the fruit

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife bhid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The location of the Garden as said in Genesis is described in reference to the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates rivers; and three regions of Havilah, Assyria, and Kush. There are hypotheses that place Eden at the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates (northern Mesopotamia), in Iraq (Mesopotamia), Africa, and the Persian Gulf.

All of this being said, I find it odd and funny that we often picture Adam and Eve eating an apple as the "forbidden" fruit. Why, though? If we look at a map of the general location of what is described in Genesis, it's not hard to see what kind of food will thrive there: dates, grapes, figs, grapefruit, oranges. Not sure we'd find an apple there. Granted, it was the perfect garden with no blemish, all the animals of the earth were there for Adam to name. So even if the Garden was conducive to grow an apple at the time, I wonder why so many people just assume it was that? And if the fruit is from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the only tree not to eat from or touch, then how can we even assume there are more of this fruit still on earth? Maybe that was the only tree that bore that specific, special type. Or maybe since Adam and Eve's fall it doesn't matter if we're exposed to said fruit.

I know what kind of fruit it is has no importance or implication on the Gospel, but I just found it very interesting how over the centuries it became an apple.