Detail, ‘The Fall of Man’ by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1537
This post is a companion piece to my article about the the meaning of the Apple logo. In that post, I stated that the primary source of Apple’s symbolism comes from The Bible. Here, I will dig into those historical roots a bit further.
In our standard telling of the Christian creation myth, Eve is tempted to eat forbidden fruit from a tree in the Garden of Eden. However, nowhere in Genesis is the fruit specified as an apple. We are merely told that it is fruit from the “tree of knowledge of good and evil.” God tells Adam: “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.”
Eve disobeys God when she is tempted by the serpent Satan: “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat;”
The forbidden fruit grants wisdom, just like Apple computers do. Of course, the sin of partaking in the tree of knowledge is also the original sin that accounts for the fall of man. If you’ve ever seen the Terminator movies, you know that technology will also be the fall of man! How appropriate.
So, if the Bible doesn’t specify the fruit as an apple, how did the apple become a primary symbol of this creation myth? The most likely reason comes from fine art.
The Apple in Fine Art
Adam and Eve depicted by Albrecht Dürer, 1507
The apple has historically been used as a standard symbol in visual depictions of the Garden of Eden (as seen above), and thus accounts for its place in our common knowledge of the Biblical creation story. It’s likely that painters initially chose the apple because of its prominence in Greek mythology, where it was already being used for very similar purposes.
Detail: “The Garden of the Hesperides” by Frederic Leighton, 1892
In Greek mythology, the ‘Hesperides’ are nymphs that reside in a garden of delight where golden apples grow. These apples grant immortality when eaten. The garden was also guarded by a hundred-headed dragon named Ladon, who never sleeps. Ladies in a garden, an evil beast, and an apple tree. Sound familiar?
The similarities of these myths reveal a fundamental aspect of storytelling. It’s a natural human habit to borrow, reuse, and re-purpose familiar symbols, plot structures, and other narrative elements. For artists who had a preexisting association of apples with similar stories that had been told before the birth of Christ, it would have been natural to ascribe the same symbol into the Biblical creation tale.
Visual and Mythological Potency
In short, apple symbolism is not only prominent in our most common version of the Biblical creation myth, but it predates that myth. Since the dawn of storytelling, man has used the apple to visually symbolize all manner of things, including knowledge, immortality, abundance, the fall of man, and more. It makes sense – the apple almost seems to epitomize the fundamental idea of fruit and even food itself. It’s a visually simple food – round, colorful, and almost elemental in its form. If you’re building a website, you might use an apple icon to simply represent a ‘food’ or ‘health’ category in the navigation. It’s such a primary symbol to us that we almost take it for granted.
It was extremely savvy of Apple computers to harness such a potent symbol in both their brand name and logo. In doing so, they harnessed iconography that’s been around as long as we have.
What makes you so sure it’s a myth?
One reason I am sure that the Bible is myth because is that I don’t believe in talking snakes. The Bible is not a scientific document, and should be read as poetry. This does not make it any less sacred or meaningful.
Mary says
No wonder you don’t believe.. it wasn’t a snake it was a serpent.. and you might ask what is a serpent.. well it wasn’t a snake.. it was changed.. remember its legs were removed and was commanded to go on its belly.. LoL.. However since you don’t believe the bible nor do you understand symbolism I won’t bore you any further.. Oh and by the way I have a dog and she talks to me all the time.. when she wants out she lets me know.. when she wants her treats she lets me know.. so I wouldn’t dismiss the serpent/snake thing just because it talked.. all animals talk, we’re just not smart enough to understand there language..
Doro says
Why worry about the bible if you think it’s a myth case closed move on talk about what you think you know lol
Maree says
We are using technology now to pay for things using a number and soon it will go align with the last book of the bible… Revelations. The mark of the beast is on its way through this technology the tree is now called the web and we are going to get caught in its lure and attractive world of convenience. Our identity will soon align with payment, medical care and using public transport Making it impossible to live without the mark.
Kl says
The bible is- what will come!
if the sheeps only wants to sleep!
Marco A. Abusleme says
@DanRedding:
In regards to “talking snakes”, The Bible was written in Hebrew, and “snake” or “serpent” seems to be the wrong translation, perhaps the right translation is more of an “angel”. Dan, The Bible is far for being a myth if you read it in Hebrew. For instance, God -or whatever- created the world from nothing, according to Genesis 1 and the Big Bang, i.e., both says the same story. The Hebrew word bara’ means “create something from nothing” and to this day Hebrew is the only language with a word with such a meaning. Other Hebrew word to consider is Yom, “a period of time of undetermined length”, and God -or whatever- created the world in 6 Yom, 6 periods of time. At the end, God -or whatever- doesn’t take a rest, He -or whoever- considered the job done. And there is a lot more, and thanks God we have the internet if we are interested in learning more. The Bible is, above all, a very old book and as such deserves respect. Just because it was adopted by some religions doesn’t mean that is not an ancient and very interesting book in the first place. No, I am not trying to convince you of anything, just to be fair and based on facts, not… myths, like that the world was created in 6 days or a talking serpent or so many and many inaccuracies related to The Bible.
Rhoda Bell says
I study ancient pictograph Hebrew and study the Bible in this way. I love what you said. You have done some serious study, keep on. Look into the oldest Hebrew, the pictograph. Jeff Benner is a good source to start with. I love it, now no man can deceive me about what the Bible says.