In the first book of the Old Testament, "Genesis", where the creation of man by God is described, we read that the firstborn ate a forbidden fruit and fell from Paradise. In the evolution of religious literature over the centuries, this fruit was identified with the apple. The reality is quite different.
As neuroscience professor Rabbi Ari Zivotovsky told Live Science, nowhere in the Hebrew Bible does it specify the fruit from which both Adam and Eve ate. Then what could be the fruit from the "tree of knowledge" about which God warned the firstborn pair? What was that so attractive fruit that they preferred to listen to the snake so that they could taste the first bite?
"It was some kind of fruit from a tree, that we know. There is no information about what kind of tree or what kind of fruit it was," Zyvotowski says today. His claims seem to be verified, as in the Scriptures there is the word "peri," which simply means "fruit," while "tapuach," meaning "apple"—does not appear anywhere.
Possible versions
In the texts of the fathers of the rabbinical literature there are many different versions of the fruit:there is a version in the text that it is a fig, as in the continuation of the narration of the Scriptures, the two prototypes are covered with fig leaves. There are versions that it is about grapes or citron, while even the fruits of the tree of knowledge have been translated as wheat seeds, due to the etymological affinity of the above words in Hebrew, without any other clear evidence.
How the "apple" came about
The most likely explanation for the "Eve's apple" comes from a translation of the Scriptures into Latin, which was commissioned in the 4th century AD by the Pope of Rome to Professor Eusebius Jerome. The professor translated the Hebrew "peri" with the Latin "malum", which means "apple", although it can describe any fruit with flesh, skin and fruit in its center. At the same time, the word "malum" can also define the concept of evil. In short, the "Eve's apple" was nothing more than a pun, perhaps the first in religious literature, to clearly achieve its symbolism.
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