6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.
One of the more well-known Bible translation stories is the Latin translation in the Vulgate (4th century by St. Jerome of Stridon) that supposedly creates a pun with the translation of “evil” in the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (translated in the Vulgate as lignumque scientiae boni et mali) and the fruit that is mentioned in Genesis 3:3, 3:6 and 3:12. According to the story, the Hebrew word that is translated as “fruit” in English was translated as mālum (“apple”), thus creating a pun with the Latin word malum which is used in the form mali in the translation for the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (see above). This in turn, according to the story, created the connection between the “forbidden fruit” and the apple in art history (see below for a 16th century depiction by Lucas Cranach the Elder), anatomical terminology (“Adam’s apple” and similar expressions in many European languages for the laryngeal prominence) and the public imagination.
Alas, this turns out to be an urban myth. The Vulgate (as well as the older Vetus Latina) both use frūctus (“fruit”) in Genesis 3 for peri (פְרִי), the Hebrew word for fruit. While it’s possible that the use of malum in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was implicitly understood as pointing to an apple, it’s not likely since there is a marked difference in pronunciation: /ˈmaː.lum/ (“apple”) vs. /ˈma.lum/ (“evil”). Maybe it’s more likely that the apple was the likely choice in the European imagination because of its prominence as were grapes, figs, pomegranates, or etrogs in the Jewish imagination.
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
With contributions by Seppo Sipilä, Reinier de Blois, and Harry Harm.
In Low German “fruit” is translated as Appeln or “apples” in Genesis 3:3 and 3:6 (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1937, republ. 2006).
The Hebrew that is typically translated as “wise” or “wisdom” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as wu’manyi: “awareness, discernment.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 3:6:
Kankanaey: “Then the woman looked-closely again at the fruit of that tree. Its appearance was good and delicious, and-meanwhile she said in her thoughts that that would be a good source for-making-her-wise, so she took some of the fruit of the tree and ate-it. Then she gave-(some)-to her spouse and he ate-it also.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Newari: “The woman saw that the fruit that was on that tree seemed very attractive and seemed pleasing to eat. And because greed to have insight came into her heart, she picked the fruit that was on the tree and ate it. And she also gave [it] to her husband. Her husband also ate that fruit.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “When the woman saw that the tree was good/pleasing to-look-at and its fruit was delicious to eat, and because she desired to become wise, she took the fruit and ate (it). She also gave-(it)-to her husband and he ate (it) too.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “The woman saw that the fruit on that tree was good to eat, and it was very beautiful, and she desired it because she thought it would make her wise. So she picked some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he ate it.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
In this verse the woman recognizes three advantages in the forbidden tree: the fruit is good, the tree is beautiful, and eating would make her wise. So without further discussion with the snake she takes some fruit and eats it.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food: So marks the following clause as introducing a consequence. Revised Standard Version structures the first part of verse 6 as a “when” clause with three “that” clauses, which in English stylistically overload the front end of the long sentence. Good News Translation, on the other hand, makes three sentences. Translators may find that verse 6 needs to be further restructured into shorter sentences. For example,
• The woman saw how beautiful the tree was, and how good the fruit would be to eat. She thought, “How wonderful it would be to become wise.” Because she was thinking this, she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he also ate it.
Good News Translation is like this model in switching the order of the first two clauses to give a better English style.
The tree was good for food refers to the fruit of the tree, as in 2.9. For delight to the eyes see the similar “pleasant to the sight” in 2.9, which is also another way of saying “beautiful” (Good News Translation).
The tree was to be desired to make one wise is a close literal translation of the Hebrew, in which was to be desired represents a passive participle. In some languages this will be more clearly rendered “a person desires the fruit of the tree because [eating] it makes that person become wise.” New English Bible says “tempting to contemplate,” and Bible en français courant “and they [the fruits] gave [the person] an urge to eat in order to acquire a broader knowledge.” Wise translates a word meaning “insight, understanding.”
After the woman had eaten she also gave some to her husband. Husband translates the word for “man” in 2.23 and is here grammatically possessed.
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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