Apple

APPLE, Pomum, Malum. The word Malus or Malum is sometimes taken in general, and answers to the Hebrew Peri¹, which signifies Fruit; and sometimes for an Apple and Apple-tree, and answers to the Deut. xxxiii. 14.Hebrew Taphuah². Moses blessing Joseph, wishes him the precious fruits brought forth by the Sun and Moon, that is to say, fruits produced by the rains and dews of Heaven, and by the gentle influences of the Sun and Moon. Or, according to the letter of the Hebrew, The precious fruits brought forth by the Sun, and the precious things put forth by the Moon. The reading in the Vulgate is, De pomis cœli; de pomis fructuum solis & lunæ. The Chaldee and several others by the fruits of the Moon understand those, which come every month, and by the fruits of the Sun, those which come but once in the year. There are some trees, such as the fig-trees and the orange-trees, which have fruit almost always upon them. Moses adds, the fruits of the ancient mountains, which probably signifies the vines, olive-trees, and other trees, which grow in the mountains.

Job. ix. 26. אניות .אבהJob describing very light vessels, which go very swiftly, makes use of this expression, Quasi naves poma portantes: but the Hebrew has it, As the ships of Abah, which is differently explained, Ships of desire, which have the wind wished for; in the Syriac it is, Enemies Ships; in the Chaldee, Ships loaden with excellent fruit; others say, Ships well equipt; lastly, Ships of the river Aba, in Babylonia.

Psalm lxxviii. 1.The Psalmist complains to God³, that the enemies had reduced Jerusalem to pomorum custodiam, to such a condition as to be no better than the cabbin of a centinel, who guards the fruits and vineyards. The Hebrew Hijim, signifies properly an heap of sand and ruins, or a mass of stones laid together in the fields or vineyards. Compare Micah i. 6. Ponam Samariam quasi acervum lapidum in agro, cum plantatur vinea.

Cant. vii. 13 מגדים Magadim.The Spouse in the Canticles says, that she has all sorts of fruits new and old at her house, which she has laid up for her beloved, In portis nostris omnia poma, &c. But the Hebrew reads Magadim, things delicious and sweet. In our gates are all sorts of delights, new and old, which I have reserved for thee, O my beloved.

Prov. xxv. 2.Solomon in his Proverbs says, that a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. The Vulgate says, in lectis argenteis, in silver beds; but in the Hebrew it is, like apples of gold in baskets of silver. These golden apples are probably oranges or citrons. The first fruits, as the Rabbins say, were carried in silver baskets to the Temple. Lev. xix. 23.God commanded the Hebrews, when they planted fruit-trees, to pluck off the first fruits, and not to eat them. For the three first years these fruits were thought to be unclean. In the fourth year all the fruit was consecrated to the Lord, and in the fifth, not before, the proprietor began to gather it for his own use. This shewed the sovereign dominion of God over all the Earth, and all that it produced.

Brocard⁴ acknowledges, that apples, pears, cherries, and such like fruits are very rarely found in Palestine; but in their room they have abundance of other fruits, which are to be seen all the year upon their trees; so that very frequently there are blossoms and fruit at the same time upon them: and this perhaps is what Moses intended to describe under the name of Fruits of the Moon; as we have observed a little higher. They have likewise abundance of citrons, and a sort of apple-tree of a very particular species. It is a tree which lasts not above two years; but when it is withered, the roots of it produce another. Its leaves are so long, that they equal the height of a man standing upright; and so large, that two of these might easily cover a man’s whole body. It bears apples in great plenty, as large as an egg, covered with a pretty thick skin, and of a yellow colour. Its fruit hangs in clusters like grapes; these bunches, wherein there are sometimes an hundred apples, are as large as a moderate basket. We see in Josephus⁵, and throughout all the Scripture, that figs, olives, dates, mulberries, pistacho-nuts, almonds, capers, and grapes, were very common in Palestine. Authors speak likewise of the Balsam-tree of Judæa, as of a shrub, which is to be found only in that country. There were nuts also and carob-beans growing there, such as the prodigal Son would have been glad to have satisfied his hunger Luke xv. 16.with. The Spouse in the Canticles speaks of a cluster of cypress, which is a shrub about the height of a pomegranate tree; but the Cant. i. 14.fruit of this tree was probably to be commended only for its good scent.

Scripture⁶ and the Historians⁷ mention fruits brought from the neighbourhood of Sodom, which on the outside appeared to be fair and of a lively red colour, and within were very bitter, and as it were full of soot and ashes. Terram ipsam specie torridam vim frugiferam perdidisse, says Tacitus⁸, nam cuncta sponte edita, aut manu sata, sive herbâ tenùs aut flore, seu solitam in speciem adolerunt, atra & inania velut in cinerem vanescunt. Tertullian speaks of them after the same manner⁹, Olet adhuc incendio Terra, & si qua illic arborum poma cernantur oculis tenus, cæterum contacta cinerescunt¹⁰.

ADAM’s APPLES. James de Vitry¹¹ relates that there are trees in Palestine which bear very fine fruit, and are observed to have the mark as it were of a man’s biting. Hottinger speaks likewise of a tree which is to be seen at Tripoli in Syria, commonly called Almauz, or Adam’s Apples. This tree produces no branches, but only leaves, extended in the form of fingers, and so long and large that one alone is sufficient to cover a man. The fruit of this tree is like a green bean, with a sweetness like that of honey, and the scent of a rose. Some likewise call that fruit Adam’s Apples which grows in Palestine, and at Alexandria; and is seen to hang in clusters in such great quantity that there are sometimes twenty of them together, and of such a size that they equal the largest pears. They are very sweet, and of a very good taste, and the leaves of this tree are every one almost two foot or a cubit in length. Some say, that if this fruit is cut in a particular manner, the figure of a Crucifix is to be discerned in it. See hereafter MANDRAKES.

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