Are Apples an Evil Fruit?
The apple is significant in the Bible.
A snake tempts Adam and Eve to commit Original Sin in the Garden of Eden. Eve takes a bite out of a fruit—disputed among people as an apple—which promises knowledge. Because of this, the rest of humanity is laced with sin, until today.
But are apples intrinsically bad?
In Latin, an apple is mālum, which also means “bad thing.” There is a slight distinction between the two words, however. The apple, mālum, has an accent, a “macron” over its “ā,” whereas “bad thing,” malum, has no such macron.
Do they have the same etymological root?
Though disputed, some sources claim that mālum (apple) came from the μᾶλον, the Doric Greek for “apple.” In Greek, it would be pronounced “malon.” In short, they don’t.
A possible translation mistake
But many others say that the Bible never specifically mentioned any apple, but rather said “the fruit of knowledge.” Some scholars believe translators mistakenly translated “evil” into “apple” because of their similar roots. That might explain why some claim that Original Sin was in the form of an apple.
Certainly, “apple” and “evil” are not the same word in Latin. Both words come from different etymological roots but ended up sounding similar, possibly leading to confusion in Biblical translation. It is nonetheless a cool coincidence.
