7.

Eve & Lilith

In an effort to explain inconsistencies in the Old Testament, there
developed in Jewish literature a complex interpretive system called the midrash which attempts to reconcile biblical contradictions and bring new meaning to the scriptural text. Employing both a philological method and often an ingenious imagination, midrashic writings, which reached their height in the 2nd century CE, influenced later Christian interpretations of the Bible. Inconsistencies in the story of Genesis, especially the two separate accounts of creation, received particular attention. Later, beginning in the 13th century CE, such questions were also taken up in Jewish mystical literature known as the Kabbalah. According to midrashic literature, Adam's first wife was not Eve but a woman named Lilith, who was created in the first Genesis account. Only when Lilith rebelled and abandoned Adam did God create Eve, in the second account, as a replacement. In an important 13th century Kabbalah text, the Sefer haZohar ("The Book of Splendour") written by the Spaniard Moses de Leon (c. 1240-1305), it is explained that:
At the same time Jehovah created Adam, he created a woman, Lilith, who like Adam was taken from the earth. She was given to Adam as his wife. But there was a dispute between them about a matter that when it came before the judges had to be discussed behind closed doors. She spoke the unspeakable name of Jehovah and vanished.

In the Alpha Betha of Ben Sira (Alphabetum Siracidis,or Sepher Ben Sira), an anonymous collection of midrashic proverbs probably compiled in the 11th century C.E., it is explained more explicitly that the conflict arose because Adam, as a way of asserting his authority over Lilith, insisted that she lie beneath him during sexual intercourse (23 A-B). Lilith, however, considering herself to be Adam's equal, refused, and after pronouncing the Ineffable Name (i.e. the magic name of God) flew off into the air. Adam, distraught and no doubt also angered by her insolent behaviour, wanted her back. On Adam's request, God sent three angels, named Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, who found her in the Red Sea. Despite the threat from the three angels that if she didn't return to Adam one hundred of her sons would die every day, she refused, claiming that she was created

expressly to harm newborn infants. However, she did swear that she would not harm any infant wearing an amulet with the images and/or names of the three angels on it. At this point, the legend of Lilith as the "first Eve" merges with the earlier legend of Sumero-Babylonian origin, dating from around 3,500 BCE, of Lilith as a winged female demon who kills infants and endangers women in childbirth. In this role, she was one of several mazakimor "harmful spirits" known from incantation formulas preserved in Assyrian, Hebrew, and Canaanite inscriptions intended to protect against them. As a female demon, she is closely related to Lamashtu whose evilness included killing children, drinking the blood of men, and eating their flesh. Lamashtu also caused pregnant women to miscarry, disturbed sleep and brought nightmares. In turn, Lamashtu is like another demonized female called Lamia, a Libyan serpent goddess, whose name is probably a Greek variant of Lamashtu. Like Lamashtu, Lamia also killed children. In the guise of a beautiful woman, she also seduced young men. In the Latin Vulgate Bible, Lamia is given as the translation of the Hebrew Lilith (and in other translations it is given as "screech owl" and "night monster"). It needs to be remembered that these demonic "women" are essentially personifications of unseen forces invented to account for otherwise inexplicable events and phenomena which occur in the real world. Lilith, Lamashtu, Lamia and other female demons like them are all associated with the death of children and especially with the death of newborn infants. It may be easily imagined that they were held accountable for such things as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS, also called crib death, or cot death) where an apparently healthy infant dies for no obvious reason. Cot death occurs almost always during sleep at night and is the most common cause of death of infants. Its cause still remains unknown. By inventing evil spirits like Lilith, Lamashtu, and Lamia, parents were not only able to identify the enemy but also to know what they had to guard against. Amulets with the names of the three angels were intended to protect against the power of Lilith. Lilith also personified licentiousness and lust. In the Christian Middle Ages she, or her female offspring, thelilim, became identified with succubae (the female counterparts of incubi) who would copulate with men in their sleep, causing them to have nocturnal emissions or "wet dreams."

Again, Lilith and her kind serve as a way of accounting for an otherwise inexplicable phenomenon among men. Today, 85 percent of all men experience "wet dreams" (the ejaculation of sperm while asleep) at some time in their lives, mostly during their teens and twenties and as often as once a month. In the Middle Ages, celibate monks would attempt to guard against these nocturnal visits by the lilith/succubus by sleeping with their hands crossed over their genitals and holding a crucifix. 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. 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. In this guise, she appears as the antagonistic negative counterpart of the Shekhinah ("Divine Presence"), the mother of the House of Israel. The Zohar repeatedly contrasts Lilith the unholy whorish woman with theShekhinah as the holy, noble, and capable woman. In much the same way, Eve the disobedient, lustful sinner is contrasted with the obedient and holy Virgin Mary in Christian literature. Through her couplings with the devil (or with Adam, as his succubus), Lilith gave birth to one hundred demonic children a day (the one hundred children threatened with death by the three angels). In this way, Lilith was held responsible for populating the world with evil. If you ask how Lilith herself, the first wife of Adam, became evil, the answer lies in her insubordination to her husband Adam. It is her independence from Adam, her position beyond the control of a male, that makes her "evil." She is disobedient and like Eve, and indeed all women who are willful, she is perceived as posing a constant threat to the divinely ordered state of affairs defined by men. Lilith is represented as a powerfully sexual woman against whom men and babies felt they had few defenses and, except for a few amulets, little protection. Much more so than Eve, Lilith is the personification female sexuality. Her legend serves to demonstrate how, when unchecked, female sexuality is disruptive and destructive. Lilith highlights how women, beginning with Eve, use their sexuality to seduce men. She provides thereby a necessary sexual

dimension, which is otherwise lacking, to the Genesis story which, when read in literal terms, portrays Eve not as some wickedfemme fatale but as a naive and largely sexless fool. Only as a Lilith-like character could Eve be seen as a calculating, evil, seductress. 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 laylahmeaning "night," Lilith nonetheless seems to have been otherwise associated with darkness and night as a time of fear, vulnerability, and evil. In her demonized form, Lilith is a frightening and threatening creature. Much more so than Eve, she personifies the real (sexual) power women exercise over men. She represents the deeper, darker fear men have of women and female sexuality. Inasmuch as female sexuality, as a result of this fear, has been repressed and subjected to the severest controls in Western patriarchal society, so too has the figure of Lilith been kept hidden. However, she lurks as a powerful unidentified presence, an unspoken name, in the minds of biblical commentators for whom Eve and Lilith become inextricably intertwined and blended into one person. Importantly, it is this Eve/Lilith amalgam which is used to identify women as the true source of evil in the world. 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)

References to Lilith in the Talmud describe her as a night demon with long hair (B. Erubin 100b) and as having a human likeness but with wings (B. Nidda 24b). In Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob ha-Kohen's "Treatise on the Emanations on the Left," written in Spain in the 13th century, she is described as having the form of a beautiful woman from her head to her waist, and "burning fire" from her waist down. Elsewhere, Rabbi Isaac equates her with the primordial serpent Leviathan. Crudely drawn images of Lilith can be seen on amulets(see Magical or Prophylactic images of Lilith in incantation bowls and on amulets).

Lilith? Babylonian terra-cotta relief, c. 2000 BCE (Collection of Colonel James Colville)

A Babylonian terra-cotta relief dated to around 2000 BCE in the collection of Colonel Norman Corville has been identified as a representation of Lilith (the identification has been questioned by a number of scholars). The relief shows a nude woman with wings and a bird's taloned feet. She wears a hat composed of four pairs of horns and holds in each upraised hand a combined ring and rod (similar to an Egyptian shen ring amulet). She stands on two reclining lions and is flanked by owls. Despite the fact that she is not officially recognized in the Christian tradition, 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 faade of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris has been identified as Lilith.

Adam, Lilith, and Eve relief sculpture, c. 1210 CE Base of trumeau, left portal, West Faade, Notre Dame, Paris END

HEBREW MYTHOLOGY--JK
Enter subhead content here

Hebrew Mythology: Gods & Demons of the Old Testament

The priest who in the 3rd century BC, translated into Greek the various works deemed inspired by the Jews and thus gave us the Septaguent Bible, and thus they fixed the Old Testaments (hereafter OT) ancient elements. Their vision of the world was as strange to us as those of the Ancient Greeks as found in the two books of Homer and the collection (Theogony) by Hesiod (5 centuries earlier). And just as by the time of Euripides much of these ancient elements were an embarrassment to the educated Greek, so too were they to the later educated Hebrews and Christians. The Christians hold that the Pagan description of the gods is patently false. Those who are modern in thought hold the same about the Hebrew (and Christian) fantastic passages found in their Bible. There are two related fundamental problems with the HebrewChristian view of the OT given their claim as to Yahwehs role in its production. Yahweh directly guided the production of the laws found in the Pentateuch. He also inspired the OT authors in their production of the description of demons, heaven beasts--and all else found in the OT. A conflict arises in that nearly all Christians and Jews do not believe that there are such spiritual creatures inhabiting the realm of the gods. They hold that there is only one Godthough the prophets and Moses wrote of many gods. Current Hebrew and Christian creed and the content of the Bible are in a conflict that wont go away. To make this conflict perfectly clear, I have set down what the Hebrews after the

captivity have told us about the realm of the gods.

Gods, Demigods, Spirits, Supernatural Monsters

ANGELS: Gods council and messenger. In Israels early traditions, God was perceived as administering the cosmos with a retinue of divine assistants. . . . The only two Angles named [Gabriel & Michael] in the Hebrew Bible are in the book of Daniel. . . . Angels are sexual being (Gen 6:4, Zech 5:9). Jacob wrestled with an Angel, see Gen 32:23-32

ANIMISM: Animistic notions may be discerned in the recognition of spirits inhabiting trees, animals, mountains, rivers, and storms (OCB 162). {List for citations abbreviations at end}

ASHERAH: The Canaanite fertility goddess who was worshiped as Yahwehs concert once widely worshiped by the Hebrews. Judging from OT references to her worship, it was surprised. 1 Kings 16:3 2 Kings 13:6, 18:4, 21:7, 23:4, 6-7, 15. The archaeologists found many pieces of pottery and fragments of wall plaster which have cultic motifs drawn on them or inscriptions, sometimes both. Some mention Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah (WOB 53). Asherah stood in the Temple in Jerusalem. . . . An Asherah also stood in Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel and in Yahwehs temple in Bethel (OCB 62).

AZAEL: A demon Various considered a fall angel (Ethiopian book of Enoch) and in the Mishnah as a demon unto whom the scapegoat was sent (OCB 69). Another deity, Khem-Azazel, to whom along with Yahweh an offering (specified in Leviticus 16:10) was made (GOGK 158). BAAL: A common Semitic word meaning owner, lord, husband. . . . Although the head of the Canaanite pantheon was El, Baal was the most important god because of his association with the storms that annually brought revival of vegetation and fertility. . . . By the ninth century BC, Baalism had deeply pervaded Israelite life. . . . Even Saul and David had sons with Baal names (1 Chron, 8:33, 14:7). . . . Opposition to Baalism was led by Israels prophets (OCB 70). BEHEMOTH: A beast conquered by Yahweh. Behold now Behamoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox (Job 40:15). In the apocrypha and pseudopigrapha, it is more likely that it is a form of the primeval monster of chaos, defeated by Yahweh at the beginning of the process of creation. . . (See Esd. 6:52) OCB 76-77. CHERUB: A supernatural creature (pl. Cherubim) Gen 3:24; Ezk 28:14-16; Exod 25:18-20, 25:22; Num 7:89; 2 Sam 22:11. [h]ybrid supernatural creatures associated with the presence of God . . . . Among the nearly one hundred occurrences of the word in the Bible, the usual image is that of a huge eagle-winged, humanfaced bull-lion . . . . Four interrelated roles for the cherubim can be identified: guardian of paradise . . . protective bearers of Gods throne . . . decorative element . . . means of Yahwehs mobility (OCB 107-108).

DEMON: An evil lesser god. Gen 4:7, 6:1-4; Num 5:14; Judg

9:25; 1 Sam 16:14; 1 Kings 22:22; Hos 4:12, elsewhere, and throughout the NT. Ideas about demons in the Hebrew Bible are too diverse to be systematized. Animistic notions may be discerned in the recognition of spirits inhabiting trees, animals, mountains, rivers, and storms. Allusions are found to belief in fertility deities, or in divine beings, who through sinning lost their heavenly home (OCB 162). And Yahweh said to Cain and Abel: If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is towards you, yet you can be his master (Gen 4:7). GODS: Other spirit being not of the court of Yahweh. References are to be found on nearly every page of the Pentateuch, Psalms, Prophets, and Histories. For the Lord, your God, is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome. . . (EX 10:18). You shall have no other gods besides me (Ex 5:8; the first of the Ten Commandments). Bel bows down and Nebo [of Babylon] stoop (Is 47:1). Our Lord is greater than all gods (Ps 135:4). LEVITHAN: A beast whom Yahweh conquered Ps 74:14-17, 104:26; Is 27:1; 2 Esd 6:49-52; Job 41. On that day, the Lord will punish with his sword that is cruel, great, and strong, Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the coiled serpent; and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea (Is 27:1). LILITH: A female demon Wildcats shall meet with desert beasts, satyrs shall call to one another. There shall the Lilith repose (Is. 3*4:14). Post biblical stories develop Lilith into the first wife of Adam. Noting that she and Adam were created from the earth, Lilith flies away from Adam after unsuccessfully demanding that she be regarded as his equal. In some postbiblical Jewish midrashic texts, she is depicted as a slayer of infants and women in pregnancy and childbirth, for which reason amulets were used against her destructive powers (OCB 437).

RAHAB: A name for a primeval adversary of Yahweh in the battle prior to creation (OCB 642). ; Isa 51:9; Ps 89:10; Job 9:13, 26:12; Sir 42:23-25. This name unlike the others in not found in ancient Near Eastern sources outside the Bible[1]. Was it not you who crushed Rahab, you who pierced the dragon (Isaiah 41:9). With his angry breath he scatters the water, and he hurls the lightening against them relentlessly; his hand pierces the fugitive dragon as from his hand it strives to flee (Job 26:12). REPHAIM: Giants, isa 26:14; Prov 2:18; Deut 2:20, 3:11-13; Josh 12:4, 13:12. A race of fearsome giants who once lived in parts of Palestine (OCB 647). ROBES: A demon Demon luring: in Hebrew, robes, Literally croucher, is used here, like the similar Akkadian term rabisu. To designate a certain kind of evil spirit (CB 5). SERAPH: A supernatural, winged beast (pl. Seraphim). Num 21:6-8; Deut 8:15; Isa 6:6, 14:29, 30:6. The noun sarap is usually related to the verb sarap, to burn. Because the term appears several times with reference to the serpents encountered in the wilderness, it has often been understood to refer to fiery serpents. In Isaiah 6:6 one of the seraphs brings the prophet a live coal from the fire on the altar: note however, that the seraph uses tongs. Isaiah saw the Lord on his throne, surrounded by seraphim in the same way that early rulers were surrounded by a courtly retinue (Isa 6).[2] Postbiblical tradition identified them with one of the choirs of angels (OCB 687). So Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said to Moses, Make a Saraph and mount it on a pole. And if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover, (Num 21-8).

SATAN: Early uses are to a human who played the role of an accuser or enemy (and thus often referred in translation to such rather than using the name satan). 1 Sam 29:4; 2 Sam 19:22; 1 Kings 5:4, 11:14. In Numbers 22:32 Satan refers to a divine messenger who was sent to obstruct Balaams rash journey (OCB 678). In Job 1-2, the Satan seems to be a legitimate member of Gods council. In Zechariah 3:1-7 may refer to a member of Gods council who objected to the appointment of Joshua as chief priest (OCB 679). Most scholars agree that in the writings of the third/second centuries BCE are the first examples of a character who is the archenemy of Yahweh and humankind (OCB 679). Given this evolution ofSatan, the holding of the snake in Genesis as Satan is without foundation. Moreover, the passage Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures. On your belly shall you crawl, . . . He will strike at your heal, while you strike at his head (Gen 3:14).

SATYR: Another of the supernatural foes.[3] An empty waste for satyrs to dwell in (Is 34:11). No longer shall they offer their sacrifices to the satyrs (Lv 17:7). Satyrs shall dance (Is 13, 21).

Earthly Characters

DRAGON: A fearsome, reptilian like beast of huge size. Daniel 14. Part of the Septuagint Bible (see intro) it has been included both in the Anglican and Catholic Bibles, but labeled apocrypha. Such

books are held as inspired, but not canon. Then Daniel took some pitch, fat, and hair: these he boiled together and made into cakes. He put them into the mouth to the dragon, and when the dragon ate them, he burst asunder (Dan 14:27). HEROES: Samson, Moses, Gideon, Joshua, David, Saul, and the

Maccabbees.

NEPHILIM: Giants, the mortal sons (and daughters) of male gods. When men began to multiply on earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of heaven saw how beautiful the daughters of man were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they chose. . . . At that time the Nephilim appeared on earth (as well as later), after the sons of heaven had intercourse with the daughters of man, who bore them sons. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown (Gen 6:1-6). [V]eritable giants; we felt like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them (Nu 12:33).
GIANTS: Mentioned 13 times in the bible, various peoples who inhabited Canaan, including the Nephilim (above). Emites (terrors), a warlike tribe of giants who were defeated by Kedorlaomer and his allies in the plain of Kiriathaim (PAR, Emites). See Gen 6:4; Num 13:33; Deut 1:28, 2:10; 2 Sam 21:14, 16, 18, 20, 22; 1 Chron 20:4, 6, 8.

SONS OF GOD: The offspring of Yahweh and Asherah When mankind began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, the Sons of God saw the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took wives of them (Gen 6:1-4). This union gave rise to the giants (see Nephalim above) where are mentioned. Mentioned also in Deut 32:8; Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7; Ps 29:1, 89:7. In Deut. 32:8 is again the sons of God, often mistakenly translated the sons of Israel. The sons of God were given the duty to oversee the to be established nation of Israel.*

The sons of Godtranslation is consistent with the oldest version of the bible, the Septuagint.

YAHWEHS FAVORITIES: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob Israel), Judah, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Elisha, Elijah, Ezra, and Daniel.

WITCHES: Several Hebrews terms are associated with the English word witch. These can also be translated sorcerer, sorceress, medium, or necromancer (OCB 805). Ex 22:18; Deut 18:9-11; 1 Kings 23:24; 2 Kings 9:22 1; Sam 28:7; Leviticus 20:27; Jer 27:9; Mic 5:11; Ma 3:5. Thou shall not suffer a witch to live (Ex 22:18). Then Samuel said to his servants, Find me a woman who is a medium, to whom I can go to seek counsel through he. . . . Tell my fortune through a ghost; conjure up for me the one I ask you to. . . . I see a preternatural being rising from the earth (1 Sam 28:4-14, The Witch of Endor).

This view of overseers was convincingly put forth by Professor of Religious studies at Southern Methodist University, Ronald S. Hendel. It is found in Chapter 13, by Hendel, in Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hershel Shanks editor, Random House, New York, 1992, pages 167-77. The need for overseers is consistent with Yahwehs need for messengers (angels), council, guards, etc., as described in the OT. The same was held coincidentally by the other religions of the Levant region, which are preserved in detail in the Ugartic libraries dating from the 14th century.

SOURCES CITED:
Parsons Guide to the Bible (PAR), (disc version).

The New American Bible (CB, for Catholic Bible), Catholic Bible Press, Nashville, 1979.

The Oxford Companion to the Bible (OCB), Bruce Metzger & Michael Coogan editors, Oxford University press, New York, 1993. I chose this work because it is a product of that compromised produced
by those of faith who teach religion in universities. A comparable source book by true scholars is not available.

The World of the Bible (WOB), Roberta L. Harris, Thames and Hudson, New York, 1995.