The Forbidden Fruit

[Rose]

Why is the apple associated as the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

 

[bobinfaith]

Good morning, Rose;

For centuries between the religious scholars, the apple, pomegranate, figs and other fruit associated with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

What I find humorous about these scholars, these are people of learned Bible knowledge who overlooked In Genesis 2 and 3 that none of the names of various fruits are written, only the name fruit.

Does this help?

God bless you, Rose.

Bob

 

[Yesua888]

I found this and it sounds pretty reasonable:

The Bible never identifies the forbidden fruit as an apple; the original Hebrew text uses the generic term peri for "fruit" and does not specify the species. The association likely stems from a Latin pun in the Vulgate translation, where malum (evil) and malus (apple) are similar, a concept popularized by medieval art and later literary works like John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

The Bible mentions apples in the following verses:

• Song of Solomon 2:3: Describes the beloved’s shade as an apple tree among the trees of the forest.
• Song of Solomon 2:5: References apple trees as a place of refreshment.
• Song of Solomon 8:5: Asks who is coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved (often translated in contexts involving apple imagery in other verses, though the word "apple" appears in 2:3 and 2:5 specifically).
• Proverbs 25:11: Compares a fitting word to apples of gold in settings of silver.
• Joel 1:12: Laments that the vine and fig tree have dried up, but also mentions that the apple tree (or fruit trees generally, depending on translation of tapuach) has withered.

 

[David]

Why is the apple associated as the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

The Bible never calls it an apple. Genesis does not say Eve reached up and picked a shiny red apple. It says, “she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat” ~Genesis 3:6. That word simply means fruit. God did not tell us what kind it was.

Somewhere along the road, people started calling it an apple. Art helped that idea spread. Tradition helped it stick. Even language may have played a part, because in Latin the word connected with “apple” sounded close to the word connected with “evil.” So over time, the apple became the picture people carried in their minds.

But the fruit was never the main issue. The issue was not apples, oranges, figs, or grapes. The issue was whether man would trust God’s Word or reach for what God had forbidden.

God had already spoken: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it” ~Genesis 2:17. The command was clear. The boundary was clear. The warning was clear.

Satan’s attack was not really about fruit. It was about faith. “Yea, hath God said?” ~Genesis 3:1. That is always where rebellion starts. The sin did not start when Eve took a bite. It started when she began to question whether God’s Word could be trusted.

So when people say “the apple,” they are repeating tradition, not Scripture. Scripture simply says “fruit.” And when Scripture is silent, we should be silent too.

The lesson is not, “Do not eat apples.” The lesson is, do not distrust God, do not edit His Word, and do not reach for what He has forbidden.