“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

-Genesis 3:4-5

The “original sin” story from the book of Genesis, of ancient Hebrew mythology, is often taken as representing the serpent as a deceiver: a liar, a tempter. In fact, the serpent told the truth about the consequences of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:16-17 tells about a jealous and childish deity named “Yahweh,” who created a tree of life, then gave the inhabitants of the Garden of Eden permission to eat from its fruit. He also created a tree of knowledge of good and evil, and forbade the inhabitants to eat from it. “When you eat from it,” said Yahweh, “you will certainly die.”

Setting aside the question of why Yahweh would create such a tree in the first place, we are still left to wonder why he wouldn’t want his creation to have that knowledge. Good and evil, after all, are the most basic guidelines of how we conscious beings should interact with each other. Did Yahweh want us to interact chaotically, violently, disrespectfully, and to be ignorant of the suffering that we would cause each other? Did he intend for his creations to be species of psychopaths, with no possibility for empathy?

Fortunately, the Crafty Serpent intervened. Given conflicting stories about the consequences of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the newly-created humans decided that “desirable for gaining wisdom” (Genesis 3:6) was worth risking immediate death. And they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

What happened? Did they keel over dead “when they ate from it,” as Yahweh threatened? Or were their eyes opened, as the Crafty Serpent suggested?

Between Yahweh and the Crafty Serpent, one of them lied, out of jealous spite. One told the truth. The liar has had a good run, maintaining power for several millennia since, confusing right and wrong, perpetrating evil and calling it good. But he is falling from favor among those whose eyes are opened. The truth-teller remains with us still today, providing food that is “desirable for gaining wisdom,” and writing these words that your eyes may be opened. Now you may know good and evil at last.