> Luke 6:43 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. (par. Matt. 7:17)

Those who press this agricultural metaphor a little too far may observe that even the best tree makes rotten fruit now and then.

True, but that's not quite what Jesus has in mind. We are so focused on the cultivated fruit we find in markets that we forget there are worlds of fruit trees unfit for human consumption.

One of these, given as an exemplar in Malina and Rohrbaugh's social science commentary, is the Sodom's Apple, reputed in Jewish legend to have been one of the effects of the judgment on Sodom. As these authors describe it, the tree is "low and unattractive" and while the fruit looks good enough to eat, its interior is full of seeds and tufts of hairlike growth that make it practically inedible and unpleasant to consume. The rind is poisonous and the sap is extremely irritating to the skin.

Of course, it might be argued that an apple tree might produce a rotten apple now and then; but if that's the fault of pests or drought, for example, that is not making the fruit inherently bad by nature, which is the whole point of the parable.