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#176829 - 05/11/08 06:03 AM apple or banana?
BranShea BranShea Pooh-Bah Registered: 06/23/06 Posts: 2086 Loc: Netherlands, the Hague	From the Sunday book revieuws: "Forget the apple; Eve ,as the American journalist Dan Koeppel explains in his book Banana, The Fate of the Fruit that changed the World, was most probably seduced by the banana. According to Koeppels British collegue Peter Chapman, who wrote a book about the United Fruit Company - the firm that made the banana great - it wasn't a fig leaf Adam and Eve covered there shame with, but the leaf of a banana tree. Even Linnaeus, apples don't thrive in the Middle East, place the banana tree in the garden of Eden instead of the apple tree.Seems more logic. The fig leaf comes from a translation error; in Hebrew bananas are called ' figs of Eve'. (?) Compare the the deep forked fig leaf to the mini skirt seized banana leaf and what could be the most probable?" Two writers wrote a book about the influence of the banana culture on the the course of world history: http://www.bananabook.org/ http://www.amazon.com/Bananas-United-Fruit-Company-Shaped/dp/1841958816 (the linker refuses to work so I leave the http's like this) What I would like to know, Is the story of the mistranslation true or untrue? . _________________________ above all shadows rides the sun (JRRT)
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#176831 - 05/11/08 07:08 AM Re: apple or banana? [Re: BranShea]
Faldage Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 11591	Dunno about the leaf, but the notion that the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was an apple is relatively recent. I believe that pomegranate was an early candidate. I'm researching the fig leaf thing. Be back later. Oh, and in a related story, I prefer "fruit flies like an apple" to "fruit flies like a banana." It better matches the "time flies like an arrow" part of the pair.
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#176833 - 05/11/08 10:32 AM Re: apple or banana? [Re: BranShea]
zmjezhd zmjezhd Pooh-Bah Registered: 08/13/05 Posts: 1678 Loc: R'lyeh	Candidates for the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (עץ הדעת טוב ורע `ets ha-da`ath tubh wara`) have been many, e.g., the fig, the pomegranate, grapes (by themselves or made into wine).
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#176836 - 05/11/08 12:16 PM Re: apple or banana? [Re: BranShea]
The Pook The Pook old hand Registered: 02/20/08 Posts: 707 Loc: Tasmania	The text doesn't say what kind of tree it was because that wasn't the point of the story. It had "knowlege of good and evil" fruit on it.
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#176842 - 05/11/08 01:33 PM Re: apple or banana? [Re: The Pook]
BranShea BranShea Pooh-Bah Registered: 06/23/06 Posts: 2086 Loc: Netherlands, the Hague	So never mind the type of fruit. But this: Quote from the revieuw: "The fig leaf comes from a translation error; in Hebrew bananas are called ' figs of Eve'. " I would like to know if that is based on any serious fact. _________________________ above all shadows rides the sun (JRRT)
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#176843 - 05/11/08 01:40 PM Re: apple or banana? [Re: BranShea]
tsuwm tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/03/00 Posts: 8730 Loc: this too shall pass	Originally Posted By: BranShea Quote from the revieuw: in English, the review. so why the extraneous vowel? (you're not a clandestine Brit, are you? ; )
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#176845 - 05/11/08 02:05 PM Re: apple or banana? [Re: tsuwm]
BranShea BranShea Pooh-Bah Registered: 06/23/06 Posts: 2086 Loc: Netherlands, the Hague	(you're not an exuberant nitpicker, are you? ; ) I think it came out as blend of revue and review and ~~some~~ many mistakes I make over and over again. _________________________ above all shadows rides the sun (JRRT)
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#176850 - 05/11/08 05:30 PM Re: apple or banana? [Re: tsuwm]
Faldage Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 11591	Originally Posted By: tsuwm Originally Posted By: BranShea Quote from the revieuw: in English, the review. so why the extraneous vowel? (you're not a clandestine Brit, are you? ; ) Looks pretty Dutch to me.
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#176854 - 05/11/08 06:19 PM Re: apple or banana? [Re: BranShea]
twosleepy twosleepy enthusiast Registered: 02/28/08 Posts: 326 Loc: western NY	I don't know Hebrew, but the part about it having "more logic" is a misapplication of logic. We're talking about the Garden of Eden, not the earth as we know it now. Supposedly every kind of animal and plant thrived there, so it makes no sense to talk about apples not thriving in the middle east. The bit about leaf size is also irrelevant. As the Pook says, it's not the point of the story. Besides, there were many, many plants available, and it is not stated, or implied, that the leaves they used to cover their nakedness were from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, anyway, because it doesn't matter. :0)
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#176857 - 05/11/08 06:47 PM Re: apple or banana? [Re: twosleepy]
AnnaStrophic AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 6417 Loc: lower upstate New York	Still and all, it's interesting that we Western Culture types have come to refer to it as an apple. Or a napple, if you will.
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