Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Lilith



According to midrashic literature, Adam's first wife was not Eve but a woman named Lilith, who was created in the first Genesis account.


When God created Adam, he was lonely, so God created Lilith from the same dust from which Adam was molded. But they quarreled; Adam [the proverbial domineering male] wished to rule over Lilith. But Lilith [a militant feminist] was also proud and willful, claiming equality with Adam because she was created from the same dust.

One day Adam commanded Lilith to lay beneath him, she refused. She left Adam and fled the Garden. God sent three angels in pursuit of Lilith. They caught her and ordered her to return to Adam. She refused again.

They let her go, and God created Eve to be Adam's mate [created from Adam's rib, so that she couldn't claim equality]. Lilith was banished from the world of Adam and Eve but she occasionally managed to sneak back. She became Adam's forbidden fruit or the evil serpent, someone he could not forget about.


Who was she? Was there another woman that God created before Eve that rebelled? Was she an ancient Sumerian demon? Was she a counterpart to Lucifer? Was she the originator of demons and vampires? These questions and many others have been theorized and studied for centuries. One thing all accounts seem to agree upon... Lilith was a force to be reckoned with.

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