The Apple in Paradise

The Apple in Paradise Miklos Faust n the Christian mythology, the first human beings placed into Paradise by God committed sin by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree and were punished with hardships in life. Nowadays, the forbidden tree is thought to be an apple tree. It is not known howI or when the apple became associated with this Christian belief. This paper compiles the available evidence on the subject. The origin of Paradise The English word “paradise” is a transliteration of the old Per- sian word pairidaeza, referring to a walled garden. Cyrus the Younger (424–401 BC), a Persian king, called his walled-in garden pairidaeza, which is a simple combination of pairi (around) and daeza (wall). Pairidaeza comes to us through Xenophon, the Greek writer and historian, who heard it in 401 BC in Persia, where he fought with Greek mercenaries. Xenophon used the Greek word “paradeisoi” for garden (Lord, 1970). This became the Latin paradisus, and first ap- peared in Middle English as paradis in 1175 (Oxford Dict., 1933). Fruit Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD 20705. The cost of publishing this paper was defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. Under postal regulations, this paper therefore must be hereby marked advertisement solely to indicate this fact. 338 HortTechnology ● Oct./Dec. 1994 4(4) The idea of Paradise as a garden is much Testament, Paul refers to a man caught up in older than the word itself. Since the begin- the “third heaven” of Paradise (Corinthians ning of history, or perhaps prehistory, societ- II 12:2–4). The Paradise promised in the ies shared the common concept of Paradise as Koran consists of several terraces of gardens, the ideal garden, a secure, everlasting place. each more splendid than the last (Koran) The concept of Paradise remained even though (there are about 120 references to gardens in societies that adhered to it have disappeared. the Koran). A poem on one of the oldest Sumerian cunei- form tablets (ca 3500 BC) describes such a The place of the tree in place. According to this verse: “Dilmun” was a land that was pure and clear and bright, Paradise whose inhabitants knew neither sickness, vio- In the archaic Mesopotamian civiliza- lence nor aging, but had no fresh water. tions, plants and trees were believed to contain Through the Sumerian gods’ intervention, a divine presence. The Epic of Gilgamesh Dilmun was transformed into a mythical gar- mentioned the “Tree” in the immortal garden with fruit trees, green fields, and mead- den. Other early Sumerian tablets often illus- ows” (Kramer, 1956), and became what to- trate the exalted position of the Tree. On one day we would call Paradise. such tablet, the mystical Huluppu tree was The Paradise myth continued. In the uprooted by the south wind and carried by the 27th century BC, the Sumerian city state of waters of the Euphrates until the Goddess of Erech (Warka, Iraq) was ruled by Gilgamesh. Love and Fertility seized the tree in her hand The myth of an immortal garden is repeated (Moynihan, 1979). The Koran (13:28) men- on Babylonian tablets bearing the “Epic” of tions the Tuba tree in Paradise. In the Gilgamesh (Barondes, 1962). According to Uphanishads of ancient India, the Cosmic tree this Epic: There was an immortal garden is depicted as an inverted tree with its roots in where stood a tree with a golden trunk. It was Heaven (Moynihan, 1979). Mesopotamian the Tree of Life, and, once discovered, could settlers believed that the moon brought relief confer immortality, but discovery was not from the relentless sun, and depicted the moon easy. Gilgamesh sought immortality but his as a tree atop the mountain of sky. In India, the tree was “hidden,” guarded by monsters. He Moon Tree was pictured as a peepul tree (Ficus could never discover it and remained mortal religiosa). In Persia, the Moon Tree was drawn (Cirlot, 1962). as a conifer—possibly a cypress—that came to The Epic was popular and widely known symbolize immortality in Persian culture throughout the ancient world and influenced (Moynihan, 1979). The Sassanian Tree of Life the folk tales of later civilizations (Moynihan, (Sassanid dynasty ruled Persia from 226 AD 1979). Two thousand years later, the holy until the Mohammedan conquest in 641 AD) he idea of works of the Persian prophet Zarathustra was somewhat similar to a giant floral motif TParadise as (Greek name: Zoroaster), who gained promi- depicted on the Dome of Rock in Jerusalem a garden is much nence in the 6th to 4th centuries BC, promised (Grabar, 1959). Throughout history, the Tree a garden, complete with a pleasure pavilion is depicted as one of the most essential of older than the filled with fruit and fragrant flowers with paths traditional symbols. Often the symbolic tree is word itself. Since of burnished gold. The Epic was also familiar of no particular genus, although oak was a to the Jews during their Babylonian captivity sacred tree to the Celts, ash to the Scandina- the beginning of prior to their release by Cyrus the Great (600– vians, and the fig to the Indians (Cirlot, 1962). history, or per- 529 BC) in 538 BC (Moynihan, 1979). In the The tree also has been reduced to its essentials Old Testament, the Hebrew word “pardes,” in ichnography. The cross often is depicted in haps prehistory, from the Old Persian pairidaeza, means gar- the Christian ichnography as tree—“Tree of societies shared den. It was in the Greek translation of the Old Life” (Cirlot, 1962). Testament—with its use of the word paradeisos the common for garden— that Paradise became identified The tree in the Bible concept of with the Garden of Eden. At the most primitive level, there are the Paradise as the Paradise as more than one “Tree of Life” and the “Tree of Death” ideal garden, a (Knappe, 1952). Thus, we have to consider a location two-tree symbolism. We can find such sym- secure, ever- Throughout the Bible, the earthly Para- bolism in the Bible. In Paradise, there were lasting place. dise became identified with Heaven, remote the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge and unobtainable, thus acquiring the tran- of Good and Evil. Both were placed in the scendental image dominant in Christian tra- Garden of Eden. dition (Moynihan, 1979). The sacred vision The old Testament’s Book of Genesis of the Garden of Paradise varies from a single contains two accounts of the creation of place of total happiness to several gardens of Adam. In the first version (Genesis 1:26–30), varying degrees of happiness. In the New the creation took 6 days and mankind is HortTechnology ● Oct./Dec. 1994 4(4) 339 created on the 6th day. Man is made in the be more important than the illustration of the image of God, and is given dominion over all tree. In an illustration, taken from “Biblia cum the plants and animals of the earth. In the Figuris “(located in Bibl. Nat., Paris) (Didron, second version (Genesis 2:7–25), man is cre- 1965), Adam and Eve are tempted by the ated from the dust of the earth, and placed as serpent. The serpent is a two-headed hydra a caretaker in a garden situated in Eden, and is twisted on a nondescript tree (Fig. 1a). planted with all kinds of trees. Man is permit- Although Adam and Eve appear to hold a fruit, ted to eat of the fruit of all of the trees, with the fruits are too small to be an apple. The same the exception of one, known as the “Tree of theme continues on a sarcophagus located in Knowledge of Good and Evil,” the fruit of the Vatican Museum (Didron, 1965) (Fig. which he may not eat under penalty of death. 2b). The serpent appears as a hydra with a From one of his ribs, woman was made to be dog’s head tempting Adam and Eve. The tree a helpmate to Adam. Through the serpent, is nondescript, and Adam and Eve hold fig who assured Eve that she and Adam would leaves. There are no fruits in the picture. not die, the woman is beguiled into eating the In a Roman composition (Fig. 1c), the fruit of the forbidden tree and inducing Adam serpent, having the head of a fish, still contin- to eat it also. The first consequence of their ues to have the dominant role in an illustra- act is the realization of their nakedness, and tion involving Adam and Eve, but the tree is they made aprons of fig leaves for themselves. still highly stylistic (Cirlot, 1962). In an 11th Then God banished them from the Garden. century composition, God points to the forbidden tree with one hand and to the animals Tree of Paradise as apple over whom Adam was given dominion with the other (Prest, 1981). The emphasis in this Fig. 1. (a) Adam and Eve In 1667, Milton, in “Paradise Lost,” composition is on illustrating the water that depicted in an early French described a vision of Paradise as having the was supposedly plentiful in Paradise. The manuscript. (b) Adam and “goodliest Trees laden with fairest Fruit” symbol of water is around the tree, as well as Eve depicted on a sarcopha- (Underwood, 1950). In the early Christian among the animals. The tree is unidentifiable. gus. (c) Roman composition of the Fall in Paradise. period, the illustration of the serpent seems to Illustrations of Adam and Eve were not limited to the Christian reli- gion.

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