Forbidden Fruit
I believe that the fruit that Adam and Eve ate in the garden was the grape and not the apple. This is due to an error in translation. Malus (Bad) and Malum (Apple). The words are very similar in Latin and early writers thought that they belonged together – Apple and evil. Very similar, but I also believe that it is important to the understanding of the Bible that we explore the idea of the grape. The apple appears very little in the Bible, but the grape is a central theme through out scriptures.
Much of what seems to be dramatic detail in the New Testament is actually fundamental truth. The cup of wine at the Last Supper is born from the events of the Old Testament.
The first reference to the potential for evil comes in Genesis 2:16: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 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. This is the forbidden fruit. Why is it forbidden? Because it represents knowledge which is potentially harmful to man.
Previously, man allowed God to make the choices as to what was beneficial and what was harmful. When man eats of the tree, he can now use his human faculties and reason to decide what is good and what is bad. Man has rather limited senses and reasoning power. Before he let God decide, now he wants to decide.
There is only one fruit in the Bible that’s forbidden. Later, if a man is to make himself holy, he must take Nazarite vows. He must avoid not only wine, but anything connected with the grape. Numbers 6:3 says He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any juice of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree. Notice the vine is a tree. Vine tree–that’s forbidden fruit.
Why is the vine tree for a Nazarite “forbidden fruit”? Because it was the fruit that separated God and man. The Nazarite was trying to bridge that gap.
The vine tree is obviously forbidden fruit because it’s a type of blood, The vine tree, grape juice, represents blood. Matthew 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament. Then grape juice is a type of blood!. Jesus was offering the same fruit as the serpent. But while accepting the knowledge from the serpent was ruinous, accepting the cup, blessed by God was a reversal of the Genesis event.
So now, we know that a tree is forbidden, and grape juice is forbidden to the Nazarite; but, if grape juice is a type of blood, then blood should be forbidden. Let’s turn to Genesis 9, and notice that blood is forbidden. So blood and grape juice are inseparably connected. Genesis 9:4: But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
It should be also noted that the wine was not drunk in the Old Testament worship but poured out on the ground. No Levite could enter the tabernacle after having drunk wine. Hannah was rebuked by Eli because he believed that she had drunk wine.
But there was one place that wine was required in Jewish culture. The Jews believed Adam ate the fruit to retain his relationship with evil. This is not stated in the Bible but the tradition does show up several times in the Bible . A Jewish man proposing to a Jewish girl pays homage to the tradition by sharing a glass of wine with her. Today this tradition is remembered with a toast at the wedding.
A Jewish father share wine with his family as a sign that they are bound together.
The first manmade miracle in the Old Testament that Moses does in going down to the land of Egypt is in Exodus 4.
The first miracle Christ does in His ministry is in John 2. And, in both cases, you’re dealing with the transformation of something into blood or into grape juice. John 2, verse 9: When the ruler of the feast had the water that was made wine–now there’s water turned into grape juice. Verse 11: “This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee.”
Old Testament, Exodus 4, verse 9. Now the first two signs Moses does are done in the presence of Pharaoh, and nothing happens. Moses produces a Serpent, but Pharaoh and his court are comfortable with the serpent.
But the first sign that affects the land of Egypt is in verse 8. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.
So the first thing Moses does is take that water and turn that water into blood.
An interesting parallel occurs in the story of Noah. God uncreates the earth and then proceeds to recreate it. Separating earth and water, plants appearing, animals repopulating the earth and Noah becomes a new Adam. The first thing he does is to plant a garden and eat its fruit and lies there naked.
Adam is naked; Noah is naked. Genesis 9:20-21 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken;…
The Lord told Adam, Be fruitful and multiply. He told Noah, Be fruitful and multiply.
He told Adam, Replenish the earth. He told Noah, Replenish the earth.
One of Noah’s boys is under a curse (Canaan); one of Adam’s boys is under a curse (Cain).
Habakkuk 2:15 Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!
Verse 32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom…
their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
Their wine is the poison of dragons,
and the cruel venom of serpents.
My Bible Study Notebook 