Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple

The book "Temptation Transformed" explores the mystery of why the forbidden fruit became an apple, challenging the explanation that stood for centuries. It reveals that Edens fruit, initially thought to be a fig or a grape, first appears as an apple in twelfth-century French art and traces it back to medieval storytelling. The book offers an eye-opening revisionist history of a central religious icon, showing how the words for "fruit" in commonly spoken languages influenced a broader audience.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 232 pages
Publication date: 08 March 2024
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

How did the apple, unmentioned by the Bible, become the dominant symbol of temptation, sin, and the Fall? Temptation Transformed pursues this mystery across art and religious history, uncovering where, when, and why the forbidden fruit became an apple. Azzan Yadin-Israel reveals that Edens fruit, once thought to be a fig or a grape, first appears as an apple in twelfth-century French art. He then traces this image back to its source in medieval storytelling. Though scholars often blame theologians for the apple, accounts of the Fall written in commonly spoken languages—French, German, and English—influenced a broader audience than cloistered Latin commentators. Azzan Yadin-Israel shows that, over time, the words for “fruit” in these languages narrowed until an apple in the Garden became self-evident. A wide-ranging study of early Christian thought, Renaissance art, and medieval languages, Temptation Transformed offers an eye-opening revisionist history of a central religious icon.

Weight: 300g
Dimension: 227 x 152 x 14 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226833453