Yes it is. In the Ethiopian Church, anyway.
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Whence the Apple?
- Thread starter Sunstone
- Start date
Yes it is. In the Ethiopian Church, anyway.
Anyway, something worth noting, I think, is the fact that Apples actually have a very important role to play in Celto-Germanic Lore. The most well-known example is the Apples protected by the Goddess Iðunn, which will grant immortality and eternal youth to any who eat them. The Gods have access to them, which is why they don't die.
It might have been faint cultural memories of that which caused Northern European Christians to just assume that the fruit was an apple.
It might have been faint cultural memories of that which caused Northern European Christians to just assume that the fruit was an apple.
Gjallarhorn
N'yog-Sothep
Or the Greeks, who have a similar story from Heracles's labors.
True.
Considering that the Greeks were closer in proximity to the birthplace of Christianity, that probably had a more direct impact, then.
Skwim
Veteran Member
Consider: the apple, the forbidden fruit of Genesis.
"In Western Europe, the fruit was often depicted as an apple, possibly because of a misunderstanding of, or a pun on mălum, a native Latin noun which means evil (from the adjective malus), and mālum, another Latin noun, borrowed from Greek μῆλον, which means apple. In the Vulgate, Genesis 2:17 describes the tree as de ligno autem scientiae boni et mali: "but of the tree (lit. wood) of knowledge of good and evil" (mali here is the genitive of malum). The larynx in the human throat, noticeably more prominent in males, was consequently called an Adam's apple, from a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit sticking from Adam's throat as he swallowed."
source
"In Western Europe, the fruit was often depicted as an apple, possibly because of a misunderstanding of, or a pun on mălum, a native Latin noun which means evil (from the adjective malus), and mālum, another Latin noun, borrowed from Greek μῆλον, which means apple. In the Vulgate, Genesis 2:17 describes the tree as de ligno autem scientiae boni et mali: "but of the tree (lit. wood) of knowledge of good and evil" (mali here is the genitive of malum). The larynx in the human throat, noticeably more prominent in males, was consequently called an Adam's apple, from a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit sticking from Adam's throat as he swallowed."
source
s2a
Heretic and part-time (skinny) Santa impersonator
Yosef-Firstborn
Member
I've thought there was something to the idea that, at the time when the Roman Catholic Church had the Bible written only in Latin, the word "malum" which means evil is spelled the same way as "malum" which means apple. Considering "evil" and "fruit" are not just mentioned together in this story, but are both symbolically involved in it, it would be easy to just assume poetically that "fruit" = apple/"malum".