TRUTH  OR  TRADITION?

“Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?”

Matthew 15:3

THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT

            The Forbidden Fruit in the Garden of Eden was an apple.   Truth  or Tradition?

            “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden;   and there he put the man whom he had formed.”   “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 2:8, 16-17).

            What was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?   Was it an apple tree?

We have heard  it said that it wasn’t the apple on the tree that was the problem,   but the pair (pear) on the ground.    We call the larynx the Adam’s Apple,   because a piece got stuck in Adam’s throat when he tried to swallow it.   So the forbidden fruit in the Garden was an apple¼..Right? 

            Some believe the tree was a fig,   because after eating of it,  Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness.   But that would seem to be reading more into the text than is really there.   We must be careful about  “reading between the lines.”

            The apple idea probably goes back to the Latin word “malum” which can mean both evil and apple.   That would seem to be a logical conclusion,   except for the fact that Moses recorded the event in Hebrew,   long before there was a Latin language.  

            A careful reading of Genesis Chapters 2 and 3 will reveal that not once is the fruit specified.   It is simply called “the tree of  knowledge of good and evil.”    That tree was probably removed from the earth when the tree of life was taken away.   Whatever the fruit was,   it gave Adam and Eve an immediate knowledge of good and evil,  of right and wrong.   While it might well be said “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”,   eating an apple doesn’t  immediately open one’s eyes to good and evil.   The only fruit that can do that is God’s Holy Word.  

            What do you think?    The forbidden fruit was an apple¼..Truth or Tradition?

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God,  a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,   rightly dividing

the word of truth.”   2 Timothy 2:15.   Steer Creek Church of Christ,   Stumptown  WV   25267.

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