Plot hole might be the wrong words...
The prequels make it look like OB1 is a jerkass who lies to Luke about everything.
Of course, George Lucas wrote the prequels after the original trilogy. So it's more of a prequel oversight than a plot hole. George wrote himself into a corner. In the early drafts, Vader gets knocked into a lava pit and somehow survived. In the final script be gets half killed next to a lava pit, but OB1 just let's him suffer and doesn't finish the job.
So if you watch the movies in chronological order, obi wan kenobi looks like a real snake.