The Forbidden Fruit Was Actually A Papaya
“So she took some of the fruit and ate it.
Then she gave some to her husband,
who was with her, and he ate it, too.”
(Gen 3:6 NLT)
Yesterday, in our Bible study class, I taught on Genesis 3. During my preparation I came across an interesting bit of trivia--how the apple became associated with the forbidden fruit. You know what I'm talking about right? In most popular conceptions of the story, it's an apple that Adam and Eve partake of in violation of God's command, resulting in their fall from innocence and banishment from paradise. I believe I even had a Bible story book or two as a child that specifically said they ate an apple. But as soon as I could read the story for myself, I found out that nowhere is any specific fruit mentioned, let alone an apple (of course, I was also disappointed while still quite young when I couldn't find anywhere in the Bible that Jesus' cross was made from a dogwood tree). So how did an apple get connected to the story? Well it seems that the Latin word for apple is malum, while the word for evil is malus. The phonetic connection between the two words became the key to the association down through the ages. So much for keeping the doctor away...