According to the Hebrew philosopher and writer Jesus Ben-Sira, who worked in the IV or III century BC. e. (it’s not exactly established), in the family life of our forefather Adam, not everything was as smooth as described in the Old Testament. It turns out that he had his own “former”, whose name was Lilith. But Eve, according to this esteemed sage, God created after his first marriage broke up. However, we turn to the story of Lilith ─ the first wife of Adam, in the edition in which the venerable Jesus Ben-Syrah told her to the world, whose portrait opens the article.
Adam's family scandal
So, according to the Hebrew author, the first wife of Adam was not Eve at all, but a certain Lilith. He expressed this assertion in a book called the Ben-Sira Alphabet. Among the followers of Judaism, it is highly respected, while in the Christian world it is not recognized at all and is considered an apocrypha (not a canonical text).
The author does not say anything about Lilith’s origin and begins the story with the fact that once this obstinate woman flatly refused to obey her husband on the grounds that she is the same creation of Jehovah God as he himself, and therefore has equal rights with him in everything. Having thus begun the struggle for the emancipation of women, the first wife of Adam Lilith uttered aloud the name of God, Yahweh, and, gaining secret powers, flew away from her faithful.
Vain pursuit
What do abandoned husbands do in such cases? That's right, they are looking for one that would make up for his loss and comfort in grief. But this did not appear in the Garden of Eden , since Lilith was the only woman. This forced Adam to turn directly to the Creator and ask Him to create a replacement for her.
Before starting to create Eve, the Lord tried to return the fugitive and sent three angels in pursuit of her. It was possible to overtake her messengers of God only off the coast of the Red Sea, and given that the Garden of Eden, according to the theologians, was somewhere close to either the Armenian Highlands or Southern Mesopotamia, it took a long time to fly. However, all the work was in vain, because the obstinacy flatly refused to fulfill God's command and stated that this oppressor of her female rights no longer wanted to know.
Retribution
Of course, this Lilith did not get away with it. For impudence before the Lord and for trampling on the marital ties, the angels punished her. In various literary monuments that appeared during the Middle Ages and contain a retelling of the work of Jesus Ben-Syrah, three different punishments sent down by angels are indicated. According to one version, Lilith was doomed to give birth to a hundred dead babies every night, according to another ─ she was to become the mother of countless demons, and according to the third ─ the poor thing was completely sterile, which, of course, was preferable to the first two options.
But the story of Lilith ─ the wife of Adam ─ did not end there. She vowed that henceforth, not being able to give birth to her own children, she would destroy strangers. However, she promised to spare those of them whose mother would protect the child with an amulet in the form of a tablet with her name (according to another version - with the names of three angels sent for her).
Legendary traditions
It is interesting to note that the legend of Lilith, which was spread mainly among Jews, laid the foundation for the tradition of hanging records with its names near the cradles of newborn Jewish children, which, according to legend, are three: Amorpho (Unformed), Odem (Red) and Batna ( Womb). It is also customary to mention on it the angels who overtook the fugitive and became an instrument in the hands of God's wrath.
For the same reason, red threads are tied to the hands of infants, since it is believed that this color can scare Lilith. In addition, in Orthodox Jewish families, on the eve of circumcision of the infant, the father is supposed to read excerpts from the holy book The Zohar near the cradle from sunset until its first rays, since during this period the danger of her appearing in the house is highest.
The image of Lilith in the minds of Kabbalists
In the religious and mystical doctrine, which appeared in the XII century and is known today as Kabbalah, Lilith is none other than the devil. The list of her machinations is very large, and besides the aforementioned perniciousness sent to infants, she constantly tries to do evil to the women in labor themselves, striking them with female ailments. Lilith does not ignore men, especially young and handsome. Having taken the form of a young virgin, she appears to him in a dream and, seducing, creates fornication, from which terrible demons are born.
In the 13th century, a treatise was even written on this subject, stating that Lilith in the form of a snake had a connection with Samael himself, who, according to the Talmud, was the head of all demons, the Angel of death and the main destructive force in the world. A blind dragon was born from their intercourse, however, fortunately, they were castrated in a timely manner and were not allowed to produce offspring.
Demon of night
Two centuries later, the image of Lilith changed somewhat. In Jewish religious literature, as well as in folklore, they began to represent it not as a snake, but as a kind of demon ─ the spirit of the night. By the way, the name Lilith itself is translated from Hebrew as "night". Especially often it affects men who sleep alone or walk alone on night roads.
She is she in the image of a silent and beautiful woman with long flowing black hair. Her relationship with the demon leader Samael also changed. If in former times they were considered lovers, then from about the 15th century she became his "legitimate" wife.
Adam's second marriage
As for her “former”, that is, the ancestor of our Adam, he, as you know, received in exchange of his wife who escaped from him a new wife Eva ─ also, I must say, not a gift. It is enough to open the first book of the Old Testament ─ “Genesis” to see how, due to her frivolity, both of them lost their heavenly bliss. After many years spent in paradise, he was forced to earn his daily bread in the sweat of his face , and she was in pains to bear children.
The name that disappeared from the Bible
None of the canonical texts of the Bible Lilith ─ the wife of Adam ─ does not appear, with the exception of the book of the prophet Isaiah, where she is mentioned only in passing. It says that the inhabitants of Edom ─ a historical region in the south of the Israeli Highlands ─ will be severely punished for their apostasy from God. Drawing a picture of the desolation awaiting their land, the prophet foretells that where wild life was boiling before, only wild animals will dwell, and Lilith's night ghost will find peace.
However, in the process of translating this book from Hebrew to Greek, carried out in the 1st century BC. e., rabbinical scientists removed her name, replacing it with the name of the mythical creature of the Onocentaur, which is a hybrid of a man with a donkey. So the mention of the first wife of Adam ─ Lilith ─ from the Bible was completely eliminated.
A find for Satanists
In conclusion, it should be noted that the image of the night demon in the female form began to be widely used by the followers of modern Satanism, greedy for all the devilry. In their interpretation, the wife of Samael, or in other words, the Satan with whom they identify him, is fully consistent with all the devils or, as they put it, "black goddesses." Accordingly, she has a lot of images and names.
So, often Lilith appears in their image of such religious characters of the Ancient World as the Sumero-Akkadian lady of the underworld ─ Ereshkigal, the ancient Greek mistress of the underworld ─ Hekate, or the gloomy creature of Scandinavian folklore ─ Uma. However, in all cases, it carries the image of the “Dark Mother” ─ the destroyer of light.