Thanks for the response. I wondered whether you might be outlining the traditional Christian perspective, as what you said sounded very familiar. But do you agree with it?

On the Garden of Eden myth, I have one of those more esoteric interpretations that you referred to, but that's another story.

The alternative view is that 'God' may not be the theistic, omnipotent, omniscient, purely benevolent being that Christianity proposes, rather an ultimate Ground of Being, the source (Unus Mundus, the One) of everything that exists. If 'God' is the ultimate source of everything, then we don't have to find explanations for how such a being could allow evil.