Once Upon a Fruit...Was it Really an Apple?
“Are you sure God said that you cannot eat from this tree?” The serpent asked Eve.
“Well,” Eve’s voice trailed off as she glanced back at the tree longingly; one bite couldn’t be that bad right? But then she quickly caught herself. Facing the serpent, she responded, “God has said that we can eat from any tree in the garden except this one. If we eat it, we will die!”
The serpent looked slyly at Eve and hissed, “You will not die! God just does not want you to be like Him, knowing good and evil. Go ahead. Take a bite of the apple—or was it an orange? Wait. No. Er, what do we have? Mango, pomegranate, grapefruit, plum, fig, banana—nope. Hey! I learned in third grade that a tomato is actually a fruit—uh, whatever! Just go eat the fruit!”
“CUT! NOW!” The exasperated film director yelled. He boomed, “IT’S. AN. APPLE!”
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I’m sure we have all seen those children's movies and cartoons depicting the fruit that triggered the fall of man as either an apple or pomegranate. Some children's books straight up say that the fruit Adam and Eve ate was in fact an apple.
But that is a misconception.
The Bible does not tell us what the fruit was (surprise). In fact, the Bible simply says, “So when the woman [Eve] saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6, my clarification added).
We know the fruit was edible, and it probably tasted very delicious because after Eve ate a bit, she gave some to Adam and he ate also.
We know the fruit was physically appealing, which probably contributed to the strong temptation to eat it.
We know that this fruit, once eaten, would cause man to be wise in a certain way. They would know good and evil, they would know fear, and they would feel shame.
But what we do not know what kind of fruit they ate. However, I cannot help but think that the fruit they ate was some sort of fruit that we are not very familiar with. They were in the Garden of Eden.
Who knows? Maybe the “fruit” was really what we know as vegetables.
Alright, maybe not.