Genesis 3:6, What Fruit Did Adam & Eve Eat?
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
//Jewish tradition holds that the fruit was figs, grapes, or wheat. Another fruit often proposed is the pomegranate, one of the earliest fruits domesticated. It came to be known as a symbol of fertility and immortality. Greek and Persian mythology uses the pomegranate as a representation of life, regeneration, and marriage. The one fruit that no scholar considers seriously is an apple.
But in the fourth century, the word malum appeared in the Vulgate translation of Genesis in the phrase “the tree of good and evil.” Malum, in Latin, means both evil and apple. They’ve been connected ever since.
In the end, Adam and Eve may not have eaten of any fruit at all. Partaking of the “fruit of the tree of good and evil” may have been an allegorical feast, describing the first sin of the flesh, as explained in the very next verse: And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.
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I’m surprised that the idea that it was any fruit at all (whether apple, pomegranate, fig, or otherwise) is taken seriously by anyone. Surely to insist on such a thing goes against both an allegorical and a literal interpretation of Genesis.
If one reads the story allegorically, then a discussion of such a fine detail becomes moot, and makes about as much sense as debating what colour the father’s robe was in the story of the Prodigal Son.
If it’s read literally, then surely it’s clear that the tree was a very special sort of tree, and was unlike any fruit tree we know today, since neither apples nor pomegranates nor nor figs nor watermelons are known to impart upon their consumers profound metaphysical or moral knowledge.
No one thinks to split hairs about whether the Tree of Life is a pineapple or a plum; why then do people do that for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil??
Good point! Yet, the evil apple lives on, in stories like Snow White. perhaps we are more fascinated with death than with life.
Hmm. You could be right about that! Kind of like how so many of us are drawn again and again to cop shows, violent videogames, Shakespeare plays, and murder mysteries rather than…….eh, I can’t even think of an example. Even the plots of more positive and life-affirming films/books tend to spend most of their time mired in conflict.
Listen here now. This is what I think.bare with me now. There are some discreptions of the fruit without any names but I have come to an understanding. Most if not all the fruits were grern as described. Later on its says that it was pleasent to the eye.so I think it was diffrent than the other fruit thus not being green. This fruit you shall not eat. That saying I would think still would fit for today. In other words the fruit that they ate is not around anymore or publically known. So we covered that part. Second is the color. We have to think of the naturally color of food. White is rice. Khaki is lots og brrad or wheat. Gray is a lot of spices and grains. Pink are some meat like ham and some fuits like guava (no pink lemonade keep it naturally) red are tomatoes and green are spinach and brocoli. Good so far. So then I go by the rainbow. Red orange yellow green blue indigo and violet. Somr of the colors og which I covered. Indigo is the color of many foods thta people would think they are not, like blueberries, blue corn, and others indigos that we call “blue”. Now to the point. There is no blue food. True.natural. my conclusion is that the forbitten fruit was a truly blur and that’s why we don’t have any of it. Nuff said.
It’s hard to say what fruit they but as I look at the young people today once they have sex they think they know everything. So maybe our first parent had sex.
The forbidden fruit can not be sex. God ordained man and woman to be together and so were Adam and Eve. Read Genesis 2, and conclusively Genesis 2:24-25. Read also Genesis 4:1-2. The account in this chapter implies that Adam and Eve had sex after their banishment from the garden of Eden after eating the forbidden fruit.
If in the first chapter of Genesis God said “it is not good for a man to be alone”, and again said to the man to “Be fruitful and multiply”. Then why it got to be sex the fruit? To be fruitful and multiply its take act of sex.
I believe that the fruit we all speak about wasn’t.fruit at all Satan was a beautiful angel right the symbol of a snake
Satan open they’re minds he took there focus off God spiritually speaking
God’s word simply does not say. If the fruit truly was an “APPLE” I would guess it had a pleasing look like an Apple, but had properties detrimental to Adam and Eve’s perception of reality. All they had known was the perfection of their relationship with God and each other as one flesh. A perfect relationship ordained by God for Adam and his perfect mate, Eve. Everything she knew she learned from Adam. Adam was perfectly connected to God, who taught him.
The first man was formed, made and created. The formed and made part was not a new creation.The first Earth and the body and soul life on it in the beginning had already been created, but was destroyed when darkness fell upon it, i.e.: the fall from Heaven.
God renewed what he had already created, but with Adam He created His “likeness” Holy Spirit.
The connection between God, who is spirit and Adam was His spirit in Adam, thus communication on a personal level, God and Adam freely were open, as a perfect son and father. Eve, also had Holy Spirit, but through the wiles of the fallen angel, she was eventually deceived. What they did freely, separated them from that spiritual connection to God by the loss of Holy Spirit. Now they were as all creatures, body and soul, with out God’s Spirit.
Since the time of the book of Acts, Holy Spirit has not been available to be in man. Only through the sacrifice, for all mankind’s sins of Jesus Christ, do we now have the privilege to freely get back what Adam lost, That third part of God’s intended family, body, soul and Spirit. We live in a blessed time. Where we can freely choose to believe in the sacrifice of God’s son Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the dead, as predicted, and once again become children of the one true God.
Romans Chapter 10: 9, 10. Believing is your key to eternal life. One day all these questions will be answered. WE have free will to believe or not. May God help you in your answer to Him.
In His Service,
Again
Well said and I personally believe it was a spiritual fruit.
it was Christ read John and Revalation they will give you the answer
We have to take these things spiritually, that is when one can understand it better.
that fruit of Good and evil it wasnt the visible fruits. how can one tree have two kinds of fruits?
the good fruits are the good gifts of the holy spirit__Isaiah 11v1-2 whch some one has to depend on….
now the evil fruit are things that God forbids not to do them such as: drunkerdness, theft, murder, prostitutions, adulteres, just to mention a few(proverb6:16-19). All these things have come into one thing which Eve and Satan had to take first.
I have enjoyed every comment given before mine. I have been blessed and it has really helped me to expand my mind further. That, however, does not mean I accept every comment. Within some comments, I agree with some lines of thought but disagree with others.
In my opinion, The bible is full of types and antitypes. What I mean is that God uses real existing substance e.g. certain people e.g. Melchizedek, certain animals e.g. bulls, goats, lambs, places e.g. Valley of Hinnon and etc to represent the spiritual.
Some good examples:
Bulls, goats, and lambs were used for sacrifices under the levitical priesthood but when Jesus walked towards the Jordan river, John called him “the LAMB of God that takes away the sins of the world”. This shows that All the animals used for sacrifices were types of Christ.
The Valley of Hinnom used to be a place where things were burnt. It was always burning so that it is rear for the fire to be out. It became a type for Hell or Gehenna.
Melchizedek gave bread and wine to Abraham. He was described as the King of Salem. Salem is also known as Jerusalem today. Melchizedek is a type of Christ with perpetual priesthood for the Body of Christ today.
Therefore, I am thinking that the Tree of Life and Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil were real trees bearing real fruits but they also stand as types for the spiritual.
The Fruit of the Tree of Life stands for perpetuity – endless life. Gen.3:22. The question arises: Even If the man had not eaten the forbidden fruit, would he still live forever? It seems to me that the Tree of Life relates to biological life and not spiritual life.
We are not told what the real earthly names of the trees are neither are we told the name of those fruits. Therefore, speculations are fruitless.
I believe that God, in his sovereignty, does not want us to begin to label certain fruits as so as not to cause unnecessary pandemonium. It was withheld for the good of man’s existence and dealings. If the fruits are truly known, I bet some will turn those fruits into gods, make religions out of it and some will make a shipwreck of their lives.
One thing to note is this: This Tree of life appeared again in the Book of Revelation. Rev.2:7; Rev.22:2 and Rev. Rev.22:14. In these verses, Its leaves are for HEALING.
This Tree of Life is said to bare twelve manners of fruits.
Where is the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil after it was mentioned in Genesis? It’s nowhere to be found again all through the scriptures.
I am indeed have very surprised that many scholars of theology have not been able to state clearly what Adams & Eve ate in the garden of Eden. So also are the comments received so far from contributors on this site.
The BIBLE being the WORD of God has shown clearly what the Forbidden tree was and what it is today. It will take me a lot of references to get you understand thereby reaching a conviction forever but which cannot be achieved in this medium.
To begin with you must first agree, accept and understand that in the Garden of Eden there were no physical TREES, and where there is no tree there cannot be a fruit.Forget about apples, figs and pomegranate.Forget about sex.
(1) In the book of Matt 3:7-10, vrs 7 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and sadducees coming for baptism “he said to them …….vrs 10, “Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees, every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire”. Was John the Baptist referring to trees?
(2) The book of Daniel 4:1-17,…….. vrs 10 Upon my bed this is what i saw, there was a TREE at the center of the earth, and its height was great……….. vrs 22. ‘It is you Oh king’. This chapter was talking about a King called Nebuchadnezzar who had a dream about himself. The dream referred to himself as a tree, but was he a physical tree ?
(3) The Gospel of John 15:1-8, vrs 1 “I am the true vine, and my father is the vinegrower vrs 2 “He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruits.”………..vrs 5,”I am the vine, you are the branches.” I believe readers know a vine is a tree. This was Jesus talking to his disciples on how they could remain potent comparing it to a vine tree.( Refs NRSV).
(4) So when in Gen 2:8-9, there is a reference made about TREES in the Garden of Eden it cannot be apples, oranges, or any physical trees that bear physical fruit.
Understanding this is the first step to discovery of what God actually meant about the “forbidden fruit” in Eden.
In order not to border you with long thesis, i will refer you to Gen 3:11- “He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the TREE that I commanded you not to eat?” This was God speaking.
The serpent was the devil itself referred as the Tree and his doctrine/ ideology/authority are the fruits.
‘Who told you’ literally has something to do with ‘hearing’ but not ‘eating’ because there was nothing to be eaten (remember no trees no fruits). God continue to use the word ‘eat’ and ‘eaten’to mean ‘take in’, where as you can take in food you can also take in an advice, a lecture, a warning, doctrine, ideas etc. What we hearing, we also say we are ‘receiving feeding with’ eg. information.
When something is ‘taken in’ eg. doctrine or ideas it has the fundamental dynamics of ‘believe’, consolidating into ‘faith’.
In short terms, Adams & Eve 1.listened to the Serpent, 2. believed in him (in his word- Gen 3:4-5),3. found him as the ‘NEW WAY'(a faith or religion), obeying the Serpent, devil.
The resultant of Adams & Eves action was ‘Wronging the first commandment of God.(Ex 20:1-6). In fact the Bible says the Greatest sin is to refuse to worship the Living God who is an unseen spirit. Giving adoration and praises to any other creature or object is against Ex 20:1-6.
There are many more substances that i can add to this write up to settle your understanding comfortably, but i am also careful not to bore you with long sheets
Some interesting thoughts, however I was given a thought as to the meaning and I will try to explain. The Apple itself has become the focus, but the fruit has the meaning for the spiritual evil that exists. Adam and Eve were given the good fruit from God and told to be fruitful, protecting them from everything that is not good. The tree of knowledge, the forbidden fruit represents the roots of evil already being planted on earth and is bearing its fruit. The serpent is one of the misleading and deceitful ones who turned away from God. He revealed to Eve all that was not good and she swallows the bad fruit, listening to the septents lies, she believed him because the fruit looked good. The garden is described as having many trees, much more good roots in the ground, but one tree with its roots is of bad.
The perspective that was presented about the fruit being of sex actually makes sense. Today we cover our sex organs because of the same reason Adam and Eve did,vthey saw they were naked.
There is no mention of them copulating until after the fall and God did say it was not good for man to be alone, and God did tell them to be fruitful and multipy.
Sex, once it is experienced changes a great deal in how we preceive people; the desire circuit has been activated and stays on from then on.
Sex in the garden? Why is that not an explaination? Interresting perspective either way.
Really,If the tree of life is Christ, then the tree of knowledge of good and evil must be a living being therefore and fruit would be a living being.the mere fact the we are referred to as fruit ourselves proves this.So how does sex inter into this,it does not.Blood is the life of all.It use to be said that when we eat an animal we are taking in that animals being and thank them for it and the most High for providing it for us.Therefore it is not a leap to understand what the fruit was a living being God immediately covered them both with animal skins (because they were naked)meaning no covering different their eyes were open!they were different than any living thing in the garden man vs everything God had created hence the change.That is why the animals became sin offerings for us and why Jesus Christ became the final sin offering for what man has done period.And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.
I love reading the Lord Bible and study for better understanding so many times I have been told that the fruit was an Apple now in reading this no one is certainly about what type of fruit I’m going keep on reading until I find out what type of fruit etc
Thank you for sharing this wonderful answer to me and family amen