The apple is the fruit most attributed to being the fruit of tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. However, Jewish tradition, as well as understanding the uses of the fruits spoken of in Scripture, and the root meanings of their names in Hebrew, says it was the pomegranate. (See the July issue for more on the pomegranate.)
By understanding the Hebrew etymology of the word apple, we see it represents mankind after the fall and, more importantly, the people that God chose to make His own.
For Yahweh's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye. Deuteronomy 32:9-10
Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings, from the wicked who oppress me, my deadly enemies, who surround me. Psalm 17:8-9
For thus says Yahweh of Armies: 'For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. Zechariah 2:8
Joel 1:12 uses the metaphor of the five fruits -the grape (vine), the fig, the date (palm), the pomegranate, and the apple- to say that the joy of the people has dried and withered like the trees that produced these fruits.
ishon: the pupil (of the eye)
Original Word: אּישׁוֹן
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Phonetic Spelling: (ee-shone')
from the root word ish: man
Original Word: אּישׁ
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Phonetic Spelling: (eesh)
from the root word enosh: mankind
Original Word: אֱנוֹשׁ
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Phonetic Spelling: (en-oshe')
from the root word anash: to be weak, sick; to be mortal
Original Word: אָנַשׁ
Part of Speech: Verb
Phonetic Spelling: (aw-nash')
from a primitive root word: to be frail, feeble, melancholy; to be desperately wicked, incurable, woeful
No comments:
Post a Comment