Biblical Sources of Phrases in Common Use: Forbidden Fruits

Recently, on the bulletin board in the place in which I work, someone wrote , “Do NOT Read This!”  Seeing this, almost everyone’s immediate response is “Why not?”  We do not respond well to being told what to do.

When an action or a thing is forbidden to us, it often becomes very attractive.  Many will risk their reputations, or their fortune, or their career, or even their family, to have it.  This is the idea behind “forbidden fruit.”

The allusion is to the biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Everything was permitted to them except the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Of course, they had to have that fruit. (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:1-6)

The English language phrase is a metaphor for any pleasure, vice, or indulgence that is considered to be immoral, illegal, or “forbidden.”