The name ‘Lilith’ is usually translated as ‘night monster’.The first woman whose story was dropped unrecorded and untold, whose home, hope, and Eden were passed to another woman Eve. She, out of pride, stubbornness, and rebellious nature, abandoned Adam, and she was transformed into a demon. Her name and character are thought to be derived from the Mesopotamian demons. Eve was created from Adam’s rib, whereas Lilith was a woman implied in Genesis 1:27’… and was created from the same soil as Adam’. Lilith was created from the filth and sediment. Lilith left Adam and the Garden of Eden; three angels tried to bring her back but in vain.
The figure of Lilith was no longer discussed in the Torah. The figure of Lilith was discussed four times in Babylonian Talmud. Lilith was Adam’s first wife, but the couple kept fighting all the time. At last, Lilith uttered the holy ineffable name of God and flew into the air. God sent three angels to force her to come back. They met her by the Red Sea but could not convince her. She chose to mate with angels and become the mother of demons. Because of her refusal, the angels cursed her that 100 of her seeds will die daily.
Later she tried to come back in the Garden Of Eden, but upon her arrival, she discovered that Adam already had another mate named Eve. In some references, it is mentioned that in revenge, she stole Adam’s seed while he was sleeping, that is she slept with him without his knowledge. With this seed, she bears ‘lilium’, earthbound demon to replace her children killed by the angels. Some say that she came in disguise of a serpent and exacted her ultimate revenge by causing Adam and Eve to fall. God declared that the serpent Lilith and her seed would be locked in the epic battle with eve and her promised seed. Lilith’s seed would bruise the heel of Eve’s seed, but Eve’s seed would crush Lilith’s head. Eve’s promised seed was Messiah whereas Lilith’s seed was a rival to Massiah (Azazel).
In another legend, most probably Middle-Eastern, Lilith; an assertive wife who rebelled against God and her husband, was replaced by another woman and known as the dangerous killer of babies. Lilith, therefore, wedded Eblis, the prince of devils, and became the mother of demons and specters. Later legends characterized her as a beautiful woman who seduces men and brings about demon children.
At first, Lilith is mentioned in ancient Babylonian texts as a winged demon that attacks pregnant women and infants. Then this legend spread to Anatolia, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and Greece. She appears in Isaiah 34:14, among the list of nocturnal creatures who will haunt the destroyed kingdom of Edom. This is her only mention in The Complete Jewish Bible, but her legend continued to grow in ancient Judaism.
In the New American Bible translation, according to Isaiah 34:14, it is written:
(12) Her nobles shall be no more, nor shall kings be proclaimed there; all her princes are gone. (13) Her castles shall be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She shall become an abode for jackals and a haunt for ostriches. (14) Wildcats shall meet with desert beasts, satyrs shall call to one another; There shall the Lilith repose, and find for herself a place to rest. (15) There the hoot owl shall nest and lay eggs, hatch them out and gather them in her shadow; There shall the kites assemble, none shall be missing its mate. (16) Look in the book of the LORD and read: No one of these shall be lacking, For the mouth of the LORD has ordered it, and His spirit shall gather them there. (17) It is He who casts the lot for them, and with His hands He marks off their shares of her; They shall possess her forever, and dwell there from generation to generation.
This information suggests that there is some mythology behind Lilith when Isaiah comes forward, but some say that story is omitted from the text. Majority glean from this reference that she was viewed as a negative figure from the early point.
The Isaiah passage lacks specifics in describing Lilith, but it locates her in desolate places. The Bible verse thus links Lilith directly to the demon of the Gilgamesh epic who flees to the desert.
After the murder of Adam’s son, Abel, by his elder son Cain, Adam refused to sleep with Eve. He was afraid of another murder, perhaps. During the night, Lilith came and mated with him in his sleep and bore him countless demons that would beset the world.
Considering every word of the Bible to be accurate and sacred, commentators needed a story to justify the creation narratives of Genesis1 and 2; God creates woman twice- once with man, then from the man’s rib. So, according to critics, there must be two women. Bible named the second woman Eve; Lilith was identified as the first in order to complete the story. However, some say that this is completely absurd.
Lilith having being created along with Adam in Genesis chapter 1:
Genesis 1- 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.In chapter 2 we get Adam being formed before the woman. The woman being formed from the rib of Adam after Adam could not find a help meet for himself.
Genesis 2: 21-22
The LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
While “Lilith” held great fascination as a night female nymph/spirit/demon of wanton sexual prowess, there is nothing in the Bible about such a creature. The Hebrew word “Lilith” simply means “screech owl,” and in Akkadian, it means wicked demon.
There are theories, strongly debated, that the two related languages, Hebrew and Akkadian, possibly influenced each other, and the fascination with Lilith reached its zenith during the high middle ages.
The Lilith legend continued to grow and change over the following centuries, which is reflected in various artistic depictions of her. While some portrayed Lilith as a beautiful woman, others showed her in a more sinister light. Some even depicted her as the serpent in the Garden Of Eden.
According to a few learners, she is a symbol of independence and some feminists have used her as a symbol of empowerment. Some take her as vengeful toward men. Stealing the lives of children represents an absolute madness that accompanies her solitude and exclusion.
In conclusion, some support her character, but some say that she was misinterpreted, and Lilith was not the first woman, Eve was the only one as the Bible states clearly. Myths are powerful, which push the believers to assume and think over their right perception and approach
