A "Corruption of the Facts"

Hughes's poem Theology obviously differs quite a bit from the story in Genesis that is is alluding to. According to the Bible, Eve was seduced by the serpent (or Satan in the form of a serpent) and convinced to eat an apple from a tree she and Adam had been forbidden to eat from. After eating it, she then convinced Adam to do the same, causing the two to be exiled from the Garden of Eden. While in Theology, the story happens a little bit differently. In this version, Adam eats the apple, Eve eats Adam, and the serpent eats Eve. Then the serpent sleeps in the Garden of Eden and laughs to himself when he hears God calling out to Adam and Eve asking where they are.

Hughes calls this "the dark intestine". While at first, this may be seen only as a play on the ingestion that has taken place, it could also mean something like the dark truth, or the underlying truth. Maybe Hughes is putting some of his personal beliefs, or disbeliefs, into this poem. Maybe "the dark intestine" or underlying truth is that this is what happened in the Garden of Eden, where Satan came out on top and God was left wondering what happened.