Mary Erickson’s answer to “I always thought that the Tree in the Garden of Eden was a pomegranate, not a fig tree? Definitely,…” > Likes and Comments

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message 1: by Birgitt (new)

Birgitt Krumboeck The apple tree in the Bible was definitely a mistranslation, though.


message 2: by Mary Erickson (new)

Mary Erickson In the Protestant/Catholic Bible, there is no "apple tree."


message 3: by Birgitt (new)

Birgitt Krumboeck I think that Eve shared an apple with Adam, from the apple tree. It should have been translated as a pomegranate, since apples did not grow in Palestine during Biblical times. (less)


message 4: by Mary Erickson (new)

Mary Erickson From Wiki: Though the forbidden fruit of Eden in the Book of Genesis is not identified, popular Christian tradition has held that it was an apple that Eve coaxed Adam to share with her. The origin of the popular identification with a fruit unknown in the Middle East in biblical times is found in confusion between the Latin words mālum (an apple) and mălum (an evil), each of which is normally written malum. The tree of the forbidden fruit is called "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" in Genesis 2:17, and the Latin for "good and evil" is bonum et malum.

Renaissance painters may also have been influenced by the story of the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides. As a result, in the story of Adam and Eve, the apple became a symbol for knowledge, immortality, temptation, the fall of man into sin, and sin itself. The larynx in the human throat has been called the "Adam's apple" because of a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit remaining in the throat of Adam.


message 5: by Mary Erickson (new)

Mary Erickson The tree is NOT identifying as anything in the Bible, except as the "Tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
It should NOT be translated as any particular type of fruit.


message 6: by Birgitt (new)

Birgitt Krumboeck Forbidden fruit is a name given to the fruit growing in the Garden of Eden which God commands mankind not to eat. In the biblical story, Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and are exiled from Eden.
Apple
See also: Apple (symbolism)
In Western Europe, the fruit was often depicted as an apple. This was possibly because of a misunderstanding of – or a pun on – two unrelated words mălum, a native Latin noun which means evil (from the adjective malus), and mālum, another Latin noun, borrowed from Greek μῆλον, which means apple. In the Vulgate, Genesis 2:17 describes the tree as de ligno autem scientiae boni et mali : "but of the tree [literally wood ] of knowledge of good and evil" (mali here is the genitive of malum).

The larynx, specifically the laryngeal prominence that joins the thyroid cartilage, in the human throat is noticeably more prominent in males and was consequently called an Adam's apple, from a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit getting stuck in Adam's throat as he swallowed it.


message 7: by Birgitt (new)

Birgitt Krumboeck I was not the one who translated the Bible, even though I am a translator by profession...


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