The “Adam’s apple” is the lump on the forepart of the throat that is especially visible in men. Most people assume that the term “Adam’s apple” comes directly from Genesis in the Old Testament but the fact of the matter is, it doesn’t.
Yes, contrary to popular belief, the Bible does not identify the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge as being an apple. The fruit is simply called the “fruit from the Tree of Knowledge” with no specification as to which kind of fruit it happens to be.
So how did the popular misconception come about? It was Flemish painter Hugo Van Der Goes who first implied that an apple was the forbidden fruit. In Van Der Goes‘ painting of 1468 entitled “The Fall of Man” he expressed his personal feelings on the tragedy of the drama of the Fall and Redemption.
During Roman times, the pomegranate was a particularly popular fruit. Pliny the Elder, the Roman encyclopedist, termed the phrase for the pomegranate tree as being “malum punicum” — the Carthaginian apple. To this end, it’s easy to see why Van Der Goes would choose to paint apples and not pomegranates in his painting depicting the event leading up to Adam and Eve being thrown out of Paradise.
However, the reference to the larynx being an apple originated sometime earlier in the Middle Ages. Pietro d’Argellata, wrote a detailed description of his examination of the body of Pope Alexander V, who died suddenly at Bologna on May 4, 1410. His notes on the procedure — which is now customary in the Coroner’s office — provided this as part of his description:
I ordered the attendants first to cut the abdomen from the pomegranate to the OS pectinis.
It was understood by all medical personnel at the time that the “pomegranate” when speaking in medical terms was the larynx.
The myth during Medieval times was that while in the Garden of Eden, the forbidden fruit Adam ate became lodged in his throat, causing him to choke. In this respect, the pomegranate was associated with the “lump” in Adam‘s throat.
The fact of the matter is that the Latin term “pomum Adami” means “male bump” and when coupled with the myth, the Latin term and the myth lead to a mistranslation of “Adam’s apple” when referring to the larynx.
Historically Speaking 