Biblical references...
Genesis 1:29... "Then God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you..."
Genesis 2:16-17... "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
Song of Solomon 2:3... Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men.  In his shade I took great delight and sat down, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
Song of Solomon 8:5... Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?  Beneath the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother was in labor with you, there she was in labor and gave you birth.
Joel 1:12... The vine dries up And the fig tree fails; The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, All the trees of the field dry up. Indeed, rejoicing dries up.
Proverbs 25:11... Like apples of gold in settings of silver.  Is a word spoken in right circumstances.

Discussion Thoughts... Most people believe that the "forbidden" fruit that Adam and Eve ate was an apple... problem is that the bible does not say it was an apple... the bible simple says in Genesis 2:16-17  "from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat".

At no place in the bible does it say there were apple trees in the Garden of Eden... at several other places in the bible it does talk about "apples"... see Song of Solomon 2:3 & 8:5, Joel 1:12, and Proverbs 25:11.

The bible says in Genesis 1:29 and 2:16-17 that Adam and Eve could eat fruit from every tree that had fruit yielding seed except from the tree of knowledge... from those statement you could arrive at interesting conclusions...
     1. That they could eat from all trees that had fruit with seeds (like an apple) and could not
         eat fruits without seeds (I don't know of any such fruit that grow on trees).
     2. That the tree of knowledge had fruit without seeds.
     3. You could consider statements 1 & 2 sarcastic, dumb, simplistic, ridiculous, etc. and I
          would agree... just want to get your creative thinking working!

It is also interesting to note that God did not give any instruction to any animals as to what they could or could not eat... the only instructions were to Adam and Eve.


My Beliefs... So, what we know is that there were apple trees in biblical times but the tree of knowledge may or "may not" have been an apple tree.  And, it is not really important... what is important to understand is when "original sin" started (see our other study on "original sin") and that "original sin" (eating the apple) is forgivable.