Talk:Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil

The palm tree (Borassus flabbifera), with its associations with the snake- snakes live in them; nakedness- the most primitive textiles are derived from palm fibers; evil- wine, or toddy is produced from it; good- clothing, roofing, food (as fruit, tubers and shoots) all come from it; sex- the seeds are listed in pharmacopoeias as aphrodisiac; and knowledge- the first known books were written on palm leaves; seems to be the most likely candidate for the actual model of the tree. Other threads of evidence seem to point in that direction too- especially that the pagan forms of snake worship prevalent in Bible times sometimes made use of the palm's resemblance to a hooded cobra rearing; another clue may be derived from Canaan's association with Phoenicia and Phoenicia's association with the palm. The fruit of the Borassus resembles the fig superficially, and is named similarly to the Hebrew for fig (ta'anah-תאנה) especially in those Tibeto-Burman language families nearest the Mid-East (khymer: tanot, etc.). If it were indeed the fig that Adam and Eve ate of, then the needle and thread with which they stitched together ta'anah leaves to cover their nakedness (Genesis 3-7), may have been provided by the palm Klasovsky 15:23, 8 January 2013 (EST)