The stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale: stars falling to earth is another of the great events marking the end (Mark 13.25). The sky is violently shaken, and the stars fall out of the sky. In some languages one must indicate where the stars fall from; for example, “the stars fell down from the sky to the earth like….” The stars fall like unripe figs fall from the tree when it is shaken by a strong wind. The figure John uses to explain this great event is that of unripe figs, which grow in the winter and usually fall off in the spring. Instead of winter fruit, “unripe figs” or “green figs” may be said (Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, Good News Translation, Translator’s New Testament, An American Translation, and others), or else, simply “figs” (Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), or even “fresh figs.” However, the important element in this figure is unripe fruit, not one particular kind of fruit. So in cultures where figs are unknown, one may say, for example, “green fruit” or “unripe fruit.” In other languages there is specific vocabulary for the falling of leaves off a tree. In such cases this verb can be used to describe the falling of the stars, to heighten the effect of the figurative language.

Gale: this translates the Greek “a strong wind.” In small island cultures the equivalent of a gale is “hurricane” or “typhoon.”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• The stars fell down from the sky to the earth just like unripe figs (or, fruit) falling from the tree when a violent wind (or, typhoon) shakes it.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .