Lilith Adam's first wife, a pioneer of feminism
Is it possible that the ideology of equality between men and women was born in the Garden of Eden? Anyway many ancient texts excluded from the Bible speak of a simultaneous creation from the dust, of Adam and his companion. simultaneous creation would be at the base of the first claim of equality from the fairer sex. In the Sefer Ha-Zohar, or Book of Splendor, cardinal work of Kabbalah, written in the 13th century by Moses de Leon, and the alphabet Ben Sirah, a compilation of writings gathered in the Middle Ages, the story of the first rebellious woman the world has ever known is told. These writings which are inspired by the stories of antiquity, make Lilith the first wife of Adam before Eve.
The Bible in Genesis in its chapter 1: 27 also speaks without really specifying what woman it is in question by stating that, God created man in his image, male and female he created them. This passage of Genesis can clearly be interpreted as a simultaneous creation of human male and female. However still in the same genesis another creation concerning exclusively the woman is described in Chapter 2: 21-22. Because it’s stated that God made Adam fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept he took one of his ribs to make a woman from it, and that woman, named Eve, could very well be the second wife of Adam after Lilith, who rebelled against the authority of her husband Adam and left the Garden of Eden.
The rebellion of Lilith in ancient texts is intimately linked to equality, according to these antediluvian writings, the original sin is rather the original rebellion of Lilith, which will bring serious consequences for humanity.
These texts support an untold version of the facts indicating that Adam asked Lilith to lay beneath him during sex, she refused claiming her equality recalling to Adam that he was created with her at the same time, and from the same dust, by God. Outraged by the dominating tendencies of Adam, Lilith will leave the Garden of Eden and will pronounce the four sacred letters of God's name, a name that no one had ever dared to pronounce. After pronouncing these sacred words, she would have obtained a monumental power with wings growing in her back, she then flew to heaven.
Ben Sirah story continue by saying that, three angels were sent by God himself to convince Lilith to go back to her husband home in the garden of Eden. Lilith will still refuse to execute. God will send her another message by his angels stating: "If she agrees to return to her husband it’s good, otherwise she will have from now to allow 100 of her children to die every day." Thus was born the death for the mankind by the original rebellion and not by eating the forbidden fruit. Because the first mother of humanity, despite the notice of God refused to return to her husband humans should now live and die every day. This story that seems improbable because of popular imagery and concepts advocated by the biblical liturgy evokes a question. How Lilith would have lost children without being married to the only man she could mate with in the person of Adam she had just left? The answer probably lies in new discoveries of science supporting the theory that women originally would have been able alone to procreate. The Bartholin glands which today are responsible for female ejaculation by producing cum indeed would have once played the role of testicles producing enough sperm to fertilize the egg internally. If this theory is proven Cartesian science would corroborate ancient history, proving that Lilith may well had had the children all by herself. However other ancient texts accuse Lilith to have had an affair with the prince of darkness with whom she would had have children. But then again if she was really already linked to the prince of darkness the notice of God concerning the loss of her children only speak of her refusal to obey the authority of her husband, without noticing that she cheated on her husband with the horned. Besides Where did she took refuge after leaving her husband? soar to the heavens after spelling the name of God remains vague, did she had another lover when leaving the Garden of Eden? Besides her rebellion is it possible that she was seduced and turned away from her husband by the Devil? In any case the texts are silent.
However, the thesis of Adam's sin commonly called original sin is better defined in the biblical genesis, highlighting the exclusion of the Garden of Eden with the meeting of the snake by Eve, and what followed. The term biblical sin of Adam in turn refers to all mankind since Adam in ancient Hebrew means both the human male and the mankind.
The Book of Genesis remains anonymous, even if Jewish and Christian traditions attribute it to Moses, exegetical, historical and archaeological research tends to prove, given the numerous anachronisms, redundancies and changes that carries the text, that this book, was written by several hands between the 8th and 2nd centuries BC. Also the attempt to match the various sacred stories was done between the 8th and 10th centuries by a rewriting of texts based on the Midrash. Traditionally the comprehension of biblical text is divided between the pshat (literal meaning), the remez (allusive meaning), the drash (exegesis meaning) and sod (mystical meaning). The Midrash focuses on the remez and on the drash. It makes use of rhetorical processes such as allegory, metaphor, agreement, analogy, and gematria, which is the addition of the number of letters and phrases to interpret sacred texts. At the end of this theological exercise Lilith was identified as the first wife of Adam in books that are not unfortunately part of the Christian Bible.
According to these texts the demonization of Lilith came later with God's creation of another woman for Adam as the genesis stipulates in chapter 2: 21-22.
According to the Zohar and the Ben Sirah, Lilith became jealous since she had seen herself replaced by Eve she will enter a huge anger turning evil to inflict horrible suffering to the descendants of Adam, as labor pains before giving birth. She will become a succubus, a vampire molesting and attracting young peoples to lead them to destruction, haunting men and women, killing newborns (the red ribbon of Kabbalah would be tied around the arms of newborns and adult to protect them from evil). having sex with both men and women she would be the first lesbian, before Sappho the Greek poetess of the islands of Lesbos. The esoteric lesbianism of our time is intimately linked to feminism that was popularized from hermetic lodge which honors her in several secret ceremonies.
Lilith is mentioned only once in the Old Testament in Isaiah 34.14 translators of the Jerusalem Bible in Job 18, 15 will refer to her often, however, she takes the name of Lamia, and she is considered a creature of the night. Lilith who is also called Leila remains, however, very old because she is clearly mentioned in many ancient mythologies. Sculptures, images and texts referring to her, were found in ancient Egypt, Sumer, Babylon and Greece. Babylonians speak of her as a woman of extreme beauty represented in the company of owls which are birds of excellence of witchcraft. In the West the secret societies like the very tight bohemian club also paid tribute to her, miming during their ritual a sacrifice of a child in front of the portrait of an owl. In the oral tradition in North Africa and especially in Morocco a very popular character, who gets her characteristics in the Muslim-mystical imagery is that of Aicha Kandisha a great seductress that can be seen only at night she attacks only singles, and sow discord in the lives of couples by creating disharmony, disease impotence and sterility. She is also the witch that must be feared, the perfect mistress with a thousand charms, and a patriot of the first hour since she would have fought the Portuguese colonists. In sub-Saharan Africa where the owl is also the ultimate spectrum of witchcraft, in the ethnic Nanga of southern Cameroon which according to the legend would have mastered the art of directing the energy of thunder against the culprits enemy , elders of the village readily admit during educational talks in the evening, around the fire, that the first of all the witches the world has ever known was a woman of captivating beauty who of course had the power to transform into an owl at night.
Hubert Marlin Elingui Jr.
journalist writer
