Identifying the forbidden fruit of Genesis 3 has tantalized the imagination of Western thinkers since ancient times. The rabbis in the Talmud discuss the possible identity of this mysterious fruit:
R. Nehemiah remarks: “The tree from which Adam and Eve ate was a fig tree, so that the thing with which they sinned, the fig, became the means through which the damage was repaired, for it says, ‘They sewed together fig leaves’†(BT Sanhedrin 70b).[1] However, most popular depictions of the Tree of Knowledge portray the fruit as the apple tree (pyrus malus). The Septuagint renders the word μήλωψ (melon) and the Vulgate malum as “appleâ€, which also happens to be the Latin word for evil, an association which has reinforced the notion that the forbidden fruit was the apple; a similar parallel exists in ancient Greek literature.[2]
The Edenic apple has always been a favorite image among medieval writers and artists alike.[3] Not only does modern literature endorse the apple as the forbidden fruit, but the apple is also a symbol of love in much of the world folklore and mythology.[4] Various ancient Near Eastern art-forms depict their love-goddesses with an apple or quince. In the Song of Songs, the apple is a metaphor for love and lovesickness (Song. 2:3, 8:5). New evidence suggests that the apple also appears in early Sumerian literature.[5]
My sister, I would go with you to my apple tree.
I would go with you to my pomegranate tree.
A Love Song of Shulgi, Shulgi Z
(Segment B, lines 10-19)
Of course there are alternative possibilities to consider. The apricot and the quince have been especially favored, with the quince having the advantage of being a fruit indigenous to the area.[6] Other traditions identify the forbidden fruit with the grape, apple, wheat[7] and the citron.[8] The Kabbalists[9] seem partial to the citron (citrus medica), sometimes known as the “apple of paradise.†Other distinctive possibilities include the golden orange (citrus sinensus) and the carob. Ginzberg conjectures that the grape was also a popular candidate in the writings of antiquity, since the ancients considered wine to be the beverage of the gods.
[1] Rashi offers a homiletical interpretation: All of the other trees refused to let their leaves except for the fig tree. Why didn’t the text disclose the tree’s identity? God did so that the tree would not be shamed, lest it be said, “This is the one through which the world was stricken.â€
[2] In the mythology of ancient Greece, Eris was the least popular of the gods. As the sister of Aries (the god of war), she revels in seeing the torment and destruction of others. At the wedding of Peleus and Thetis (the parents of Achilles), everyone is invited except Eris, the goddess of discord and her brother Ares. Determined to have her way, Eris decides to introduce discord on the couple’s wedding day. She waits for the wedding feast to begin and then rolls a golden apple into the banquet room, saying “for the fairest.†An argument ensues, and Paris chooses Aphrodite because her bribe was superior. As a reward, he desires to have the most beautiful woman in the world, who turns out to be Helen of Troy.
 [3] The image of the poisoned apple figures prominently in the fairy-tale of Snow White, which induces her to fall into a deep and dangerous sleep.
 [4] The apple of Eden occurs as an image of deceiving beauty in one of Shakespeare’s sonnets to the Dark Lady: (“How like Eve’s apple doth thy beauty grow, / If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show†(93.13–14). The apple appears in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in a variety of contexts, including folk proverbs (Cook’s Tale, 1.4406; Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, 8.964). Byron likens the apple to the gift of reason (Cain, 2.364, 529, 614, 664; cf. Gen. 3:5); The English poet William Blake describes in “A Poison Tree†the fruit of secretly nurtured wrath as “an apple brightâ€â€”a more truly evil fruit than that of Eden. The poisoned apple, familiar in other contexts (e.g., the tale of Snow White), recurs as the fruit of the Tree of Mystery in Book 7 of The Four Zoas (228–306); the Tree of Mystery appears also in America and Jerusalem, under the names Urizen’s Tree and Albion’s Tree. The apple of Eden appears several times in Browning’s The Ring and the Book (3.169–73; 4.851–59; 7.761–66, 828–29; 9.448–52). Selections cited are from D.L Jeffrey’s A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1992), 49-51.
 [5] According to D. Zohary and Maria Hopf, during the late Neolithic and Bronze Ages between 6000 and 3000 B.C.E., the first fruits ever grown and domesticated were the date, olive, grape, fig, sycamore fig, and pomegranate (Domestication of Plants in the Old World: The Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe, and the Nile Valley [New York: Oxford University Press, 2001], 174-176).
 [6] New ISBE, Vol. 1, 214.
[7] This Midrashic interpretation was based on the assonance of חִטָּה (Hi††â = “wheatâ€) andחַטָּ×ת  (Ha††ä´t = “sin.†Cf. Ramban’s commentary on Lev. 23:40.
[8] Gen. Rabbah 19.5; BT Berakhot 40a; BT Sanhedrin 70a; Gen. Rabbah 10:2 and 8; Esther 2:1; Targum Song of Songs 7:9.
[9] Ramban, in his commentary to Lev. 23:40, cites in the name of the Kabbalah that the primordial fruit was the citron.
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About the Author:
As Rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom of Chula Vista, California, a Conservative/egalitarian United Synagogue congregation, Rabbi Michael has concentrated on developing the youth and adult religious education, social action initiatives, and Israel programming. TBS draws from the entire San Diego area enjoys getting together as a “family†celebrating not only Shabbat services, religious holidays and life cycle events, but also summer Bar-B-Q’s, and Oneg Shabbat vegetarian potluck dinners. We teach our members how to cook for kosher; it’s really not that hard.