InAbrahamic religions,forbidden fruit is a name given to the fruit growing in theGarden of Eden thatGod commands mankindnot to eat. In theBiblical story ofGenesis,Adam and Eve disobey God and commit theoriginal sin, eating the forbidden fruit from thetree of the knowledge of good and evil, and are exiled from Eden:
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
— Genesis 2:16–17,King James Version[1]
As a metaphor outside of the Abrahamic religions, the phrase typically refers to any indulgence or pleasure that is considered illegal or immoral.
The story of theBook of Genesis places the first man and woman,Adam and Eve, in theGarden of Eden, where they may eat the fruit of many trees, but are forbidden by God to eat from thetree of knowledge of good and evil.
In Genesis 3, aserpent tempts the woman:
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
— Genesis 3:4–5, KJV[2]
Desiring this knowledge, the woman eats the forbidden fruit and gives some to the man, who also eats it. They become aware of their nakedness and make fig-leaf clothes, and hide themselves when God approaches. When confronted, Adam tells God that Eve gave him the fruit to eat, and Eve tells God that the serpent deceived her into eating it. God then curses the serpent, the woman, and the man, and expels the man and woman from the Garden before they eat of thetree of eternal life.
According to theQuran, SurahAl-A'raf 7:19 describes Adam and his wife inParadise where they may eat what is provided, except for oneTree they must not eat from, lest they be consideredẒālimūn (Arabic:ظالمون; 'wrongdoers').[3]
Surah Al-A'raf 7:20–22 describesShaitan (Arabic:شيطان;Satan), who whispers to Adam and his wife and deceives them. When they tasted of the tree, their nakedness was exposed to them, prompting them to cover themselves with leaves from Paradise.[4]
Then their Lord called out to them, "Did I not forbid you from that tree and ˹did I not˺ tell you that Satan is your sworn enemy?"
AGnostic interpretation of the story proposes that it was thearchons who created Adam and attempted to prevent him from eating the forbidden fruit in order to keep him in a state ofignorance, after the spiritual form of Eve entered the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil while leaving a physical version of herself with Adam once she awakened him. However, the forces of the heavenly realm (Pleroma) sent the serpent as a representative of the divine sphere to reveal to Adam and Eve the evil intentions of their creators. The serpent succeeded in convincing them to eat the fruit and become like gods, capable of distinguishing between good and evil.[5]
The wordfruit appears in Hebrew asפְּרִי,pərî. As to which fruit may have been the forbidden fruit of theGarden of Eden, possibilities include anapple,grapes, apomegranate,[6] afig,[7]carob,[6]etrog orcitron,[6]pear,quince,wheat,banana,coco de mer, andmushrooms. ThepseudepigraphicBook of Enoch describes the tree of knowledge: "It was like a species of theTamarind tree, bearing fruit which resembledgrapes extremely fine; and its fragrance extended to a considerable distance. I exclaimed, How beautiful is this tree, and how delightful is its appearance!" (1 Enoch 31:4).
In Islamic tradition, the fruit is commonly either identified with wheat or with grapevine.[8]
InWestern Europe, the fruit is often depicted as anapple. This is frequently explained as resulting from amisunderstanding of – or a pun on – two unrelated wordsmālum, a nativeLatin noun which means 'evil' (from the adjectivemalus), andmâlum, another Latin noun, borrowed from Greekμῆλον, which means 'apple'. In theVulgate,Genesis 2:17 describes the tree as"de ligno autem scientiae boni et mali": "but of the tree [literally 'wood'] of knowledge of good and evil" (mali here is thegenitive ofmalum). However, Yadin-Israel argues thatLatin Christian writers fromLate Antiquity and theMiddle Ages rarely usedmâlum to refer to the forbidden fruit.[9]
Azzan Yadin-Israel argues that the identification of the forbidden fruit with an apple first appears inmedieval French art of the 12th century. According to Yadin-Israel, Latin authors frequently referred to the forbidden fruit aspōmum, a Latin word meaning "fruit". From this term derived theOld French wordpom (modernFrenchpomme), which originally also meant "fruit", but in later times the word took on the narrower meaning of "apple", leading medieval artists to represent the fruit as an apple.[10]
An additional influence may have been thegolden apple motif in Classical myth, such as theApple of Discord, described in theIliad.
Nothing in the Bible indicates that the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was an apple.[11]
Thelarynx, specifically thelaryngeal prominence that joins thethyroid cartilage, in thehumanthroat is noticeably more prominent inmales and was consequently called anAdam's apple, from a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit getting stuck in Adam's throat as he swallowed it.[12]
Rabbi Meir says that the fruit was a grape, made into wine.[13] TheZohar explains similarly thatNoah attempted (but failed) to rectify the sin of Adam by using grape wine for holy purposes.[14][15] Themidrash ofBereishit Rabah states that the fruit was grape,[16] or squeezed grapes (perhaps alluding to wine).[17] Chapter 4 of3 Baruch, also known as the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, designates the fruit as the grape. 3 Baruch is a first to third century text that is either Christian or Jewish with Christian interpolations.[18]
The Bible states in the book of Genesis that Adam and Eve had made their own fig leaf clothing: "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves girdles".[19] RabbiNehemiah Hayyun supports the idea that the fruit was afig, as it was from fig leaves that Adam and Eve made garments for themselves after eating the fruit. "By that with which they were made low were they rectified."[20] Since the fig is a long-standing symbol of female sexuality, it enjoyed a run as a favorite understudy to the apple as the forbidden fruit during theItalian Renaissance,Michelangelo Buonarroti depicting it as such in his fresco on theSistine Chapel ceiling.[21]
Proponents of the theory that the Garden of Eden was located somewhere in what is now known as the Middle East suggest that the fruit was actually apomegranate, as it is one of the earliest domesticated plants on the Eastern Mediterranean.[22] The association of the pomegranate with knowledge of the underworld as provided in the Ancient Greek legend of Persephone may also have given rise to an association with knowledge of the otherworld, tying-in with knowledge that is forbidden to mortals. It is also believed Hades offered Persephone a pomegranate to force her to stay with him in the underworld. Hades is the Greek god of the underworld and the Bible states that whoever eats the forbidden fruit shall die.
Rabbi Yehuda proposes that the fruit waswheat, because "a baby does not know to call its mother and father until it tastes the taste of grain."[13]
In Hebrew, wheat iskhitah, which has been considered to be apun onkhet, meaning "sin".[6]
Although commonly confused with a seed, in the study ofbotany awheat berry is technically a simple fruit known as acaryopsis, which has the same structure as an apple. Just as an apple is a fleshy fruit that contains seeds, a grain is a dry fruit that absorbs water and contains a seed. The confusion comes from the fact that the fruit of a grass happens to have a form similar to some seeds.[23]
A fresco in the 13th-centuryPlaincourault Abbey in France depicts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, flanking a Tree of Knowledge that has the appearance of a giganticAmanita muscaria, apsychoactive mushroom.[24][25][26]
Terence McKenna proposed that the forbidden fruit was a reference topsychotropic plants andfungi, specificallypsilocybin mushrooms, which he theorized played a central role in theevolution of the human brain.[27] Earlier, in a well-documented but heavily criticized study,[28][29]John M. Allegro proposed the mushroom as the forbidden fruit.[30]
Several proponents of the theory that the forbidden fruit was abanana exist dating from the 13th century.
In Nathan HaMe'ati's 13th-century translation ofMaimonides's workThe Medical Aphorisms of Moses, the banana is called the "apple of Eden".[31][32] In the 16th century,Menahem Lonzano considered it common knowledge inSyria andEgypt that the banana was the apple of Eden.[33]
Charles George Gordon identified the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge with thecoco de mer.[34]
Alcohol in the Bible explores the dual role of alcohol, highlighting its positive uses and warnings against excess. In biblical narratives, the fermentation of fruit into wine holds significance, with grapes and wine often linked to both celebration and cautionary tales of sin and temptation, reminiscent of the concept of the forbidden fruit.
The similarities of the story to the story ofPandora's box were identified by early Christians such asTertullian,Origen, andGregory of Nazianzus.[35]
Perhaps the simplest of fruits are those of grasses (all cereals such as corn and wheat)...These fruits are caryopses.
