Eve and the forbidden fruit | alimentarium (2024)

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?

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Genesis chapter3 of the Bible recounts the story of Adam, the first man God created, and the woman God formed from one of Adam’s ribs. They lived piously in the Garden ofEden until the serpent, craftier than the other animals, led the woman into temptation. The serpent said, “Did God actually say ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” The woman answered,“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” The serpent replied,“You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Since the woman sought wisdom, she ate the fruit of the tree, and gave some to Adam to eat too. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” When God came into the garden, they hid from him. He noticed that they had eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and turned them out of Paradise. “To Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it’, cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust and to dust you shall return.” After the fall, Adam named his wife Eve(which means ‘life’ in Hebrew), as the mother of all living, the progenitrix of all human beings.

Theology refers to this incident as the ‘fall of man’ as, against God’s will, he ate the fruit that allowed him to distinguish good from evil. The Bible does not actually mention an apple–early Christian art depicts the FallofMan by a fig. Christianity likely introduced the idea of the fruit being an apple, in recollection of the ‘apple of paradise’ or when the Bible was translated. In Latin, evil is malum and an apple is called malus. This could have been either a simple mistranslation or a deliberate play on the these words. An apple already featured in one of the earliest depictions of the FallofMan from the2ndcenturyCE in the catacombs of SanGennaro in Naples.

According to the Christian doctrine, original sin, also known as ancestral sin, is a consequence of the fall of man. As descendants of Adam, all human beings are born into sin. Yet it also draws a connection between the tree of knowledge and the salvation of man. The tree is equated with the cosmic ‘world tree’, the ‘path to eternity’, the tree of life planted on Calvary. Jesus takes the way of the Cross as a sacrifice to save man from sin. In this respect, Jesus is the new Adam. Adam is disobedient, because he ate fruit from the forbidden tree, while Jesus is obedient, allowing himself to be nailed to a cross, the tree of Calvary, to atone for Adam's sin. In the Middle Ages and modern times, an apple represents overcoming original sin, often depicted as a snake with an apple in its mouth–as in EnglishGreeting byVeitStoss (Lorenzkirche,Nuremberg). Depictions of the Madonna also often include an apple, since Mary, as the new Eve, symbolises overcoming sin.

Sources:

  • Buch Genesis, zit. nach https://www.uibk.ac.at/theol/leseraum/bibel/gen3.html[11.04.2017]
  • Liselotte Stauch, Apfel, in: Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, Bd. I (1935), Sp. 748–751; in: RDK Labor, URL: http://www.rdklabor.de/w/?oldid=89425[21.10.2016]
  • Original: Mircea Eliade, Histoire des croyances et des idées religieuses, Édition Payot, Pris 1978, 1992
  • Deutsche Ausgabe: Mircea Eliade, Geschichte der Religiösen Ideen, 4 Bände, Freiburg (Herder) 1979

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FAQs

What is the meaning of Eve eating the forbidden fruit? ›

No matter what type of fruit it was, the effects of Eve and Adam eating it were fatal. Original sin is the moral corruption we all experience as a result. It created a separation between humans and God. Pain, violence, lack and death entered the world and remain problems today.

What is the forbidden fruit in the Bible? ›

In the Hebrew Bible, a generic term, peri, is used for the fruit hanging from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, explains Robert Appelbaum, who discusses the biblical provenance of the apple in his book Aguecheek's Beef, Belch's Hiccup, and Other Gastronomic Interjections.

What is the story of Eve and the apple? ›

When Eve is tempted by the serpent and eats the forbidden fruit, Father makes Adam choose between Him and Eden, or Eve. Adam chooses Eve and eats the fruit, causing Father to banish them into the wilderness and destroying the Tree of Knowledge, from which Adam carves a staff.

What was Eve's punishment for eating the apple? ›

In these texts, following her consumption of the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Bad, Eve becomes alienated. She is alienated from the man who is with her: he will now 'rule over her'. She is alienated from her maternal body: she will now give birth in pain.

What sin did Adam and Eve commit? ›

Doubt was their original sin. Everything that transpired from then on was precipitated by their questioning God's command. God had basically said, “don't eat the fruit of this one tree and you'll live, eat the fruit of this one tree and you'll die”.

What happened to Eve when she ate the fruit? ›

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.

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 is the literal meaning of forbidden fruit? ›

Definitions of forbidden fruit. noun. originally an apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden; it is now used to refer to anything that is tempting but dangerous (as sexuality) type of: enticement, temptation. something that seduces or has the quality to seduce.

What kind of tree did Adam and Eve eat from? ›

Jewish sources suggest different possible identities for the tree: a fig tree (as fig leaves were used to clothe Adam and Eve after the sin), a grape vine (as "nothing brings wailing to the world like wine"), a stalk of wheat (as "a child does not know how to say Father and Mother until he tastes grain"), an etrog (as ...

What happened to Eve in the Bible? ›

Eve (and womankind after her) is sentenced to a life of sorrow and travail in childbirth, and to be under the power of her husband.

Was the forbidden fruit a pomegranate? ›

Grown in paradise

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.

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.

What is Eve's curse in the Bible? ›

Genesis 3: 16 “To the woman he said: “I will greatly increase the pain of your pregnancy; in pain you will give birth to children, and your longing will be for your husband, and he will dominate you.” Ultimately, Eve's punishment was death.

Did God curse Eve with pregnancy? ›

One thing that is important to note is that while God cursed the serpent and he cursed the ground that Adam would have to toil, he did not curse Eve. This suggests while God caused Eve to experience pain in childbirth, he was not pronouncing a curse on Eve. There is no curse in giving birth to children.

Did Adam and Eve have children? ›

Their first children were Cain and Abel. Abel, the keeper of sheep, was highly regarded by God and was killed by Cain out of envy. Another son, Seth, was born to replace Abel, and the two human stems, the Cainites and the Sethites, descended from them.

Is the forbidden fruit symbolic? ›

Forbidden fruit symbolizes a lie. Lies are usually very sweet, but toxic for human mind. Truth, on the other hand, can be very bitter, but it is always liberating. Truth can disentangle the mind knots (knots of negative emotions, feelings and thoughts).

What is the forbidden fruit theory? ›

Forbidden-fruit theory (Bushman & Stack, 1996) encompasses commodity theory that holds that the more a commodity is perceived to be unavailable or not easily obtainable, the more it is valued compared to a commodity that is freely and easily obtainable.

Why does Eve eat the fruit in Paradise Lost? ›

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

What does the tree of knowledge of good and evil represent? ›

In Jewish tradition, the Tree of Knowledge and the eating of its fruit represents the beginning of the mixture of good and evil together. Before that time, the two were separate, and evil had only a nebulous existence in potential.

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