APPLE

Have you ever noticed that Snow White (in the forest of the Seven Dwarves) and Eve (in the Garden of Eden) were both undone by an apple? This curious literary fact has long intrigued me: Does the fictional tale inform the Bible story or vice versa?

The subject of the forbidden fruit is theologically disputed; a modicum of research shows that the apples we know likely didn’t grow in ancient Bible lands, and that verses mentioning apple (such as Song of Songs 2:3 and Joel 1:12) possibly referred instead to the apricot, quince, citron, or pomegranate.

Could the biblical fruit of temptation have been identified as an apple because of a linguistic mix-up in the Vulgate—the fourth-century Latin translation of the Old Testament? The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil produced a spiritually poisonous fruit (Genesis 2:17; 3:3)—and both “evil” and “apple” in Latin can be spelled malum. That is, the idea of the “fruit” being an apple might have been a pun or a mistake associated with the Latin translation and not with the original Hebrew intention.

This doesn’t completely answer my original, more fundamental question: Does the fictional tale inform the Bible story or vice versa? The best answer I’ve found so far is one by theologian and fantasy writer C. S. Lewis, who once said that the Christian story is the greatest story of all, because it’s the real story—the historical event that fulfills all the fairytales and shows us what they mean.

Fairytales relate a moral, but the moral is only a product of Truth’s seed: Eve predated Snow White in literature and in historical event, and although the forbidden fruit ended the innocence of both Eve and Snow White, the outcome remains the same for us: tragedy at the hand of evil. Perhaps the real question is not which tale modifies the other but rather which truth is from the pen of God.

Have you ever wondered about the interface between Bible and mythology? I’d love to hear your thoughts!