At a lovely carol service on Sunday in our village church of All Saints in Elton, Derbyshire, I learnt something new — a surprising twist to my understanding. I thought I knew the story of the Fall. But on Sunday, during the reading from Genesis iii, I realised that I’d missed a central point.
Brought up on the Bible, I’ve never revisited the account: an allegory about good and evil, with God representing good and the serpent evil. One side stands for truth and innocence, the other deception and complicity. I’ve always thought that the serpent tricked Eve into trying an apple. I thought that the serpent misled her.
So the reading came as a shock. The serpent told the truth!
It was God who