Were they edible in years past? It's hard to tell but it also looks like you may have picked before they were ripe.

The tree is only 5 years old. It did the same thing last year and I just thought it was because it was an immature tree. This year it's loaded with fruit. The fruit in the picture is very ripe. The thin layer on the outside is edible. The seeds are very dry and hard. All the figs are this way. Someone suggested that it might be a male tree. I had no idea that figs could come in male and female trees. I'm beginning to think thats the problem.

I found this on Wikipedia. I think you may be right:

The hermaphrodite common figs are called "inedible figs" or caprifigs; in traditional culture in the Mediterranean region they were considered food for goats (Capra aegagrus). In the female fig trees, the male flower parts fail to develop; they produce the "edible figs". Fig wasps grow in common fig caprifigs but not in the female syconiums because the female flower is too long for the wasp to successfully lay her eggs in them. Nonetheless, the wasp pollinates the flower with pollen from the caprifig it grew up in. When the wasp dies, it is broken down by enzymes (Ficain) inside the fig. Fig wasps are not known to transmit any diseases harmful to humans.

I'm having the same problem with a volunteer fig that is six years old at least (full of seeds and inedible although the outside is ripe! Did you figure out what the problem was?