Was The Forbidden Fruit Really An Apple?

Despite the large number of artistic depictions, cartoons and the widely accepted tradition, the Bible does not say anything about the forbidden fruit being an apple. Quoting the Genesis: The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.””’. However, no one exactly knows why was an apple later chosen to represent the forbidden fruit. Author of this passage in the Bible surely did not mean an apple tree; there were no apple trees in the Middle East at the time the Genesis was written.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Durer_Adam_and_Eve.jpg

Adam and Eve by Albrecht Dürer (1507)

According to orthodox biblical studies, it was much more likely to be a fig tree. It was widespread in the Middle East at the biblical times, and in addition, Adam and Eve even used fig leaves to cover their private parts right after the ingestion of the forbidden fruit.

Apparently, apples got to this story via celtic and ancient Greek myths and legends. Apple, being an ancient symbol of sex and fertility, could have easily earned the reputation of ”forbidden fruit” in the eyes of early Christians.

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