I wonder if the forbidden fruit was actually an apple? Are apples really that old? Is there a chance that perhaps it was some other fruit that's now extinct? What do you think?
Oh and also, assuming it really was an apple, I wonder how it made it out of the Garden of Eden. Your thoughts, please, if any. :-)
Thanks. *takes a bow*
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Most decidedly not, the only mention of it is "fruit." This is, of course, if you take a literal interpretation of the Genesis account. On the other hand yes apples, or some very near relative, are that old. If the biblical account were near true, we are talking maybe 10,000 years old at the most, and a near modern version would have been around.
If you think about it, homo sapien has been around for ~100,000 years with only gradual change. While the apple has had some eugenics, or artificial selection, applied to it in the recent past, it would still be similar.
Hi Damanar. Thanks for replying. It's made me think about how deeply entrenched these literal interpretations are for some people. I'm sure there are some (several) who actually believe the forbidden fruit was an apple. I know I used to. Over time the interpretation seems to have become its own 'truth'.
I thought it was a metaphor meaning 'knowledge'.
That would be the allegorical interpretation, "knowledge of good and evil." I think the question was regarding the literal translation.
Yeah, that's what I've always understood it to mean...knowledge. If the question is asking...was it literally an apple?...then it's a silly question and a waste of time.
I don't think the fruit was supposed to mean knowledge but rather the fruit meant product of knowledge, Once people learned about new things that made life different they would always thirst for more of this people became complicated and no longer were able to just be happy with what they had, they needed, wanted and had to have more. The perfect garden was ruined, for now people would always thirst for more of this fruit rather than just be satisfied with what they had despite knowledge of other things though they already had all they really needed. They needed to know what everything else was like and they could no longer be happy in this garden.
Which is the typical lesson from theists -- knowledge is bad, ignorance is good, let the priests do all your thinking for you.
Agreed! Its almost as if some religious group of people wrote Genesis and not God himself ؟
Actually that's exactly what happened. They wrote Genesis long after the patriarchs and the judges.
I'm actually confused as to which one of you is being *more* sarcastic here :)
I agree that it was just a metaphor The bible is filled with riddles, that's why interpreting it literally will just complicate our understanding about biblical history.
Yeah, that was just a metaphor. At least I hope so, 'cause I really like apple.
Definitely not apple. However, if it were to be apple, then the evil one has actually helped it out of eden. Haaa. But I wonder also what the fruit was. Cherry I think.
The apple simply resepresents all thing that we want to do that we are not supposed to do at all. Be it because they are unethical by nature or becase they will most likely have serious repercussions for an individual.
Could be, could be not. It was not clearly stated that it's an apple, but lots of people just assumed that it is. It just depends on how you interpret what was written.
Probably not. I'm pretty sure that was just the most exotic fruit that Northern European culture had on hand when they were coming up with all of their symbolism.
In discourse with a friend, I realized that I'm a fool! I referred to the apple as the fruit of knowledge, and cited some biblical root, and he gave me a look that would stop a horse dead.
Then, he explained something that I *should* have remembered - The meaning of the apple is something that has been traced back to Greek mythology and earlier, how could I forget the Apple of Discord?
If you're like me and also have lived a decade and change since highschool, wikipedia will give you the complete story.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_of_Discord
I had heard somewhere that it could have been a pomegranate.
The fruit was just that, a piece of fruit. It wasn't the important part of the story, just what it symbolized, the fact that someone ate it when they weren't supposed to just like a small child that does something they know is wrong. We don't think that symbolizes good or evil do we?
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil....And the Lord God said, " Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever--" therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden.
I'm thinking also of the possibility that it could be a tomato. They are both red, nutritious and attractive to eat.
Did Jack really climb a beanstalk, or could it have been a grapevine?
LOL TW Duke exactly. We are talking about stories here. Simple tales that had to be made as fantastic as possible in order to make people interested.This was probably some of the earliest stage of promotion media we experienced as a society. There was no actual fruit, even if there is any truth in any religious scripts, that particular art is symbolic at best.