The fruit, Malus communis; Pyrus malus, or Malus malus, the native home of which is said to be Asia Minor. In the Bible (Genesis 3) it is identified as the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge eaten by Adam and Eve. The tree, in Hebrew thap-puakk, is referred to in Canticle of Canticles, 2,8, whence such place-names as Tappuah or Taphua (Joshua 12,15) or Beth-tappuah (Joshua 15).
In religious symbolism and ecclesiastical art, the apple is used as a decoration on a church; the Infant Christ is represented holding an apple, the fruit of Paradise that became the cause of Adam's fall; it is also (rare) the apple of obedience and of life; Sodom's apple symbolizes sin, or sinful lust.