun.
hereafter - "Hereafter" is an uncommon word for Jesus, at least in this negative opinion form. It means "no more", "no longer," and "no further."
for -- (CW) The word translated as "for" means "into" a place, "towards" as a direction, "in" (a position), "as much as (of measure or limit)," "in regards to" a subject, "up to" limits in measures, "until" in reference to time, "within" a time limit, and "for" a purpose or object.
missing "the/this" -- -- (MW) The untranslated word is the Greek definite article. The Greek article is much closer to our demonstrative pronouns ("this", "that", "these", "those"). See this article for more.
ever. -- (WW) "Ever" is the Greek word that means "lifetime", "life", "a space of time", "an age," an epoch," and "the present world." It is the word from which we get "eon." It is often translated as "world" in the KJV. See this article on words translated as "world" in Jesus's words.
May -- This helping verb indicates the optative mood, expressing the hope for something happening in the future.
no one -- "No one" is from a word that "nobody", "no one", "not even one", "naught", "good for naught," and "nothing." Jesus much more commonly uses the objective rather than subjective form of this word.
missing "within" -- -- (MW) The untranslated word means "into" a place, "towards" as a direction, "in" (a position), "as much as (of measure or limit)," "in regards to" a subject, "up to" limits in measures, "until" in reference to time, "within" a time limit, and "for" a purpose or object.
missing "the/this" -- -- (MW) The untranslated word is the Greek definite article. The Greek article is much closer to our demonstrative pronouns ("this", "that", "these", "those"). See this article for more.
ever. -- (WW) "Ever" is the Greek word that means "lifetime", "life", "a space of time", "an age," an epoch," and "the present world." It is the word from which we get "eon." It is often translated as "world" in the KJV. See this article on words translated as "world" in Jesus's words. This is a compounding of the mistakes in the KJV.
eat -- The word translated as "eat" is one of the two common words used to mean "eat."It means "to eat", "to eat up," and "to devour."
fruit -- The word translated as "fruit" primary meaning is "fruit", "seed," or "offspring," but its secondary meaning is "returns," specifically, "profit," as we would say "fruit of our labors."
from -- The Greek preposition translated as "from" means "out of" or "from." Using "of" means this look like a genitive possessive, which it is not.
you -- The word translated as "thee" is the possessive form of the second person pronoun.
again -- (WW) This word is not the Greek word for "again," but a word meaning "no more", "no longer," and "no further."
NLT
May -- This helping verb indicates the optative mood, expressing the hope for something happening in the future.
no one -- "No one" is from a word that "nobody", "no one", "not even one", "naught", "good for naught," and "nothing." Jesus much more commonly uses the objective rather than subjective form of this word.
missing "within" -- -- (MW) The untranslated word means "into" a place, "towards" as a direction, "in" (a position), "as much as (of measure or limit)," "in regards to" a subject, "up to" limits in measures, "until" in reference to time, "within" a time limit, and "for" a purpose or object.
missing "the/this" -- -- (MW) The untranslated word is the Greek definite article. The Greek article is much closer to our demonstrative pronouns ("this", "that", "these", "those"). See this article for more.
ever. -- (WW) "Ever" is the Greek word that means "lifetime", "life", "a space of time", "an age," an epoch," and "the present world." It is the word from which we get "eon." It is often translated as "world" in the KJV. See this article on words translated as "world" in Jesus's words. This is a compounding of the mistakes in the KJV.
eat -- The word translated as "eat" is one of the two common words used to mean "eat."It means "to eat", "to eat up," and "to devour."
missing "from" - (MW) The Greek preposition translated as "from" means "out of" or "from." Using "of" means this look like a genitive possessive, which it is not.
your -- The word translated as "your" is the possessive form of the second person pronoun.
fruit -- The word translated as "fruit" primary meaning is "fruit", "seed," or "offspring," but its secondary meaning is "returns," specifically, "profit," as we would say "fruit of our labors."
again -- (WW) This word is not the Greek word for "again," but a word meaning "no more", "no longer," and "no further."
Μηκέτι [4 verses](adv) "Hereafter" is from meketi, which means "no more", "no longer," and "no further."
εἰς [325 verses](prep) "Into" is eis, which means "into (of place)," "up to (of time)," "until (of time)," "in" (a position), "as much as (of measure or limit)," "as far as (of measure or limit)," "towards (to express relation)," "in regard to (to express relation)," "of an end or limit," and "for (of purpose or object).
τὸν [821 verses](article sg masc acc) Untranslated is the Greek definite article, hos, ("the"), which usually precedes a noun and, without a noun, takes the meaning of "the one" or, in the plural, "the ones."
αἰῶνα [41 verses](noun sg masc acc) "Ever" is from aion, which means "life", "lifetime", "age," or "generation."
ἐκ [121 verses] (prep) "From" is ek, which means 1) [of motion] "out of," "from," "by," "away from;" 2) [of place] "beyond," "outside of," "beyond;" 3) [of succession] "after," "from;" 4) [of rest] "on," "in," 5) [of time] "since," "from," "at," "in;" 5) [of materials] "out of," "made from;" 6) cause, instrument, or means "by."
σου [144 verses](pron 2nd sg gen) "Thy" is sou is the genitive form of the second-person, singular pronoun that means "of you" and "your."
μηδεὶς [7 verses]( adj sg masc nom ) "No man" is from the word medeis, which means "nobody", "no one", "not even one", "naught", "good for naught," and "nothing."
καρπὸν [32 verses](noun sg masc acc) "Fruit" is from karpos, which means "fruit", "the fruits of the earth", "seed", "offspring", "returns for profit," and "reward."
φάγοι. [20 verses] ( verb 3rd sg aor opt act ) "Eat" is phago which is a form of the word, phagein, which means to eat", "to eat up," and "to devour."
The "hopefully" here, that is, the optative mood, confuses Jesus's hopes with the hope of the person eating.
Rather than a "curse" as this verse is often portrayed, this verse comes across as a bit of sad rumination, with Jesus perhaps contemplating his own death and his own lack of fruit, in several sense of the word. This is harder to see in translations because the phrase "in this lifetime" is entirely lost. He could be talking about the end of his own life here and his no longer being able to offer his fruit to others.