Where did the notion that Adam and Eve ate an APPLE come from?
Upvote: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.
Upvote: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:
And also the very famous Adam and Eve by Albretch Dürer (link).
Upvote: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)
More post
- 📝 Are all the elect raptured before the Tribulation, according to Calvinists?
- 📝 Do not Judge others, or do we Judge others?
- 📝 How does the Mormon Church reconcile the following claim with the Bible? "The Church of Jesus Christ was well established in the time of Adam."
- 📝 What do Chinese Catholics call their priests?
- 📝 Historically what percentage of the Catholic Church's liturgical function was done in Latin?
- 📝 What is the wording used for Christadelphian baptism?
- 📝 When did the Catholic Church first prohibit bishops from remarrying?
- 📝 Is there more than one High Priest in the order of Melchizedek?
- 📝 Why do the Jews in the OT in Joshua, Kings, Chronicles always list their war spoils after each battle?
- 📝 Is a Catholic annulment divorce in a Catholic way?
- 📝 Were the early Christians known by any other name?
- 📝 Is the bonebox called the "James Ossuary" authentic? Is it truly the bonebox of James, the brother of Jesus Christ?
- 📝 Books of the New Testament for Greeks
- 📝 Are men more important then women?
- 📝 Do Matthew and John have a discrepancy with regards to Jesus before Pilate?
- 📝 What do churches that prohibit the use of icons think an idol is?
- 📝 What is the Biblical Basis for saying that we "go to heaven"?
- 📝 Does the bible command us to pray three times a day or how many times a day we should pray?
- 📝 According to mainstream Christianity, who is God?
- 📝 How is the new anti-conversion law going to affect Christians in India?
- 📝 Paying respects during grace, benediction, etc. as a non-Christian?
- 📝 How did Jesus get heard by 5000 families at once?
- 📝 Humans doing miracles
- 📝 Is every single minute of the year a mass being celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church? If so, since when?
- 📝 Did anyone before Jesus go to Heaven and Will They Be Raised Up On the Last Day? (John 6)
- 📝 Why did Adam need to tend the garden in genesis 2:15. Is the biocycle a sinful process?
- 📝 Jacob and Esau: what is this story all about?
- 📝 Was any Doctor of the Church martyred?
- 📝 What's up with Tobiah's dog?
- 📝 Why was the Holy Family instructed to flee to Egypt?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Where did the notion that Adam and Eve ate an APPLE come from?
- 📝 Did Jesus come to restore the immortality that Adam and Eve lost?
- 📝 Where in the Bible did God tell Adam and Eve that they have sinned?
- 📝 Where did the belief that Saul fell from a horse come from?
- 📝 Where did the hierarchical designations of priest, cardinal, bishop, and pope come from in the Catholic church?
- 📝 From where did the Pearl of Great Price come and how did it become recognized as Scripture in the LDS church?
- 📝 From where did the Book of Abraham come and how did it become part of LDS Scripture?
- 📝 Where did all the water come from and go during the flood?
- 📝 Why did Adam and Eve not die after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
- 📝 Are there any denominations that teach Adam and Eve did not have the opportunity to be saved?
- 📝 Where did the idea of deacon's benches come from and what are they for?
- 📝 Is there any Christian teaching as to where Adam and Eve were sent after their fall from the Garden of Eden?
- 📝 According to those holding that Lazarus was literally raised from the dead, why did Matthew, Mark, and Luke not mention it?
- 📝 From where do Jehovah's Witnesses derive the doctrine that Jesus was and now is Michael the Archangel?
- 📝 Where does the Catholic tradition that Mary did not have pain giving birth to Jesus come from?
- 📝 From where does the tradition come that Mary rode on a donkey to Bethlehem prior to the birth of Jesus?
- 📝 Where does Augustine say that Adam and Eve were in Eden for just six hours before sinning?
- 📝 What priesthood did the line of Adam from Seth to Melchizedek and Noah hold in LDS/Mormon teaching?
- 📝 Where does the tradition come from that Noah's sons went separate directions?
- 📝 Why did Eve say that "touching" the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil would kill you?
- 📝 Why did God create Adam and Eve so that they would sin?
- 📝 Where did the claim that "the Bible we have today is unreliable because of retranslation" come from?
- 📝 Where did the idea that Catholics can have a break from their Lenten discipline on Sunday originate?
- 📝 How could Adam and Eve have known not to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil?
- 📝 If Adam and Eve were exempt from death, why did they need to eat?
- 📝 Does Young Earth Creationism teach that Adam and Eve only had a concept of morality after the fall?
- 📝 Why didn't Adam and Eve die when they ate the fruit?
- 📝 What is an overview of the way Adam and Eve ate and became like God?
- 📝 What significance do Catholics see in the fact that Adam and Eve 'knew each other' only after original sin?
- 📝 Where does the idea come from that the KJV is the proper bible to be used?
