editorial disappearance
In the first chapter of the book Genesis, which is part of the Torah and the Bible, God creates “male and female” in his image and likeness. But, in the very next chapter, only Adam is mentioned. Where did the woman in the first chapter go? It is only in the second chapter that Eve is created, and in the third that she is named after her. This inconsistency suggests that part of the text has been edited or removed.
Lilith was already there
The earliest record of this figure is found in engravings on Arslan Tash’s amulets, relics dating from the 7th century BC Some historians even argue that Lilith is mentioned even earlier, in Sumerian demonology from the third millennium BC. Epic of Gilgamesh, a Mesopotamian poem from 2100 BC, there is a possible mention of Lilith as a demon. That is, Lilith was already known before compiling the Genesiswhich reinforces the theory that it was “erased from history”.
First woman, first rebel
According to the Alphabet of Ben Sirá, one of the texts that make up the collection of rabbinic writings called Talmud, Lilith was created from the dust next to Adam – therefore, before Eve. But she refused to lie down under him at the time of sex for not feeling inferior and, in protest, abandoned Eden. That is: according to ancient Jewish folklore, Lilith rebelled against Adam’s male «superiority», which makes her a problematic figure for Judaism and Catholicism, which are patriarchal religions.
«Now yes»
Further evidence that Eve was not the first can be found in the verses of her creation in chapter 2 of Genesis. In several editions of the text, God decides to give man a “suitable” mate, which suggests that some “unsuitable” first mate had already been created before. This theory is reinforced by Adam’s speech in certain editions of the Bible (such as the Updated King James) when he sees Eve: “This one is bone of my bones”.
political motivation
Another reason Lilith disappeared from Genesis it would be historic. For years in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, the Hebrews, patriarchs of the Judeo-Christian tradition, were exiled in Babylon. During this time, the Babylonians began to worship her, worshiping her as a fertility goddess. Because she was worshiped by her Babylonian captors, the Hebrews removed Lilith from mankind’s creation myth, and subsequently from Genesis Jewish and Catholic.
owl woman
Lilith is also mentioned in Isaiah, which is part of both the Torah and the Bible. However, throughout several translations, its name was suppressed until it became “nocturnal animal” or “owl”. Only a few translations based on (older) Hebrew texts retain “Lilith” in Isaiah 34, where the prophet describes how the wrath of God will destroy Babylon and, in the desolate land, Lilith will find a place to rest. . In other words: the prophet knew the figure of the “first woman”. Hebrew texts and artistic renderings of Lilith describe her as a winged and serpentine woman. So, you can associate it with the figure of the winged serpent of Eden.
Crooked lines
The Catholic Church, in particular, gave a definitive “delete” to the only mention of it within the Bible in the mid-16th century, during the Council of Trent. In it, the Church decided to make “official” the Vulgate Bible, a 4th century Latin translation that had already changed the word “Lilith” in Isaiah 34 for “ibis”. The adoption of a version of the Bible that had already disappeared from Lilith allowed her to gradually disappear from Catholic tradition.
The other side
These are, in short, the evidence in favor of the existence of Lilith, pointed out by several sources. But there are official explanations for each of them, which we list below. The first is that the dominant academic interpretation of the Genesis says that the “incoherence” between the first and second chapters would be a reflection of the attempt to unite two creation myths in a single book, and not signs that part of it was “erased”.
There are also those who read the first chapter as a general summary of the creation of the world, only to go into detail in the second. Thus, informing that God made man and woman without specifying their names would be a resource similar to what a journalist does when he summarizes the news for the reader in the first paragraph and only then goes deeper into the following ones.
Leaving the Bible and analyzing evidence from other traditions, the situation is not much better. All connections between the Jewish folk figure Lilith and pre-Christian civilizations are debatable. Some consider Arslan Tash’s amulets to be forgeries. the passage of epic dand Gilgamesh’s naming of Lilith may be a 6th century BC addition, and its meaning is uncertain.
The only text that actually mentions Lilith as Adam’s first wife is the Ben Sira Alphabet, from the 7th century, which some consider satirical, although it is part of the Jewish Talmud. The point is that sacred texts are not history books. Discussing what “really” happened in Eden is like discussing whether Capitu betrayed Bentinho: there is no answer.
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Sources: books Garden of Eden Revisitedby Roque de Barros Laraia, Lilith and the Contemporary Feminine Archetypeby Cátia Cilene Lima Rodrigues, How to Read Genesisby Tremper Longman The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadianby Andrew George tanach, Talmud It is Epic of Gilgameshand websites Bible Getawaw, Sacred Tests, Pleyades Library and dss.collections.imj.org.il