It is a difficult matter to say with any degree of cer- tainty what is the specific tree denoted by the Hebrew word tappuach. The Sept. and Vulg. afford no clew, as the terms uijXov, malum, have a wide signification, being used by the Creeks and b'omans to represent al- most any kind of tree-fruit; at any rate, the use of the word is certainly generic. Many interpreters (after Celsus, Hierobot. i, 255) have supposed the citron (citrus medico), some the ordinary orange-tree ( < Jredner, .foe/, p. 136), to be meant, as each of these were cele- brated favorites among the ancients, and have many qualities agreeing with the Scriptural notices. The citron was the " Median apple" of the ancients, the citromela of the Romans (Theophr. Hist. 4), and was cultivated even in Europe (Bauhin, Pinax ». That it was well known to the Hebrews appears from the fact mentioned by Josephus, that at the Festival of Taher-
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nacles Alexander Jannteus was pelted with citrons, which the Jews had in their hands ; for, as he says, " the law required that at that feast every one should have branches of the palm-tree and citron-tree" (Ant. xiii, 13, 5). It is still found in Palestine (Kitto, Phys. Hist. p. ccxiii). As, however, the Sept. and Vulg. both seem to understand the apple (jui/Xoi', malum), and the Arabs still call this fruit by the same name (teffachi), which, according to the Talmud (Mishna, Kel. i, 4; Maaser. i, 4) and Josephus (Ant. xvii, 7), was anciently cultivated in Palestine, as it still is to some extent (Robinson, i, 355 ; ii, 356, 71G ; iii, 295), and was celebrated in antiquity for its agreeable smell (Ovid, Met. viii, 075), it seems more likely to be the tree designated rather than the citron, which is a small, comparatively rare tree, with a hard, inedible fruit (Thomson, Land and Book, ii, 328, 329). See Citron.
On the other hand, Celsius (Hierob. i, 255) asserts that the quince-tree (Pyrus cydonia) was very often called by the Greek and Roman writers mains, as be- ing, from the esteem in which it was held (" primaria malorum species"), ike malus, or /iijXoi' sar it,o\i)v. Some, therefore (Rosenmuller, Alterth. IV, i, 308 ; Ray, Hist, of Plants, II, iii, 1453), have endeavored to show that the tappuach denotes the quince ; and certainly this opinion has some plausible arguments in its fa- vor. The fragrance of the quince was held in high esteem by the ancients ; and the fruit " was placed on the heads of those images in the sleeping apart- ments which were reckoned among the household gods" (Rosenmuller, Botany of Bible, in the Bib. Cab. p. 314; Voss, On ( 'irgil, Eclog. ii, 51). The Arabians make especial allusion to the restorative properties of this fruit; and Celsius (p. 261) quotes Abu'l Fadli in illustration of Cant, ii, 5. "Its scent," says the Arabic author, "cheers my soul, renews my strength, and restores my breath." Phylarchus (Histor. lib. vi), Rabbi Salomon (in Cant. ii. 3), Pliny (//. X. xv, 11), who uses the words odorisp?yiPstaii/i.-<simi,hr;\r sim- ilar testimony to the delicious fragrance of the quince. It is well known that among the ancients the quince was sacred to the goddess of love, whence statues of Venus sometimes represent her with the fruit of this tree in her hand, the quince being the ill-fated "apple of discord" which Paris appropriately enough present- ed to that deity. Hence the act expressed by the term fjiiXo/SoXhv (Schol. ad Aristoph. Nub. p. 180; Theocr. /(/. iii, 10, v. 88, etc. ; Virg. Eel. iii. 64) was a token of love. For numerous testimonies, see Celsius, Jlierob. i, 265. See Botany.
Although it is so usual to speak of the forbidden fruit of paradise as an "apple," we need hardly say that there is nothing in Scripture to indicate what kind of tree was " the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Rut in the fabled "apples of discord," and in the golden apple which Paris gave to the goddess of love, thereby kindling the Trojan war, it is possible that the primeval tradition reappears of
"The fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe." See Tree.
The Heb. for the "apple" of the eye is "V^X (ishon , mannihin, pupil, Ueut. xxxii, 10 ; Prov. vii, 2), other- wise i"D2 Qtabah', hole, gate, Zech. ii, 12), or T2 (bath, daughter, i. e. by an idiomatic use, the pupil, Psa. xvii, 8). The same figure occurs in the Apocrypha ((copq, Ecclus. xvii, 22 [17]). It is curious to observe how common the image ("pupil of the eye") is in the lan- guages of different nations. Gesenius (Thes. p. 86) quotes from the Arabic, the Syriac, the Ethiopic, the Coptic, the Persian, in all of which tongues an expres- sion similar to the English " pupil of the eye" is found. See Eye.
APPLES OF SODOM is a phrase associated with
the Dead Sea, as the name of a species of fruit extreme- ly beautiful to the eye, but bitter to the taste and full of dust. Tacitus (Hist, v, 7) alludes to this singular fact, but in language so brief and ambiguous that no light can be derived from his description : " Black and empty, they vanish as it were in ashes." Josephus also, speaking of the conflagration of the plain, and the yet remaining tokens of the divine fire, remarks, "There are still to be seen ashes reproduced in the fruits, which indeed resemble edible fruits in color, but on being plucked with the hands are dissolved into smoke and ashes" (War, iv, 8, 4). The supposed fruit has furnished many moralists with allusions ; and also Milton, in whose infernal regions