The Detail In Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Everyone Missed

The Sistine Chapel is one of the most iconic locations in the world, decorated by the work of the most brilliant artists of the Renaissance period, including Rosselli, Botticelli, and most famously, Michelangelo. But did Michelangelo secretly hide Jewish symbolism within the painting? It's long been accepted Michelangelo wasn't above adding a little controversy to his art. "...shameful and obscene." "...what have you to say?" "...I will paint man as God made him, in the glory of his nakedness." For instance, we know that he snuck in some Renaissance-era Easter eggs, like using his own image for St. Bartholomew's flayed skin, and for the severed head of Holofernes. Rabbi Benjamin Blech, an associate professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University, believes that Michelangelo did more. In his book The Sistine Secrets, Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican, Blech argues that Michelangelo intentionally hid allusions to Judaism in the painting. And the biggest clue to this secret has been right in front of our faces all along, in the form of a simple fig. "...the fig is a very secretive fruit." See, part of the ceiling tells the story of Adam and Eve. Until recently, few people noticed that the section depicting the temptation doesn't quite sync with Christian tradition, as it depicts a fig tree rather than an apple tree. It doesn't seem like much, but according to NPR, it's actually a huge deal. It turns out that the Bible never actually defines what the forbidden fruit was, simply calling it the fruit. But today, everyone believes it was an apple, thanks to a fourth-century scholar with a taste for bad puns. That scholar was Jerome, and he was the one Pope Damasus tasked with translating the Hebrew Bible into Latin. That Hebrew Bible used the word peri to describe the forbidden bit of goodness Eve bit into, which is just a generic term meaning any sort of fruit. When Jerome translated it, though, he saw an opportunity to write in what he and his sense of humor saw as an excellent pun. He used the Latin word malus, which translates as both evil and apple. Hilarious, right? Of course, there are other theories, as some scholars think the forbidden fruit was actually a grape, while others even argue it wasn't a fruit at all, but rather wheat or a loaf of bread. But the prevailing idea that the forbidden fruit was an apple eventually became entrenched in popular thought, in part thanks to classic literary works from the likes of Albrecht Durer and Milton. So why did Michelangelo buck common wisdom and decide to use a fig tree instead of an apple tree? Well, Rabbi Blech claims that Jewish traditions may hold the answer. According to Chabad, Jewish sages wrote that the forbidden fruit went unspecified in the original texts because of a fear people would ultimately refuse to eat the fruit that brought about the downfall of man. Believe context clues indicate the fruit was actually a fig. It's notable that when Adam and Eve realize they're naked, they cover themselves with fig leaves. Not only is there clearly a fig tree right there, but scholars write, by that with which they were made low, they were rectified. Blech believes, therefore, that Michelangelo's decision to portray a fig instead of an apple indicates more than a passing familiarity with Jewish scholarship. He also believes it's just one of many bits of Jewish symbolism included by Michelangelo during the creation of the Sistine Chapel. Blech claims some of the figures are also positioned in the shape of Hebrew letters, which have symbolic meaning in the esoteric Kabbalah tradition. For example, the figures of David and Goliath resemble the Hebrew letter Gimel, which can represent strength. So did Michelangelo, as Rabbi Blech suggests, paint the Sistine Chapel to be a bridge between the Roman Catholic world and the Jewish one? If so, well played, Michelangelo!