In Genesis chapter 2, we read about a real tree, with real fruit, that grew in the Garden of Eden—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was told he could eat from any tree in the garden except that one tree. Many people wonder what the fruit on that tree looked like, with a popular option being an apple. A recent headline from LiveScience even asked, “Was the ‘forbidden fruit’ in the Garden of Eden really an apple?” So, was it?
Well, the LiveScience article correctly states, “Nobody knows because the Hebrew Bible just says ‘fruit.’” In the article (which treated Genesis like an interesting legend, not as real history), the author offers a few suggestions from various scholars (such as fig, wheat, grapes, or citron) and sum up the history of how an apple might have become associated with the biblical narrative. In a 2010 article, AiG’s Bodie Hodge also summed up that history:
The confusion of this fruit with the apple may be due to the similarity of the two words in the Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate. The word evil in the tree’s name in Latin is mali (Genesis 2:17). The word apple in other places is mala (Proverbs 25:11) or malum (Song of Solomon 2:3). It seems like this similarity may have led to the confusion. In the original Hebrew, the words are not even close. The word in Genesis 2:17 for evil is rah, while the word for apples in Proverbs 25:11 and Song of Solomon 2:3 is tappuwach.
We do know that it was a real fruit, growing on a real tree, in real history—and the impact of the rebellious eating of that fruit is still felt acutely today by every single person (in fact, the whole creation).
So the fruit that was “good for food” and “pleasant to the eyes” probably was not an apple. But we do know that it was a real fruit, growing on a real tree, in real history—and the impact of the rebellious eating of that fruit is still felt acutely today by every single person (in fact, the whole creation). You see, Adam and Eve’s choice to sin against their Creator brought death and suffering into God’s once “very good” creation. Now creation groans, waiting for the coming of Christ and the new heavens and new earth he will create (Romans 8:22).
But God didn’t leave Adam and Eve without hope. In Genesis 3:15, he promised that the Seed of the woman was coming and that he would crush the head of the serpent—that Seed was Jesus, the Last Adam. He lived the perfect life we can’t live, died on the cross in our place as the ultimate sacrifice for sin, and then rose again, defeating sin and death. Now Jesus offers new and eternal life, forgiveness, and freedom from sin and death to all who will turn from their sin and trust in him.
So while we can’t know what that fruit in the Garden looked like, every person has the opportunity to trust in Christ for salvation and know for themselves in eternity what the fruit on a different tree—the Tree of Life—looks like (Revelation 22:2). In that glorious day, the consequences of that rebellious bite into the “forbidden fruit” will be gone, all because of our great and merciful God “who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (Romans 8:32):
Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:3–4)
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This item was discussed today on Answers News with cohosts Bryan Osborne, Tim Chaffey, and Roger Patterson. Answers News is our twice-weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum and broadcast on my Facebook page and the Answers in Genesis Facebook page. We also covered the following fascinating topics:
- “Christian” devotional reads, “Dear God, help me to hate white people.”
- Do we need to be careful that science doesn’t “control the narrative”?
- A South Korean island has only three children due to “population control.”
- And more!
Watch the entire episode of Answers News for April 14, 2021.
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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken
This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.
FAQs
Because the Hebrew Bible describes the forbidden fruit only as peri, the term for general fruit, no one knows. It could be a fruit that doesn't exist anymore. Historians have speculated it may have been any one of these fruits: pomegranate, mango, fig, grape, etrog or citron, carob, pear, quince or mushroom.
What was the real forbidden fruit in the Bible? ›
Rabbi Nehemiah Hayyun supports the idea that the fruit was a fig, as it was from fig leaves that Adam and Eve made garments for themselves after eating the fruit.
What fruit was on the tree of knowledge of good and evil? ›
It was disobedience of Adam and Eve, who had been told by God not to eat off the tree (Genesis 2:17), that caused disorder in the creation, thus humanity inherited sin and guilt from Adam and Eve's sin. In Western Christian art, the fruit of the tree is commonly depicted as the apple, which originated in central Asia.
What type of fruit was the forbidden fruit? ›
Rather than a broad, general term for "fruit," it took on a narrower meaning: "apple." Once that change in meaning became widely accepted, readers of the Old French version of Genesis understood the statement "Adam and Eve ate a pom" to mean "Adam and Eve ate an apple." At that point, they understood the apple to be ...
Was the forbidden fruit a pomegranate? ›
In the Quran, pomegranates grow in the Garden of Paradise and are referred to on multiple occasions as God's good creations. The pomegranate is also said to be found in the Garden of Eden according to Ancient Iranian Christianity and was believed to be the real forbidden fruit rather than the apple.
What is the forbidden fruit today? ›
Because the Hebrew Bible describes the forbidden fruit only as peri, the term for general fruit, no one knows. It could be a fruit that doesn't exist anymore. Historians have speculated it may have been any one of these fruits: pomegranate, mango, fig, grape, etrog or citron, carob, pear, quince or mushroom.
What is the forbidden fruit that God said not to eat? ›
The Old Testament tells of Adam and Eve, our progenitors. They lived in paradise in total innocence until the serpent (the devil) enticed them to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. As punishment for their disobedience, God banished them from Paradise. Why is the forbidden fruit often called an apple?
What does the forbidden fruit symbolize? ›
The Serpent would then be a symbol of Lucifer. In Jewish traditional understanding, to eat a fruit means to have an experience of sexual love. Knowledge is in the same tradition understood to have a sexual relationship with someone.
What are examples of forbidden fruit? ›
Unlawful pleasure or enjoyment; illicit love. For example, After Mary moved in with John, Tom began courting her—forbidden fruit is sweet, I guess , or Smoking behind the woodshed, that's a case of forbidden fruit .
What happens when they ate the forbidden fruit? ›
Their physical condition changed as a result of their eating the forbidden fruit. As God had promised, they became mortal. They and their children would experience sickness, pain, and physical death. Because of their transgression, Adam and Eve also suffered spiritual death.
The Hebrew Bible doesn't actually specify what type of fruit Adam and Eve ate. “We don't know what it was. There's no indication it was an apple,” Rabbi Ari Zivotofsky, a professor of Brain Science at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, told Live Science. Read More.
What tree did Adam and Eve eat from? ›
Over the years, rabbis have written that the fruit could have been a fig, because in the Hebrew Bible, Adam and Eve realized they were naked after eating from the tree of knowledge, and then used fig leaves to cover themselves.
What does the pomegranate symbolize in the Bible? ›
The Bible only mentions pomegranates in the Old Testament. The hems of Jewish priestly vestments are decorated with a stylised form of this fruit (Ex. 28, 33f; 39, 24-26) and, as such, a pomegranate is a metaphor for the richness of the promised land of Israel (Deut.
Did the tree of life have fruit? ›
The Oneidas tell that supernatural beings lived in the Skyworld above the waters which covered the earth. This tree was covered with fruits which gave them their light, and they were instructed that no one should cut into the tree otherwise a great punishment would be given.
Did Adam and Eve eat meat? ›
The only food allowed to Adam and Eve (and indeed all the animals) in the Garden of Eden was plants. Meat-eating was not allowed by God until the time of Noah, when it was clearly a concession to human weakness. In the laws of the Bible, the suffering of animals must be avoided.
Was the forbidden fruit a quince? ›
It was so ubiquitous, in fact, that it is believed the fruit eaten by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was actually a quince and not an apple. There are countless quince references in ancient history.
