Central Abbotsford

It’s the middle of August, that time of summer when all semblance of routine in our house has been completely thrown out the window. School has been out for over two months now, and because of the vagaries of the Gregorian calendar, we are somehow still two and a half weeks away from the start of the new school year. Between summer camps, missions trips, and sleepovers at grandparents’ places, I haven’t had the same combination of kids at the house for more than two days in a row. Even the pastors and staff in the office at church change from day to day as everyone scrambles to use their vacation day allotment before the ministry year ramps up in September. In other words, it’s the time of year where I must dig deep to find a topic for the newsletter.

So, I look around my desk. All the usual desk stuff is here. I’m struggling to think of the theological ramifications of Post-it Notes. A lanyard identifying me as “Pastor Eric” sits by my left arm, but that also yields little in terms of creativity. My headphones are charging on the right side of my desk – maybe I can wring something out of the fact that, in Northview’s open office, the wearing of headphones is our standard “Do Not Disturb” sign? But the office isn’t full enough for me to need it today.

Wait – what about the very computer that I am typing this on? My church-issued MacBook Pro, a product of Apple Inc.; could that lead me on a path to theological insight? Why is the company called Apple, anyway? I wonder…

Apparently, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs chose the name after visiting an apple orchard during an era of his life when he was endeavouring to live entirely on fruit (the technical term is, evidently, “fruitatarian”). Unfortunately for him, a group of four relatively popular British musicians had, years earlier, created a company named Apple Records to handle the business side of their burgeoning career. You may have heard of them before, either by their original name the Quarrymen, or the name that they ultimately settled on: the Beatles. (Some have argued that Jobs’ orchard story was an attempt at an after-the-fact coverup of the real story, which is that he just used the Beatles’ name as a direct homage. But this is a church newsletter, not a definitive history.)

As Apple Computers gained prominence, they also gained the attention of Apple Records and the intellectual property lawyers that worked for them. The similarities between the names led to many years of lawsuits between the two similarly-named and similarly-profitable entities, largely resolved in favour of the computing company. They seem to co-exist well these days, as you can quite easily listen to your favourite Beatles song on Apple Music.

But if the naming of the computer company allegedly comes from Steve Jobs’ walk through some fruit trees, where did the Beatles’ one come from? As far as I can tell, none of their songs or albums reference the fruit in any way. As it turns out, the name comes from Paul McCartney’s admiration of the works of Belgian artist Rene Magritte. A friend of McCartney’s had recently gifted him an original Magritte work entitled “Le Jeu De Mourre”, depicting a green apple with the words “au revoir” painted thereupon. McCartney liked the image so much, he referenced it in the company’s name.

Magritte used the imagery of apples often in his works. You might not be an art historian, or even an art lover, but you have likely seen one of his most famous paintings: a man (understood to be a self-portrait), wearing a suit, red tie, and bowler hat, his facial features obscured entirely by a green apple, full with stem and leaf. The title of the painting alludes to the themes that Magritte sought to convey with the apple image: “The Son of Man.” As with all art, interpretation of meaning is at least partially subjective, but the artist seemingly intended to draw the attention to how temptation and desire impact and distort our perception of humanity. The image of the apple was chosen, of course, because that was the fruit that Adam and Eve ate in the garden of Eden.

Or was it? The Bible doesn’t actually name the fruit in question in the account in Genesis, but it seems that the apple has taken the place of dishonour in popular reference. Why is that? I mean, I know it’s summer now, so peaches and berries have prominence right now, but for most of the year my diet, while not as exclusive as Steve Jobs’ was, consists of a solid 3-5 apples a day (seriously!). How did the humble apple become the forbidden fruit?

The answer, as it so often does, relates to linguistic history. Most early Latin translations of the Bible used the word pomum for the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which our first parents were commanded not to eat. In those days, pomum was a general term for “fruit” or “tree fruit”, so the translation was sensible. However, over time, as language developed and usage modified in the Middle Ages, the word for “fruit” in several European languages derived from Latin began to narrow to refer only to apples. 

Painters in this era (it always comes back to painters, it seems) painted what they knew, and what they knew mostly came from the Scriptures. As a result, many European paintings depicting the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve depicted an apple as the forbidden fruit in question. Since later works of art are often derived or inspired by earlier works, the image of the apple as the prohibited produce was reproduced (no pun intended) countless times over, and the image stuck. The apple was seemingly, and in my opinion unjustly, forever tied with temptation and sin.

Of course, whether or not the fruit was an apple isn’t the point of the story – the point is that God had given the command to Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree, and their disobedience in this respect marked a fundamental break in the Scriptural storyline. The first two chapters of Genesis show humanity flourishing in perfect obedient relationship to God; everything from Genesis 3:15, where God promises that there will be one who will come to defeat the serpent until the arrival of that promised One in the person of Jesus, and His accomplishing this victorious work on the cross tells the story of this redemption. The balance of the New Testament then unpacks how followers of Jesus are to live amidst the reality of a world that still reels from the consequences of the eaten apple(?) yet lives in the promise that Jesus will return to decisively and eternally complete the victory over the enemy.

It is in this world of tension that we preach the word of God. A world caught between a victory that is guaranteed but not yet completed. A world where sin and death still sting, yet neither hold eternal sway over the believer. A world where the same enemy that tempted Eve can be called “the prince” and yet the Jesus who defeated Him reigns as King. A world of paradox and seeming contradiction where the mighty and wicked seem to prosper and rule this life, yet the meek and righteous shall inherit the world and the kingdom of heaven. Amidst all of this, it is understandable that we can’t figure out what exactly the fruit was.

It is also understandable, in this time in redemptive history, that obedience to God’s word can be a challenge. The tensions inherent in it mean that following His call on our lives is rarely instinctual and often countercultural. We need a strong motivation for it – and the gospel is that motivation. 

The Scriptures – Old and New Testaments – reveal a God who is both just and merciful, righteous and loving, full of grace and full of truth. This God loves you so much that He sent His son to bear the penalty for all of the times that we demonstrate that we would have eaten the fruit as well. And so the gospel motivation is one of responsive love – a recognition of what He has accomplished for us, and a desire to honour Him in how we live. If you struggle with a basis for joyful obedience – a basis to apply the words you hear in a sermon – you will rarely be steered wrong if you go back to this aspect of the gospel as your motivation.

My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye.

– Proverbs 7:1-2