Adam, Eve, Lillith, and the Serpent

[Me Again]

I was just watching a show on the History Channel called "Banned from the Bible II." In one segment, they spoke about a rabbinic tradition, passed on through the Midrash, about Adam's "first wife." Her name was Lillith, and she was made from the dust of the ground, like Adam himself.

So the story goes that Adam wanted her to be subservient to him, but Lillith refused. She left, and as legend tells it, goes to the heavenlies and becomes the leader of demons. God then gives Adam his second wife, Eve, made from his side.

The claim is that in Genesis 1, where it says that "God made man - male and female," this was an allusion to the creation of Adam and Lillith. In Chapter 2, where we read that God put Adam in a deep sleep, that is of course the creation of Eve.

Now, I got to thinking here. What if this tradition is correct (not so much from a historical standpoint, but from a traditions standpoint). What if Lillith was "the serpent"? Wouldn't it make sense for Lillith to return and deceive Eve as a sort of retribution. Eve entices Adam to eat, and Lillith is vindicated.

To me, this makes good sense - other than the obvious male references to "the dragon of old." But as we've seen in other threads, the use of male pronouns was due to the male domination of the culture, not necessarily gender accuracy.

ed

[Amie]

Ed,

That show inspired my digging around about that stuff and I shared some of what I discovered at the last t'mill conference. The choice that she was given by three angels of God, was to return and submiss to Adam or 100 of her children would die every day. She said:


'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.’

Lilith was depicted as the serpent by Michael Angelo:

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sistine/6-Serpent.jpg

She is found in the Gilgamesh epic, which many claim predates Genesis and is not the serpent there. The serpent in that story is the Sumerian god named Enki. He is the master shaper of the world, god of wisdom and all magic, and "lord of deep waters".

"Enlil" in that story is the chief diety and Lord of the wind. Oddly enough he is later worshipped as "Mardok" and "Baal", though the name seems to be related to the Canaanite God, "El" (Our God). And look at this:


Hos 2:16 And at that day, says Jehovah, you shall call Me, My husband; and you shall no more call Me, My Baal.

That's not to mention that after taking on Egyptian culture, the freed Israelites built a calf to the God which lead them out of Egypt -- the calf also symbolic for Marduk and even the one which they later had their children pass through the fire to in Gehenna.

It seems that there is a struggle for clarity in the bible story - for God to set himself apart from these invented dieties.

From Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith):


Lilith is also identified with ki-sikil-lil-la-ke, a female being in the Sumerian prologue to the Gilgamesh epic.[4][1][5][6] Ki-sikil-lil-la-ke is sometimes translated as Lila's maiden, companion, his beloved or maid, and she is described as the "gladdener of all hearts" and "maiden who screeches constantly".[1] Another female being (or ephithet for Lilith) is mentioned alongside Ki-sikil-lil-la-ke: Ki-sikil-ud-da-ka-ra or "the maiden who has stolen the light" or " the maiden who has seized the light" and identifies her with the moon.[1][7]

and a translated passage from Wiki:


a serpent who could not be charmed made its nest in the roots of the tree,
The Anzu bird set his young in the branches of the tree,
And the dark maid Lilith built her home in the trunk

A very old carving of her here:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Lilitu.jpg

Genesis 1 records the creation of human beings, male and female. In Genesis 2, adam is understood as male because he functions as one who spreads the seed. However, he does not have to be male biologically any more than the church/bride was in her day functioning as female (like Eve - childbearing).

Genesis 5:2 has male and female having been named "adam" by God. "Eve" is named by "adam".

It is possible that somehow the two functions were in competition with one another until "the fall".

Amie