Seeking Lilith, Adam’s Ex-Wife
Lilith was Adam’s first wife, and after a messy divorce, he married Eve, thus giving birth to the more commonly known Old Testament story of creation, featuring the famous Biblical characters Adam and Eve, who pranced around the Garden of Eden until they knew too much and angered God, having eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, which is a metaphor for learning. Having been coaxed by Lucifer, whose name etymologically means “bringer of knowledge” or “bringer of light,” they angered God and his subservient angels, as they had become like God himself; they had become divine, and God was concerned that they might become even more like him. “And the Lord God said, now man has become like one of us, having knowledge of good and evil; and now if he puts out his hand and takes from the fruit of the Tree of Life, he will go on living forever” (Genesis 3:22).
The Fall of Man showing the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a woman, by Cornelis van Haarlem (1592) (Public Domain)
God continued, and he did something therapists tell humans to never do; he shouted at the two of them while he was still angry, telling Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:17). Then he yelled at Eve, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16). Then he turned to humankind’s teacher, the one who helped them to learn, and (in a sense) cursed all teachers from that point forward.
Lucifer (the morning star) represented as a winged child pouring light from a jar. Engraving by G. H. Frezza (1704) (Wellcome Images / CC BY-SA 4.0)
Cursing the Bringer of Light, he said, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly, and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:14). Kind of extreme for only having taught people something, having given them some knowledge, but, “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies” (Nahum 1:2).
Seeking Lilith in Literature
It was the ultimate drama, and according to believers, the first drama. But before this soap opera played out, (with Adam and Eve learning something and then God being angry because they knew too much, thus challenging his authority in his viewpoint) Adam had another wife, Lilith.
- Adam’s First Wife Lilith: Diabolical Demoness or the First Feminist?
- Lilith: Ancient Demon, Dark Deity or Sensual Goddess?
- Eve was Created from Adam’s Rib, but What About the Other Women? Where did the First Women of Ancient Creation Come From?
From its onset, Christianity and Judaism were mystery religions, just like other European and Central Asian belief systems, and the truth was not revealed to the masses, only to those initiated into the faiths; hence, there is the common version of events, which appears in the Bible, but there is a priestly version, which contains the full stories and the secretive esoteric practices designed to bring selected humans closer to God. The story of Adam and Lilith appears in the priestly version of the creation story, Genesis.
Tis Lilith.
