What does the forbidden fruit eaten by Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis actually symbolise?

It symbolizes choice. God gave man a choice to obey or not to obey. This makes God legitimate.

He is real. Only a real God would give true choice to be with him or to reject him. Once they made the choice, they fell in to sin and a whole new nature they never new before.

God said no - for a reason. - Harlan.

Like telling a child "don't touch that", and then the child touches. It's a story based on a test of trust!

The ability to know good and evil and choose between. Without choice we would not be able to do good or sin. Everything must have its opposite.

Darkness could not exist without light. Sweet without bitter. Hate without love.

We have a power that no other creature in the universe has, the ability to choose to be good or bad. A bad dog is only bad because it was forced into such behavior. A human has the ability to choose to be good or bad no matter what.

It was called the tree of knowledge of good and evil. After eating the fruit Adam and Eve became conscious about evil, so the paradise was lost. It symbolizes the price of free will - you can make your choices, but you have to take the consequences.

There is no freedom without responsibility. However it is a complex symbol and many meanings could be attributed to it. It's interesting to read other interpretations.

It is showing us we all have the choice of good over bad. God does not make us good, satan does not make us bad. Satan has temptations that pull us, God has blessings and promises of life everlastingly good, while telling us going with satan will be everlasting damnation.

Not a hard choice to me.

I'm not sure if it actually symbolizes a specific thing. God was simply testing Adam and Eve to see if they really loved m and would do as he says. You might say that the forbidden fruit symbolizes sin.

I always took it in as temptation in the form of an object. More of a lure than anything else.

IMO The apple symbolises choice - the choice to do something which you know you shouldn't do. The apple itself is not bad, it is the fact that God told A & E not to eat it that matters. While there was plenty of other fruit about to eat, they chose to eat that which they shouldn't - perhaps also a comment on greed?

The gift of free will given by God out of his beautiful love.

It symbolizes the temptation of forbidden knowledge.

The tree symbolized the right for Jehovah to determine or set the standards of good and bad for man, thus he was the only one that had that right; by stating this man was totally dependent on him as the Sovereign Ruler. In obeying, the first man and woman demonstrated they respected God’s right to determine what was “good” (divinely approved) and what was “bad” (divinely condemned). Their disobedience signified they rebelled against God’s sovereignty and had the right for them to be "independent."

All of us know the consequences that brought. "I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step."

Jeremiah 10:23.

This is a rather complicated question and it has to do with the subject of the blood covenant. I have a blog - church-exodus.blogspot.com/ where I am slowly getting to this particular verse, but haven't gotten to it yet so I will give a short answer here. The two trees represent the 2 covenants, 1 to YHWH and the other to the Nachash(the deceiver or HaSatan, the word in Hebrew is a word used to describe not a snake as one would think, but one who is a liar and is full of the Occult) While God creates all, God never says that this tree is He specifically says don't have anything to do with it as when you do you will be covenanting with the Nachash and the penalty for doing so would be death, etc.This story in Hebrew is quite different than in English and the main theme of the story is intimacy.

I believe it was God's way of making man and womankind understand that they are fallible, while God is not. We were made in we were given the gift of free will. We made good choices, we make bad choices, but they are ours to make, not God's.

Our mistakes are how we find out who we truly are as a person and a child of God (if you believe in God). It gives us our unique make up, our individuality, our personalities. Since Adam and Eve, humans are like snowflakes; rarely are two are ever the same.

I'll say the friut might really have been a fruit whatever it was..the order was 'don't eat' and they chose to disobey...whatever it was.....we are damned by it.

The "Forbidden fruit" is the lie of the "Deceiver" Satan. The Deceiver once was eternal and also ate of the Tree of life, hence the eternal life. Satan lost, his eternal life to the opposite side called Evil.

This tainting creature eventually tainted Eve by "beguiling" her into believing what he said and not what God told Adam concerning the "Knowledge of good and evil". Adam and Eve were eternal also and had not eaten or believed what Satan had to offer to one point, and their knowledge and existence was without death, due to their existence fully within the presence of God, where the knowledge of evil did not exist. When Eve ate of this lie " Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:Eating the fruit of Satan is eating of the forbidden fruit, and Satan's fruit is a perpetual lie, by deceiving humans into believing him or even better creating every kind of Doctrine that confuses humans in believing in God, like "Evolution, Atheism, Religion, etc etc.

I don't know if anyone said this yet; Eve's vagina.

I think of Adam & Eve as being familially related, at least genetically so. Eve was created from the rib of Adam, right? Perhaps this alludes to the admonishment against immediate gratification of sexual desire, forbidding incest, if you will.

And perhaps extending that theory, a further lesson on controlling one's desires in all areas when acting in the moment may be wrong, while future results may be devastating. Kinda like buying a home when your income is shaky & you get a loan for the full amount, including down payment, & know that the interest rate is flexible, & your spouse doesn't want to stay at their job, & your kids' college plans include private schools, & your credit cards are maxed out.....but STILL you have to, have to 'go for it'.....ah, the disasters, the dangers of immediate gratification when all along you KNEW better. Homelessness is the disaster you could have averted, if only...Ah, but I digress....the forbidden fruit was, in my opinion, the lesson for Adam & Eve that one must put aside immediate gratification for the wiser vision of how one's actions of the moment may create a future that is not healthy, wealthy, or wise.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.