17

Contrary to popular belief no mention of the fruit being an apple can be found in the Book of Genesis.

Jewish commentaries recorded in the Midrash Rabbah speculate that the tree might have been a species of wheat, or corn, or that the fruit might have been grapes or figs.

And yet, the idea that it was an apple is widely accepted.

Was it due to Classical influences (The golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides)?
Is it a legacy from the Latin 'malum' (apple/evil)?
Or is there another reason?

Are there any other theories that have been put forward as to what the fruit might have been?

Improve this question
4
  • 2
    'Apple' used to just mean fruit (which is where the name of 'pineapples' comes from... pinecone shaped fruit), so maybe the idea came from the time when the word wasn't specific?
    – curiousdannii ♦
    Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 21:48
  • 2
    I don't have time to do this myself now, but someone should check when the word first meant the specific fruit and compare that time to English Bible translations.
    – curiousdannii ♦
    Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 22:00
  • 1
    I remember a sermon from Fulton Sheen where he mentioned that the reason was the similarity between the Latin words as you mentioned.
    – LoveTheFaith
    Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 22:36
  • 1
    I remember reading somewhere that golden apples of Hesperides were actually oranges, so maybe this story also suffers from the ambiguity of the English word apple.
    – david brainerd
    Commented Mar 26, 2014 at 2:27

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
20

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word apple has, until recently, always meant simply "fruit" in English. This was certainly the case at the time of the earliest English Bible translations in the 1600s.

In Middle English and as late as 17c., it was a generic term for all fruit other than berries but including nuts (e.g. Old English fingeræppla "dates," literally "finger-apples;" Middle English appel of paradis "banana," c.1400). Hence its grafting onto the unnamed "fruit of the forbidden tree" in Genesis.

(emphasis added)

Improve this answer
6

The notion of the forbidden fruit being an apple is not something exclusive of english christianity (here in Spain is also an usual misconception), as long as I've heard is something habitual in Western European culture as a whole.

The main explication that I found about this is related to something that the OP already talked about: the latin words malum/mālum which mean evil and apple and have a very similar pronunciation. The reason was the following:

Saint Jerome was one of the most relevants scholars of his time, being depicted in a huge number of paintings. He is also the autor of a translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew that started in 390 and was finished by 405. This translation into Latin is what is know as a vulgate, an edition of the Bible aimed to the people, not just for the scholars.

St. Jerome translated the original using the word malum (additional reference) which has given rise to the notion of the fruit being a apple.

This misconception was perpetuated in the ideas of European people mainly due to the work of the numerous painters who decided to paint this scene. For instance here you can take a look at the painting called The Fall of Men by Jan Brueghel and P.P. Rubens:

The Fall of Men - Jan Brueghel and P.P. Rubens

And also the very famous Adam and Eve by Albretch Dürer (link).

Improve this answer
2
  • 3
    The similarity of malum in Latin would be a reason an English translation might get it wrong, not a reason why someone translating from Hebrew to Latin might get it wrong. Jerome's proficiency in Hebrew wouldn't be a cause of confusion for the word malum.
    – ThaddeusB
    Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 17:39
  • @ThaddeusB I didn't realize earlier that what I wrote made no sense. I have edited the question and deleted my previous comments. Thank you both for pointing it out to me.
    – S -
    Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 17:57
2

The bible talks about a generic "fruit"; but in latin, the word from apple (malum) has the same sound of the word for evil (mālum)... so, during middle age, artists started to represent the forbidden fruit as an apple.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    It's rather the opposite: evil is malum, apple is mālum...
    – Wtrmute
    Commented Jan 19, 2017 at 12:11

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .