# Did Adam eat an apple or a pomegranate **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 6, 2018, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158 "2018-08-06T05:09:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/21 "2018-08-06T18:06:54Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > It is all explained in a lost verse: :smack: and I missed that the first time I read it. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/22 "2018-08-06T18:12:31Z")
In Sunday school I was taught that the “fruit” in question only existed in the Garden of Eden, thus Adam and Eve were the only people who’d ever eaten it. (I was brought up Presbyterian.) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/23 "2018-08-06T21:34:07Z")
God Hates Figs, Fred Phelps misread to tragic conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/24 "2018-08-06T21:43:21Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > In Sunday school I was taught that the “fruit” in question only existed in the Garden of Eden, thus Adam and Eve were the only people who’d ever eaten it. (I was brought up Presbyterian.) I don’t think I was explicitly taught this, but it seems a reasonable conclusion. If it was a special tree (“_The_ Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”) why wouldn’t it have had a unique kind of fruit? (Even if you take the story metaphorically, that doesn’t resolve the question of what kind of fruit serves as the metaphor.) ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/25 "2018-08-06T22:06:40Z")
Apples go hard … apple trees can grow just about anywhere … drinking booze helps us commit sin … thin, I know, but better than the genus name _Malus_ meaning “evil” in Latin … ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/26 "2018-08-06T22:42:10Z")
The Midrash (Jewish oral tradition, written down around the 2nd-3rd centuries CE) offers several opinions: grape, fig and citron (mentioned above), and wheat (which either grew on trees in the Garden of Eden, or the term “tree” in that part of the Bible was not meant to exclusively refer to what we classify, botanically, as a tree). ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/27 "2018-08-07T00:54:00Z")
_Persephone_ ate from a pomegranate. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/28 "2018-08-07T04:05:42Z")
_White Men Can’t Jump_ says it’s a quince, which is good enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/29 "2018-08-07T16:50:54Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I don’t think I was explicitly taught this, but it seems a reasonable conclusion. If it was a special tree (“_The_ Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”) why wouldn’t it have had a unique kind of fruit? This is also my take. At least in terms of why the authors didn’t name a more well known fruit. It was the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Duh! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/30 "2018-08-07T21:49:56Z")
Yeah, it’s Tree-of-Knowledge Fruit. I know that it’s not an apple, or a pomegranate, or a fig, because I’ve eaten all of those, and none of them gave me any special knowledge when I did so. Nor has anyone who’s tried one attributed any such effect to eating a durian or a quince or a mango or any other modern named fruit. Clearly whatever fruit it was existed only in Eden, and nobody’s had the opportunity to eat any since. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/31 "2018-08-07T22:04:46Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > _White Men Can’t Jump_ says it’s a quince, [So does Crowley](http://cdn-webimages.wimages.net/0516d622c582f4735156b61784d13c2fdf5668.jpg?v=3). ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/32 "2018-08-07T22:34:14Z")
We refer to the bulge in men’s throats as an Adam’s apple, not an Adam’s pomegranate, for what it’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2018, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/33 "2018-08-08T00:12:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yeah, it’s Tree-of-Knowledge Fruit. I know that it’s not an apple, or a pomegranate, or a fig, because I’ve eaten all of those, and none of them gave me any special knowledge when I did so. Nor has anyone who’s tried one attributed any such effect to eating a durian or a quince or a mango or any other modern named fruit. Clearly whatever fruit it was existed only in Eden, and nobody’s had the opportunity to eat any since. I dunno, growing up on Newtons my first taste of a fresh off the tree fig was pretty mind altering. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2018, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/34 "2018-08-08T00:19:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yeah, it’s Tree-of-Knowledge Fruit. I know that it’s not an apple, or a pomegranate, or a fig, because I’ve eaten all of those, and none of them gave me any special knowledge when I did so. Nor has anyone who’s tried one attributed any such effect to eating a durian or a quince or a mango or any other modern named fruit. Clearly whatever fruit it was existed only in Eden, and nobody’s had the opportunity to eat any since. In fairness, the first reply in this thread mentioned mushrooms. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2018, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/35 "2018-08-08T08:21:33Z")
Some Jehovah’s Witness art seems to favour the “not any existing fruit” interpretation. Practically, this seems to mean some sort of[bumpy](https://assetsnffrgf-a.akamaihd.net/assets/m/1102011083/univ/art/1102011083_univ_cnt_1_xl.jpg) [pear](https://assetsnffrgf-a.akamaihd.net/assets/m/2013723/univ/art/2013723_univ_lsr_xl.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2018, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/36 "2018-08-08T09:31:50Z")
Since the Adam & Eve story is as fictional as can be, this is like arguing what unicorns have for breakfast or dragons have for dinner. Obviously, the answer to the latter is _maidens._ ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2018, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/37 "2018-08-08T10:37:55Z")
So… bananas are off the table? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2018, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/38 "2018-08-08T11:41:21Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > So… bananas are off the table? Kirk Cameron would say [definitely not](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Banana_argument). ---
**Author:** ![SailorHG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SailorHG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SailorHG)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2018, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/39 "2018-08-08T12:01:19Z")
In my growing-up religious years, I often thought that if the fruit still existed in our world, then it would have to be something poisonous to us today. I mean, if it was toxic enough to knock two (then) unmortal beings down to where they were able to die, it would surely be something that would kill the rest of us if we ate it now. Never looked into anything that could fit that description, though. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158/40 "2018-08-08T15:10:03Z")
> [@SailorHG](#): > > In my growing-up religious years, I often thought that if the fruit still existed in our world, then it would have to be something poisonous to us today. I mean, if it was toxic enough to knock two (then) unmortal beings down to where they were able to die, it would surely be something that would kill the rest of us if we ate it now. Never looked into anything that could fit that description, though. The point was not that the fruit was poisonous; it was that it was forbidden. The story was about disobedience, not food poisoning. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-eat-an-apple-or-a-pomegranate/819158.md?page=3)