Lilith

What are some of your views on Lilith?
For those who aren't familiar with her, Lilith was the first woman created and the first wife of Adam, she refused to be suboridinate to Adam in any way. She is also mentioned in Jewish doctrine, but left completely out of the Christian Bible.
Why do think that is?
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Gaol, Dilseachd, Cairdeas

[This message has been edited by Becca (edited 08 May 2000).]

[SweetOne]

Because I have found that those who have rewritten the bible as the 'Christians' have it didnt want the people to know anything of the truth out there.

They were afraid to lose control over the people. I mean .. heaven and earth forbid that they lose control over the mass's, because then they might actually think for themselves. Which of course is what its all about at this point too now isnt it?

Angelica

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The SweetOne on the Web

'S Rioghal Mo Dhream

E'en Do and Spare Not

While there's leaves in the forest
And foam on the river,
MacGregor, despite them,
Shall flourish forever!
Sir Walter Scott

[dancinglady]

Becca she is mentioned in the Bible.

The Lilith narrative has provoked entirely different responses from its male and female tellers. The Hebrew Bible and the Talmud mention Lilith obliquely; Isaiah 34:14 refers to a screech owl, which is associated with her in legend narratives, through its deviation from the name of a Babylonian female demon. Lilith, however, is prominent in the Midrash exegesis, which are "postbiblical collections of folklore", fables, and commentary on the Hebrew Bible by rabbinical sources, and in the Kabbala, which is a collection of "Jewish mysticism" and esoteric interpretations of biblical and talmudic texts. Lewis Ginzberg's The Legends of the Jews and Raphael Patai's Gates to the Old City: A Book of Jewish Legends offer English translations of several Lilith stories from the Kabbala and Midrash. Lilith also figures prominently in Eastern European Jewish folk tales, as Nehama Aschkenasy notes in Eve's Journey: Feminine Images in Hebraic Literary Tradition.

The name 'Lilith' occurs at one point in Scripture, in the middle of
Isaiah. From context, it is apparent that this is to be understood as
the name of a demon.

Aside from that, Lilith is a notable figure in Gnostic heresy.

One of the notable tendencies among heresies is to distort the
fundamental simplicity of the Gospel message. The Judaizers, where
orthodox Christians had preached the forgiveness of sins through faith
in Christ crucified, insisted in appending to the works of faith a
dietary code, elaborate calendar, ... Gnosticism, in this regard, was
even worse.

According to Gnosticism, we are saved by acquiring wisdom and knowledge.
Where Christianity is simple and freely proclaimed, Gnosticism has to be
complicated, intricate, and obfuscated; deep secrets reserved for the
elite.

So, instead of Adam having one wife -- Eve -- Gnosticism had to have
Lilith be the wife before Eve, in an elaborate tale of ... You get the
picture.

There are several Gnostic ideas which have been cropping up lately.
There are three which I think should be mentioned:

1: We are saved by wisdom and knowledge. This is patently false. While
we are to grow in wisdom and knowledge, it is within a context of
faith. The mark of a Christian is love, not being able to recite
such and such many Bible verses or explain such and such many
doctrines. Solomon, who was wiser than anyone here on s.r.c, is
damned. When we pursue wisdom, it must be within a proper context.

2: The spiritual is attained by escape from the physical; an ascetic
code, "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!" (as summarized
by Paul) will draw us near to God. In the most extreme form, this
idea led to denial of Christ's physical incarnation, and the
blessedness of the hope that we await in the bodily resurrection.
Christ, who was the second Adam and the model of perfection, ate and
drank enough to be accused of being a glutton and a drunkard; his
first miracle consisted of turning water into wine. Paul spoke of
marriage and foods and then everything created by God as good, "to
be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the
truth." (I Tim. 4:1-5). It is God who created the forests and the
sunsets; we spit on a gift when we act as if we will become more
spiritual by refusing to enjoy them.

3: Good and evil are a balanced pair which bear a higher order unity.

Good exists to accomplish its own ends; the rebellion in which evil
stands in no wise makes it a balancing force to serve a higher weal.
Evil does not balance good. Good balances good.

I've made this post long enough. At any rate, Gnosticism is a false
knowledge which is really not knowledge at all; it is heresy to be
refuted at every occurence.
http://www.lilith.demon.nl/lilithoverview.html
Leanan-Sidhe: Another vampiric faerie from the British Isles. Like her Scottish counterpart, the baobhan-sith, the leanan-sidhe appears as a beautiful young woman and she is quite fond of seducing young men. Her name means "the fairy girl-friend", and on the Isle of Man, she is also considered to be a kind muse. She prefers to feed upon young poets and artists. She seduces them and drinks their blood, appearing to them again and again over the course of many months. The young men who fall under her spell find themselves inspired by creativity. Their minds burn brilliantly like a star, and then wink out, all their light and vitality spent in her deadly arms.
Lilith: Perhaps the earliest being attributed with powers we would associate with a vampire was the demonic entity known as Lilith. Lilith was originally a Sumerian creature. As part of the lilitu, she was a taloned and winged demon associated with wild beasts and waste places. She and her kind were believed to harm women during pregnancy, interfere with labor, and kill infants in their cribs. The Babylonians inherited Lilith from their cultural predecessors, the Sumerians, and, during the Babylonian captivity, Lilith was picked up by the Hebrews.


In the mythology of the Israelites, Lilith underwent some major changes. She was adopted into Rabbinical lore where she became the first wife of Adam. As the tradition goes, originally, the Lord God made his Adam, then split him into two beings: Adam and Lilith. Lilith was not so much made out of a part of Adam as she was just a female counterpart to the first man. In this respect, she was his equal in all things. Her major flaw, and the ìsinî that got her expelled from Eden, was the fact that she was headstrong and opinionated. She did not want to be treated as Adamís inferior and she refused to take orders from him. This streak of feminism did not much please Adam or his male God, and so Lilith found herself sent packing into the wilderness. Once she was gone, the Lord God created a more docile partner for Adam out of his rib.
Opinions differ on what happened to Lilith after she was expelled from Eden. Most stories agree that she did not die but flourished in the wastelands. It is said that she became the first demon, spawning all the rest from her willful essence. Other traditions maintain that she became the wife of Lucifer. Still other stories relate how she took up residence in the land of Nod, and there eventually found and seduced Cain, the son of Adam. Most traditions agree that Lilith eventually developed a thirst for blood. In the Rabbinical lore, she retains some of the characteristics she had in her old Sumerian incarnation. She is associated strongly with wild beasts, and is described as having long, wild, unkempt hair. She is still often depicted as winged and taloned, rather like a harpy or a stirge. She is still believed to feed upon infants, snatching them away from their mothers in the night. She is also believed to seduce men, luring them with her wiles then devouring them when they are at their most vulnerable.
Although Lilith was a fearsome entity in the past, in modern times she has gained a great amount of respect. Feminists the world over have adopted her as something of a patron saint. After all, she was the first historical figure to ever go against the patriarchy. A number of Wiccans and Pagans work with her also, worshipping her as one of the many forms of the Dark Goddess. And a number of vampire groups I have spoken with recognize Lilith as the first of their kind. Taken literally or symbolically, Lilith is a compelling figure with a very interesting past, and she continues to haunt our wild places nearly 6,000 years after she was first given a name.

<!--StartFragment-->Lilith:

There are many stories about her and "The Book of Lilith" by Barbara
Koltuv is a good source. According to references cited by Koltuv, Lilith
seems to have preoccupied scholarly religious men for some time who seem
to have taken great glee in telling tales of her depredations, many
involving sexual promiscuity.

There seem to be three types of stories about her: stories about her
being diminished, dismissed, or rejected by male god or man and
refusing to submit to the role they would cast her in; stories about
her flight to the wilderness and her communion with wild creatures; and
stories about her seductive and murderous qualities. Most (all?) of
the stories that have come down to us about her seem to be men's
stories reflecting anxieties about women not in control. Within the
stories are glimpses of Middle Eastern goddess figures, a resourceful,
intelligent, autonomous being who is at home in the wilderness and
friend to the animals.

Basically, she is told she is of lesser importance than male people,
but disagreeing and not inclined to submit, she flees to the wilderness
where she dwells in harmony with snakes, owls, ravens, jackals, etc.,
with whom she is sometimes identified. The storytellers imagined that
in the wilderness she consorted promiscuously with creatures and demons
of all sorts and gave birth to demon-babies every day, thus explaining
much of the evil loose in the world. But her sexual appetite did not
end there. She enticed, seduced and tormented men, often by mounting
them at night and causing them to have nocturnal emissions. Sometimes
she killed them.

Lilith is described in one tale as having "the body of a beautiful
woman from the head to the navel, but from the navel down she is
flaming fire." Elsewhere she is described as dressed in scarlet or,
alternatively, in garments of flaming fire. In any case, her
association with fire is clear.

As for her exploits, besides seducing men, copulating promiscuously and
birthing demonic babies, it is said that she arouses war and
destruction, inflicts disease, and steals babies.

She was apparently also a fine warrior. On one occasion, she and her
army marched from her desert abode against the sons of Job, freed the
animals which Job's folks thought they owned, and slew the men guarding
the animals. Job's thoughts about responding with an attack on Lilith
evaporated when he was told how devastating her attack had been.

Among her epithets: Swift Flying, Storm Wind, Screech Owl, Ugly One,
Winged One, Nocturnal One, Childstealer, Strangler, as well as blood
sucker, harlot, alien, impure female, witch, hag, snatcher, and
enchantress.

She is clearly the invention of a misogynistic patriarchal priestly caste. She sounds much more interesting that the simpering submissive Eve with her apple and her fig leaves. I'd probably enjoy her company if I met her at a social gathering.

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The man o' independent mind,
He looks an' laughs at a' that.

Thanks Kathleen. If I read it aeons ago in the Bible, I didn't retain the info. In other words Lilith was the "smart" one and Eve was the "subservient" one.

Angelica, I agree. The stories from the Bible were used only as a way for the church to control people.
I wrote on here somewhere before, how can you be sure what is written in the Bible is the "supposed" word of God. King James had his clergymen write and rewrite the Bible to suit his own needs, fueled by his superstition.

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Gaol, Dilseachd, Cairdeas

LOL@Neil. Who knows, Lilith probably "invented" the Toga Party!

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Gaol, Dilseachd, Cairdeas

[Thanatos]

This, my dears has gotten too technical for me. Kathleen, were you ever in seminary, or are you just a weekend theologian? I find your post very interesting.
I always liked the phrase in Revelation referring to the "whore of Babylon", though that probably has nothing to do with this.

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Thanatos//
"..and therefor never send to know for whom the BELL tolls; it tolls for THEE."