The usual translation of ‘eµs hadda‘t toÆb waµra‘, “the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” is deficient in two respects. First, it misses slightly the grammar: “Good” and “evil” are direct objects. More important, it distorts the nuance: Hebrew ra‘ connotes not only moral evil, but ordinary unfitness, “bad” as in “bad apple.” Thus the common view that the tree confers ethical responsibility is incorrect or at least incomplete. There is, by the way, no reason to think the Tree of Knowing Good and Bad is an apple tree. Quite the contrary: Each of the magical trees of Eden is one of a kind. The apple tradition goes back to a Latin pun: Malum means both and “evil.”
