2019-09-01 Reader\'s Digest

1

That forbidden

apple in the Garden

of Eden? It could

have been a pomegran-

ate. The book of Gene-

sis does not explicitly

say what fruit Eve per-

suaded Adam to share

with her. The Hebrew

Bible uses the generic

term peri, which rab-

binic scholars have said

could be used to de-

scribe a fig, a grape, a

pomegranate, an apri-

cot, or even wheat.

2

Another apple-

centric Biblical

note: the phrase

apple of your eye.

In Psalm 17, David

uses it when he’s talk-

ing to God: “Keep me

as the apple of your eye;

hide me in the shadow

of your wings.” Is David

rather full of himself in

assuming that he is

God’s favorite? Not nec-

essarily. The Bible’s use

of apple here is thought

to be a poetic way to re-

fer to the eye’s pupil,

which is also round.

3

Apples have long

been associated

with fertility—

By Jen McCaffery

Big Apple Facts,

and Small Ones Too

46 september 2019 Illustration by Serge Bloch

Reader’s Digest

13 THINGS