Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/56

24 "

Apple Appraisement

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

hiblateka immcktt,

Thus

also

" "

Jerome

there hast thou been corrupted. (see Delitzsch,

Commentary,

p.

127). Here is probably the source of the common view that the forbidden fruit was an Apple (according to R. Abba of Acre [Acco],Gen. R. xv., an ethrog, the so-called " paradise-apple "). In church symbolism the story of Hercules with the apples of the Hesperides and the dragon wound around the tree served as the representation of Adam's fall, and Hercules as that of Jesus as deliverer, the Apple being often used as a symbol of the first sin (Piper, " Symbolik der Christlichen Ivirche," i. 67, 128; Nork, "Mytholo-

gisches Lexikon,"

s.t.

"Apfel").

Apples dipped into honey are eaten on the eve of the Jewish New-Year while the following words are spoken " May it be Thy will, O Lord, that the year just begun be as good and sweet a year " (Tur Orah Hayyim, 583). In cabalistic literature tappuah is an attribute of God, synonymous with tiferet (beauty), because, says the Zohar (Lev. xvi.), "tiferet diffuses itself into the world as an apple.

!

K.

Botanical View There is perhaps no Biblical plant-name that has given rise to more discussion than has the identification of the man. Identified Four distinct fruit-bearing trees, the with Four Apple (Pyrus malus), the citron (Citrus Trees. medico), the apricot (Primus Armeninca), and the quince (Cydonia vulgaris), have been suggested as its equivalent. Of these, two may be dismissed at once the Apple and the citron. The Apple, far from being a native of Palestine, is, on account of the tropical climate, but rarely cultivated there, and with no success. The fruit is small, woody, and of very inferior quality. The citron is beyond doubt a native of India, where it has been known and cultivated, even under different forms, from prehistoric times. At an early date its cultivation spread into western Asia, whence it was obtained by the Greeks, possibly as early as the time of Alexander's Asiatic campaign. It was cultivated in Italy in the third and fourth centuries, and by the fifth century had become well established but it was not until the tenth century of the common era, according to Gallesio, that its cultivation was extended by the Arabs into Palestine and Egypt. If viewed only in the light of present-day distribution and abundance, the apricot might lay undisputed claim to being the Hebrew niSXl [but see above], for, according to Canon Tristram, it " is most abundant in the Holy Land. The apricot flourishes and yields a crop of prodigious abundance; its branches laden with golden fruit may well be compared (Prov. xxv. 11) to 'apples of gold,' and its

—



.

pale leaves to as its specific

'

—

"

.

pictures of silver.

'

"

The

apricot,

name {Primus Armeniaca) would

imply, has been supposed to be a native of Armenia, and it has been reported in the neighborhood of the

Caucasus mountains in the north, and between the Caspian and Black seas in the south, but grave doubt exists as to its being found wild there. According to De Candolle (" Origines des Plantes Cultivecs "), it is now settled beyond reasonable question that the apricot is a native of China, where

has been

it

before the

known for two or common era. Its

Difficulty of Identification.

which

24 three thousand years cultivation seems to

have spread very slowly toward the West, as supported by the fact that it has no Sanskrit or Hebrew designation, but only Persian names, zardalu (yellow plum) and mishlauz under

—

corruption mishmush, dried apricots are still exported from Syria which has passed into Arabic. Among the Greeks and Romans the apricot appears to have been introduced about the beginning of the common era; for Pliny, among others, says that its introduction into Rome took place about thirty years before he wrote. It is reasonable to suppose that the spread of the apricot may have been rapid and effective after its first introduction to the civilization of the West, for it is a delicious fruit, of the simplest cultivation and The exact time of its inof great productiveness. troduction into Palestine can not be determined, but it very probably occurred before it became known to the Greeks and Romans, as the Hebrews had scant relations with Armenia, the country through which the apricot (appannth) came. It may, therefore, be reasonably assumed that, although agreeing well with the description of the Biblical tappuah, the apricot is not the tree referred to in the Scriptures. The claims of the quince to represent the tappuah of the Hebrew Scriptures have been ably set forth by the Rev. W. Houghton Quince. ("Proceedings of Society of Biblical Archeology," xii. 43-48). This is the only one of the four species suggested that is undoubtedly indigenous to this general region. According to De Candolle: latter designation,

or

its

" The quince grows wild in the woods in the north of Persia, near the Caspian Sea, in the region to the south of the Caucasus, in Anatolia. A few botanists have also found it apparently wild in the Crimea, and in the north of Greece but naturalizamay be suspected in the east of Europe, and the further advanced toward Italy, especially toward the southwest of Europe and Algeria, the more it becomes probable that the species was naturalized at an early period around villages, in hedges, etc."

and



tion

The absence of a Sanskrit name for the quince is taken to indicate that its distribution did not extend toward the center of Asia, and, although it is also without a Hebrew name, it is undoubtedly wild on Mount Taurus. It is much more difficult to connect the quince with the Hebrew " tappuah " than it is to identify the latter with the apricot. On this point

Houghton "

says:

The

tree [quince] is a native of the Mediterranean basin, and is, when ripe, deliciously fragrant, but, according to our western tastes, by no means pleasant to the taste when un-

cooked, but on the contrary austere and unpleasant. This latter fact is regarded generally as destructive of its preten-

my

sions, but for part I hesitate to throw over the claims of the quince to denote the tappuah, on account of its taste. The flavor and odor of plants or other things is simply a matter of

opinion. to

Orientals set a high value on flavors and odors which European senses are unpleasant moreover, we must seek for why such and such a fruit was regarded with appro-

the reason bation."

In seeking a probable reason for this liking for the tappuah, Houghton calls attention to the mandrake (Atropa mandragora), which, though to most Europeans it has a very fetid and disagreeable odor, is still highly regarded by the natives of Palestine as