Lilith. Adam’s First Wife?

I am finally going to discuss Lilith… So many have asked me if I believe Lilith was Adam’s “first” wife. I will pick apart my research I have done months past and explain to you the history of her, the text she was first mentioned in, some historical facts and findings, and finally if I actually believe in her.

First of all, I have a lot of issues about certain things in the Bible. Some things make me sick and disgusted, but if you think back with the logic that many have helped explain, it “makes sense”. Regardless, they are still sick to me.

What sick things am I meaning? Oh, well ya know, the part where God “ok’d” it to sleep with your relatives, sisters, daughters, etc. Oh, but when Jesus comes, everything is love, honey and joy, preferably Celibate joy but whatever. If we just cant control ourselves, marry and be miserable. – paraphrased.

Perhaps that is why you enjoy reading my thoughts on things like this, because I’m honest. I say it the way it is. I’m not afraid to call out the shit in the Bible that I find confusing, yet still love God and believe in Jesus (and say shit without feeling bad).

Well, let’s jump right into it, shall we? Get ready for some boring history and quotes, but it’s a must in order to find out for yourself what you believe regarding the rumors of a second wife.

In rabbinic literature Lilith is variously depicted as the mother of Adam’s demonic offspring following his separation from Eve or as his first wife. Whereas Eve was created from Adam’s rib (Genesis 2:22), some accounts hold that Lilith was the woman implied in Genesis 1:27 and was made from the same soil as Adam. Here we have another example of where the Bible can be VERY confusing…

Insolently refusing to be subservient to her husband, Lilith left Adam and the perfection of the Garden of Eden; three angels tried in vain to force her return. According to some mythologies, her demonic offspring were sired by an archangel named Samael and were not Adam’s progeny. Those children are sometimes identified as incubi and succubi.

Through the literature of the Kabbalah, Lilith became fixed in Jewish demonology where her primary role is that of strangler of children and a seducer of men ? Oh, sorry. Where was I…. Ahh yes…The Kabbalah further enhanced her demonic character by making her the partner of Samael (i.e. Satan) and queen of the realm of the forces of evil.

Lilith is referred to only once in the Old Testament. In the Darby translation of Isaiah 34:14 the original Hebrew word is rendered as “lilith”; according to Isaiah, when God’s vengeance has turned the land into a wilderness, “there shall the beasts of the desert meet with the jackals, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; the lilith also shall settle there, and find for herself a place of rest.” The same word is translated elsewhere, however, as “screech owl, “night creatures,” “night monsters,” and “night hag.”

Although it has been suggested that the association with night stems from a similarity between the Sumero-Babylonian demon Lilitu and the Hebrew word laylah meaning “night,” Lilith nonetheless seems to have been otherwise associated with darkness and night as a time of fear, vulnerability, and evil.

Throughout history, there are depictions and tales of “gods and goddesses”. I do not believe in more than one God. I do believe, however, in angels. There were angels on earth, who walked on earth. I Just read the Book of Enoch where it spoke of tales of powerful, unique, weird beings in the early years of man, where the “fallen” angels (aka demons) had sex with humans, thus creating weird looking things.

The look of angels have varied throughout the Bible, you see this throughout the Old Testament and Revalations. You have human, man looking angels, half cow looking angels, serpent looking angels, half lion looking angels, the list goes on. Many were also said to be gorgeous, near perfection of beings, so it wouldn’t be surprising if perhaps demons would be seen as either female or male……or a half cow looking person…..?

It’s no secret that throughout history, women have been kept subbordanent as much as possible so men can rule and control. The brutality and “rules” women have had to endure is saddening… Therefore it would be no surprise that Lilith would be put up at the one to blame for men’s “weaknesses”. The arrogance of man is legendary, anyway they can blame the woman has been tradition throughout history… In the Middle Ages, if a woman couldn’t get pregnant or bare a son, she might be put to death but definitely blamed for it. Now science has discovered that the reason is typically the man’s fault (concerning their sperm). Women were then taught that an independent woman like Lilith is evil and would kill your children, so wear them amulets!

Not surprised…

BUT IS LILITH IN THE BIBLE?

In the Apocryphal Testament of Reuben (one of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, ostensibly the twelve sons of Jacob), for example, it is explained that:

• Women are evil, my children: because they have no power or strength to stand up against man, they use wiles and try to ensnare him by their charms; and man, whom woman cannot subdue by strength, she subdues by guile.

• (Testament of Reuben: V, 1-2, 5)

Really, Reuben? Really?

Despite the fact that she is not “officially” recognized in the Christian tradition (minus those verses I shared earlier in this video, where many still deny that thats Lilith its referring to), in the Late Middle Ages she is occasionally identified with the serpent in Genesis 3 and shown accordingly with a woman’s head and torso. For example, the bare-breasted woman with a snake’s lower parts posed seductively in the branches of the tree between Adam and Eve in the scene of the temptation carved into the base of the trumeau in the left doorway of the West façade of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris has been identified as Lilith.

I remember looking up at that scene when visiting Paris many years ago… The details were surreal.

Lilith’s role as Adam’s first wife became part of the Jewish tradition when she was mentioned in a midrash, a text that interprets and explains Hebrew scriptures. The midrash elaborated on inconsistencies in the Book of Genesis: In Genesis 1, man and woman are created at the same time, but then Genesis 2 establishes Eve as the product of Adam’s rib. To reconcile these diverging accounts, there must have been another woman in Adam’s life.

The Alphabet of Ben Sira, a work produced sometime between the eighth and 10th centuries CE, offers a more in-depth explanation of what happened between Adam and Lilith. Other accounts describe Adam having a wife before Eve, but the Alphabet gives her a name and describes their falling-out. This work became part of Jewish tradition sometime around the year 1000 CE. According to this interpretation, their marriage eventually failed and she left, prompting God to create Eve.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, a group of some 800 texts discovered in the 1940s and 1950s on the West Bank near the Dead Sea, mention Lilith. The scrolls include Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek prayers, legal documents, biblical writings, and apocryphal works.

Lilith is referred to in the “Song for a Sage,” which was possibly a hymn used during exorcisms:

Some historical texts and various works of art suggest that Lilith is the serpent in the Garden of Eden.

Michelangelo’s painting in the Sistine Chapel depicting “The Fall of Man,” for example, features a figure with the body of a woman and the tail of a serpent wrapped around a tree, which some suggest represents Lilith.

A Kabbalah text describes Lilith as the serpent:

History just built upon Babylonian representations of her, keeping her as the main reason for many woes, even putting women against her, as being the reason their man might stray, be tempted, etc. Many women still keep up that tradition too! ?

By providing background on Lilith, Jewish scholars not only clarified the Book of Genesis, but also explained how and why Lilith had been the target of harsh treatment for centuries. They decided to confirm it because the accounts of this woman came from all kinds of various historical documents, from various times throughout centuries. Is it possible that it was simple a rumor that spread far and wide, thus being depicted throughout centuries as a tale that is told? Or are there so many various accounts that that CONFIRMS that it must be true, as the Jews concluded and believes?

Unfortunately, just like the Bible, there is not CONCRETE yes or no answer for this. However, just like the Bible, evidence continues to be unburied, showing the footprints of Biblical texts, proving things one at a time. Perhaps this is simply another tale you must choose to also believe based on faith, or toss out because the Bible doesn’t elaborate… Perhaps we should create another denomination for this one? ?? No? I thought that was what Christians do?

Do I believe in Lilith? No, because I just don’t care. She very well might have existed, but that isn’t what I focus on in my walk of faith and spirituality. What us Christians need to come out focusing on is that ONLY GOD is worshipped, that He sent down His son to save us, and that we are to love our neighbors and not judge one another. The rest doesnt condemn us to hell. Jesus hung out with all kinds of people and all kinds of parties, that believed all kinds of things. The New Testament changed the rules as Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament, complete it, override it. Thus, I just don’t think that hard on my “beliefs” on pre Jesus things (because He asks us not to).

Instead, I let the cosmos guide me, as Jesus and the Lord said they were there for. Use them and the angels for what their purposes are, but worship and believe my God.

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https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/lilith-lady-flying-in-darkness/ 

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