Apple; Apple-Tree

This is generally supposed to refer to the citron but apples grow in Palestine, and the Arabic name for the apple (tuffuh ) differs little from the Hebrew word, tappuach . Others believe the quince is alluded to, which is fragrant and of a golden colour. Son 2:3; Son 2:5; Son 7:8; Son 8:5; Joe 1:12. In Pro 25:11 "a word fitly spoken" is like some elegant device, as "apples of gold in pictures [or baskets] of silver."

ap´’l ap´’l trē, (תּפּוּח, tappū^aḥ): A fruit tree and fruit mentioned chiefly in Cant, concerning the true nature of which there has been much dispute.

Son 2:3 says: “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight”; Son 8:5: “Under the apple-tree I awakened thee: there thy mother was in travail with thee, there was she in travail that brought thee forth.” Of the fruit it is said, Son 2:3: “His fruit was sweet to my taste”; Son 2:5: “Stay ye me with raisins, refresh me with apples”; Son 7:8: “the smell of thy breath (Hebrew “nose”) like apples.”

In all the above references the true apple, Pyrus malus, suits the conditions satisfactorily. The apple tree affords good shade, the fruit is sweet, the perfume is a very special favorite with the people of the East. Sick persons in Palestine delight to hold an apple in their hands, simply for the smell. (Compare Arabian Nights, “Prince Hassan and the Paribanou.”) Further the Arabic for apple tuffāh is without doubt identical with the Hebrew tappū^aḥ̌. The apple was well known, too, in ancient times; it was, for example, extensively cultivated by the Romans.

The one serious objection is that apples do not easily reach perfection in Palestine; the climate is too dry and hot; farther north in the Lebanon they flourish. At the same time it is possible to exaggerate this objection, for with careful grafting and cultivation exceedingly good apples may be produced in the mountain regions. Apple trees there need special care and renewal of the grafts, but there is no impossibility that at the time of the writing of Canticles skilled gardeners should have been able to produce sweet and perfumed apples in Palestine. Small but very sweet and fragrant apples are now grown at Gaza. Good apples are now plentiful in the market at Jerusalem, but they are chiefly importations from the North.

On account of the above difficulty three other fruits have been suggested by various writers. Two doubtless have been brought forward with a view to Pro 25:11: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in network of silver,” but the reference would certainly seem to be to some silver filigree work ornamented with gold modeled to look like fruit rather than to any actual fruit. The citron and the apricot (Tristram) have both been suggested as the true tappū^aḥ̌. The former, which is a native of Persia, does not appear to have been introduced into Palestine until well into the Christian era and the apricot, though an attractive substitute for the apple and today one of the most beautiful and productive of fruit trees, can hardly have been established in Palestine at the time of the scriptural references. It is a native of China and is said to have first begun to find its way westward at the time of Alexander the Great.

The third of the fruits is the quince, Cydonia vulgaris (Natural Order Rosaceae), and this had more serious claims. It flourishes in Palestine and has been long indigenous there. Indeed it is probable that even if tappū^aḥ was a name for apple, it originally included also the closely allied quince. The greatest difficulty is its harsh and bitter taste. Further the Mishna distinguishes the tappū^ah from the quince, which is called pārı̄sh, and from the crab apple or ḥāzōr (Köhler in Jewish Encyclopedia, II, 23). The quince along with the apple was sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

On the whole there does not appear to be any sufficient reason for rejecting the translation of the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American); the Biblical references suit it; the identity of the Hebrew and Arabic words favor it and there is no insuperable objection on scientific grounds.

The word tappū^aḥ appears in two place names, BETH-TAPPUAH and TAPPUAH (which see).

A tree that grows to a height of about 4.5–7.6 meters (15–25 feet) and produces round, firm, sweet fruits. The tree has oval leaves with slightly toothed edges and produces white or pink blossoms in spring before bearing fruit.

The apple tree was not native to the Near East. Some Bible versions translate certain fruit references in the Old Testament as "apple." The Hebrew word tappuach is often translated as "apple" (Proverbs 25:11; Song of Solomon 2:3, 5; 7:8; 8:5). This translation comes from its similarity to the Arabic word for apple, tuffah.

Some scholars think the fruit referred to in these passages might actually be an apricot, because apples may not have been common in ancient Palestine. However, researchers found carbonized apples (probably crab apples, Malus sylvestris) during excavations at Kadesh-barnea from the 9th century BC. This discovery suggests that apples could have been grown in King Solomon's gardens.

See also Apricot.

Aquifer Open Bible Dictionary © 2026 Mission Mutual, an adaptation of the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.