Whoever tends the fig tree shall eat its fruit. He who looks after his master shall be honored.
⛓ Read Proverbs 27 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion2
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
'Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who guards his master will be honored' coheres tightly with Paul's paired questions about the vinedresser eating the fruit and the shepherd drinking the milk (v.7): the one who works enjoys the produce. The proverb's join of tending-and-eating to honoring-a-master maps onto Paul's case for apostolic support. Medium volume by theme.
Medium confidence'He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit' is the closest sapiential parallel to the laboring farmer who earns the first share. Paul applies the proverb's reward-for-tending logic to gospel ministry.
Medium confidence