Lilith; The First Wife of Adam - Angels and Demons - See U in History

Hello everyone and welcome back to my channel where together we explore the mysterious and profound stories from the world of ancient mythology, the Bible, and forgotten legends. If you love discovering mysteries, hidden figures, and untold historical stories, then you're in the soirees, then you're in the right place. Today we will delve into a complex and controversial character, Lilith, the mysterious woman you might have heard of, but whose true story remains a mystery to many. Who is Lilith? Was she really Adam's first wife or merely a product of ancient legends and imagination? And why did Lilith's story vanish from mainstream canon? In this video, we'll journey back over 5,000 years, exploring from ancient Sumerian civilization to medieval Jewish texts. Are you ready? Make sure to hit like, subscribe, and turn on the notification bell so you don't miss any exciting upcoming content. And now, let's begin. Lilith is one of the most complex and mysterious mythological figures, appearing in both Jewish folklore and ancient mythology, with her story spanning thousands of years across various civilizations. From ancient legends in Sumer to modern-day mythology, Lilith is often depicted as a powerful, independent entity who challenges traditional norms. The most prominent story about her suggests that Lilith was Adam's first wife, created before Eve and before the story of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 1, Lilith appears alongside Adam, while Eve is only mentioned in Genesis 2, thus opening the door to the differences and setting the stage for the mysterious origin of Lilith. According to legend, Lilith refused to submit to Adam in their relationship, partly because she did not accept Adam considering himself superior to her. Lilith believed that since they were both created from the earth, they were equals. However, Adam argued that Lilith should be in a lower position, especially during sexual relations. Their conflict escalated as Lilith refused to be dominated. In the end, she decided to leave Adam and use God's unspeakable name to fly into the sky, leaving the Garden of Eden forever. This was a bold and decisive act, reflecting Lilith's resilience and indomitable spirit. After Lilith left, Adam became lonely and sorrowful. He begged the Creator for help and God, in his mercy, sent three angels Senoi-Sansenoi and Sangella to bring Lilith back. The angels found her by the seashore, where wild waves were crashing the same sea where the Egyptians would later be drowned in battle. Despite the angels conveying God's command, Lilith refused to return to Adam. She would not go back to a life where she had to give up her freedom. The angels warned that if she did not return, she would lose hundreds of her children every day. Faced with this, Lilith agreed to a deal, promising not to harm any newborns who had the names of these three angels on protective amulets. Reluctantly, she accepted the heartbreaking loss of hundreds of her children each day. To understand more about Lilith and her origins, we must return to Genesis 1 and 2. A careful reader of these chapters will easily notice that there are two different accounts of the creation of humans. While Genesis 1 simply describes mankind being created from the earth, without specifically distinguishing Adam and Eve, Genesis 2 details that Eve was created from Adam's rib. This difference has sparked much debate among scholars, and many Jews and Christians view these two chapters as complementary stories. But the documentary hypothesis, a modern scholarly theory about the Old Testament, suggests that these sections come from different sources, compiled by multiple authors over centuries. Throughout history, efforts to explain the differences between these creation stories have led to the formation of new legends. One of the most prominent myths is the story of Lilith, developed from an ancient Jewish legend called the Alphabet of Ben Sirah. According to this text, the reason for the difference between Genesis 1 and 2 is that there were two different women in the creation of humankind. The woman in Genesis 1 was not Eve, but Lilith, a powerful and strong-willed entity. Eve only appeared later in Genesis 2, when God decided to create a new woman for Adam. The question arises, who exactly was Lilith, and how did she become Adam's first wife? To answer this, we must go back more than 5,000 years to the ancient Sumerian civilization. Shumer was the first civilization to establish a complex society and permanent settlement in Mesopotamia, the region that is now Iraq. This is where the legend of Lilith first began to surface. Although Lilith during this period was passed down orally and not clearly recorded, scholars believe that the figure of Lilith existed long before being documented in texts. Lilith appears in Sumerian mythology from the 3rd millennium BC as a member of a group of wind and storm demons called Lilu. These demons were often portrayed as creatures that brought misfortune and disaster to humans, especially during childbirth and infant care. One of the earliest records of Lilith appears in the ancient Sumerian text in Nana and the Hulupu tree, where she is mentioned as a demon spirit lurking in the sacred tree. Lilith is not only a figure in Jewish folklore, but also a complex symbol with origins in various ancient civilizations. The Lilith's presence in legends reflects not only the conflict over gender and power in the relationship between men and women, but also symbolizes a woman's powerful independence and freedom. She embodies what traditional society often shuns resilience, defiance, and autonomy. This complexity has made Lilith one of the most mysterious and captivating figures in the history of mythology and a symbol of resistance against the mold society imposes on individuals. Inanna and the Hulupu tree is a short mythological story about Enki, the Sumerian god of creation and wisdom, who planted a tree by the banks of the Euphrates River. One day, a strong southern wind uprooted the tree and blew it down the Euphrates River. As the tree drifted along the river, Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality, retrieved the tree from the waters and planted it in her sacred garden in the Sumerian city of Uruk. Inanna cared for the tree day and night, wondering how long it would take for the tree to grow large enough for her to make a throne and a bed from its wood. Ten years passed, and the tree grew tall and thick. But then the text says a serpent that cannot be charmed made its nest in the roots of the Hulupu tree, the Anzu bird set its nest in the branches, and the dark Lilith built her house in the trunk. Inanna, the young woman who always loved laughter, began to cry. Inanna wept bitterly, but these creatures did not leave her tree. Then the great hero Gilgamesh, yes, the same Gilgamesh from the Epic of Gilgamesh, came to the rescue. Gilgamesh arrived to save Inanna, dressed in heavy battle armor and wielding a seven zero zero pound copper axe. Gilgamesh killed the serpent, causing the Anzu bird to fly away, and then broke apart Lilith's house, forcing her to flee into the wilderness. In this oldest story of Lilith, she is not yet regarded as a formal demon, but rather as a powerful nuisance. All the gods in the story of the Hulupu tree were important Sumerian deities, but not the top gods, and that is where Lilith found her place in early Sumerian mythology. The similarities between Lilith and the owl become clear after reading the story of Inanna and the Hulupu tree. Lilith builds her house in the trunk of the tree like an owl, and then flees into the wilderness, which is typically the habitat of owls. Lilith's name is often translated as night monster or creature of the night, but it can also be translated as owl or little owl. In fact, the scientific name of the little owl is Athene Noctua Lilith, and yes, the name Athene comes from the Greek goddess Athena. To the rocks of Athens and the Acropolis in ancient Greece were full of little owls, which were believed to be incarnations of the goddess Athena. Scholars believe that many aspects of Athena actually derive from the ancient stories of Lilith. Lilith in Sumerian mythology may have originated from Lilith being personified as the image of the owl. Personification in the ancient world almost always took the form of deification or becoming a deity with an accompanying rich mythology. This can be seen in ancient Egyptian mythology with Sobek, the crocodile god, and Horus, the falcon-headed god. The definitions and connections between Lilith and the owl become clearer when we consider Lilith's next source, the Book of Isaiah. The only explicit reference to Lilith in the entire Bible can be found in Isaiah 34-14. Desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and wild goats will bleat to each other. There also the night creatures will lie down and find for themselves places of rest. This translation is taken from the Nivnu International Version, which chose to translate the Hebrew word Lilith as night creatures. The King James Version translates it as screech owl, and the Nivnu Revised Standard Version translates it as Lilith. So what's going on here? What did the author of this section in the Book of Isaiah mean when he used the Hebrew word Lilith? Did he truly believe in Lilith, the storm demon of Sumer? Historically, this is possible. The Sumerian myth of Lilith persisted, meaning that the myth of Lilith did not fade away like many other myths often do over time. What began in Sumerian mythology continued in Assyrian mythology and later Babylonian mythology. We know that ancient civilizations shared ideas when two cultures came into contact with one another. Most of them did not live in isolated tribes without external influences. Ancient civilizations interacted through trade routes and military conquests. But an interesting thing happens when two cultures interact. One culture often adopts ideas and concepts from another and adapts them to fit its own cultural context. This happened very often in the ancient world, especially when it came to religion and mythology. So what may have happened is that the myth of Lilith spread westward trade routes and military conquests, eventually reaching the Mediterranean and beyond. A quick and easy example of this can be seen when we look at Inanna, the goddess mentioned in the story of the Hulapu tree. Inanna was a Sumerian deity. Later she became known as Ishtar in Babylonian mythology and then the Canaanites, Hittites and Egyptians adopted her mythology and called her Astarte. Her myth then spread westward to Greece and Rome. The Greeks called her Aphrodite and the Romans called her Venus. There are clear differences between all these goddesses but what I want to emphasize here is that Inanna started it all. She was the template for all these goddesses and when cultures learned about Inanna, they adopted some of her ideas and changed others to fit their cultural and religious views. This is how things worked in the ancient world. You kept what you liked and changed what you didn't. All this information is meant to prepare you for considering the following question. Who or what was the author of Isaiah 34 referring to when he used the Hebrew word Lilith? Historically speaking, I think there are two main possibilities and the truth may be a combination of both. The author of Isaiah 34 likely knew the story of Lilith and I'm sure that by the mid to late 8th century BCE, when most scholars believe the first part of Isaiah was written, the story of Lilith was known throughout the Near East. Therefore, the author of this passage must have been at least somewhat aware of the myth he was referencing. The more interesting question then is what was the myth or cultural concept of Lilith in Jerusalem around the mid to late 8th century BCE? And that's a much harder question to answer. But we can almost certainly say that Lilith was not yet considered Adam's first wife or the mother of demons. That conception of Lilith didn't emerge until thousands of years later. At this time and in this geographic region, Lilith may have been very similar to her counterparts in Sumerian mythology, particularly the Babylonian storm demon Lilu. She was closely associated with the image of the owl. Like the owl, Lilith was a creature of the night. Owls are predatory birds, which means they must hunt and kill other animals to survive. Lilith was no different. She was a creature of the night believed to abduct and kill people, especially newborns. So, should the Hebrew word Lilith in Isaiah 34 be translated as screech owl or Lilith? Considering that there is a different Hebrew word for owl, I think the correct translation is Lilith and I believe that's the myth the author of Isaiah had in mind. But it's unclear whether the author of Isaiah 34 truly believed in this myth. Did he actually believe that there was a night demon running around in the wilderness or was he simply using it as a metaphor to say that evil and wicked things were lurking out there? Unless you have a time machine, I think this will always remain a mystery. The next source I want to focus on regarding Lilith can be found in the Song of the Sage, a work discovered as part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Here Lilith appears quite clearly as a demon. The text states, And I, the Sage, declare the great beauty of your greatness to terrify and frighten all the spirits of the destroying angels and the spirits of the bastards, the demons, Lilith, who howl and shriek, who attack suddenly to lead astray the spirit. This passage is truly fascinating because it provides us with insight into the religious thought of a Jewish Essen community living a few decades before the birth of Jesus. The author of this work, whoever they were, developed a theology around Lilith that still connected her to the owl as the text mentions that they attack suddenly to lead astray the spirit, much like an owl's sudden attack. But more importantly, here Lilith seems to be associated with the spirits of destroying angels and the spirits of bastards of bastard demons. Next, we move on to the next source about Lilith, which is the Babylonian Talmud. The Talmud is a central text in Judaism, along with the texts of the Hebrew Bible. The Talmud consists of two parts, Mishnah, a compilation of the oral teachings of the Torah, written around 200 CE and Gemara, a collection of discussions on Jewish law and the harmonization of biblical law and the teachings of the rabbis, dating from 200 to 500 CE. Lilith first appears in Shabbat 151 B10 of the Mishnah section of the Babylonian Talmud, where the text says, Rabbi Hanina said, It is forbidden to sleep alone in a house, and whoever sleeps alone in a house will be taken by the demon Lilith. Here Lilith is seen as a demon who abducts people from their homes at night, much like how Lilith was perceived in earlier sources akin to an owl. The next reference to Lilith also comes from the Mishnah section of the Babylonian Talmud, in Niddot 24 B10, where the text says, Rabbi Yehuda said, In the case where a woman gives birth to a child with the form of Lilith, a winged demon with a human face, that mother is considered impure like a woman after childbirth, the child is female but has wings. This passage essentially states that if a woman gives birth to a creature with wings, resembling Lilith, that creature is considered female but with wings. This might seem strange, but it is noteworthy that Lilith here is clearly identified as a female demon with wings and a human face. I want to pause here to point out that the earliest origins of Lilith come from Sumerian mythology and the four subsequent sources are from Jewish perspectives. However, the myth of Lilith continued to spread in the region of Mesopotamia, what is now Iraq, and it is in Iraq that we find the next source about Lilith, in the form of an incantation bowl inscribed with magical spells. One particularly interesting incantation bowl can be seen on display. It is written in Aramaic and dates from the post-Sasanian era, around 500-700 CE. This incantation bowl contains a spell in the form of a prayer against demons and evil spirits. Here Lilith reappears, or more accurately, Lilith. From this incantation bowl, we learn about a figure named Badana, who is said to be the king of demons and the great ruler of the Liliths. This bowl was designed to ward off evil spirits and the malicious Liliths in the name of the Unnamable One, a phrase often used to refer to God. At this point, I feel that we have done a good job of exploring the origins of Lilith, who she is, and where she came from in the ancient world. But now, with the next source, we are going to delve into more mysterious and esoteric stories about Lilith, and this next source is a medieval text titled The Alphabet of Bensira. This text dates from around 700-1000 CE. The Alphabet of Bensira is where the story of Lilith becomes the most famous in modern culture. This is the story that most people think of when they think about Lilith today. The Alphabet of Bensira 23 AB says As soon as the king's son fell ill, Nebuchadnezzar said, Heal my son or I will kill you. Bensira immediately sat down and wrote an amulet with the holy names and inscribed the names of the angels responsible for healing. The king asked, Who are these angels? Bensira replied, The healing angels are Senoisa and Senoisa. When God created Adam, he was alone. Then God said, It is not good for man to be alone. Then he also created a woman from the earth as he had created Adam and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to argue about sex. Lilith said, I will not lie below. And Adam said, I will not lie below, only I will lie on top. For you are fit only to be in the lower position during intercourse, for I am superior to you. Lilith replied, We are equal because we were both created from the earth, but they did not listen to each other. So when Lilith saw this, she uttered the unspeakable name of God and flew into the airdot. Adam stood and prayed before the creator, saying, Lord of the universe, the woman you gave me has fled. Immediately, God blessed Adam and sent these three angels to bring her back. God said to Adam, If she agrees to return, then what was created is good. If not, she must allow 100 of her children to die every day. Three angels left God and pursued Lilith. They found her in the sea, in the mighty waters where the Egyptians would drown. They conveyed God's message to her, but she did not want to return. The angels said, We will drown you in the sea. Lilith screamed, Leave me alone. I was created only to cause sickness to infants. To if the infant is male, I have power over him for eight days after birth, and a female for 20 days. To when the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted that she return, but she evaded them by using the name of the living and eternal God. She said, Whenever I see you or your names or your forms on an amulet, I will have no power over that child. She also agreed to let 100 of her children die each day. Thus, every day 100 demons die. And that is why we inscribe the names of these angels on amulets for infants. When Lilith sees the names of the angels, she remembers her oath and the child is protected from her. So here we have the story of Lilith as Adam's first wife. Lilith was not created from Adam's rib like Eve, but from the same earth from which Adam was created. Lilith is the woman who appears in Genesis chapter 1, while Eve is the woman from Genesis chapter 2. However, Lilith and Adam could not agree on sexual positions and Lilith left. You could say there was trouble in paradise, a bit of a bad joke. Afterward, Lilith is seen as a woman or demon destined to cause death and disease to infants. And this is how Lilith was increasingly perceived over time as a demon who snatches infants from their mothers to kill them. Lilith refused to return to Adam. So she made a deal with the three angels that as long as she saw their names on an amulet, she would not harm the child. Story may have originally been written as a satire or to explain why people write the names of these three angels on amulets. And we know from many amulets, such as those in Sefirajil-Hamelot, a medieval Kabbalistic magic book, that amulets against Lilith were worn around the necks of pregnant women or placed in the room where newborns slept. It seems that by the Middle Ages, Jewish understanding of Lilith mainly focused on her as a demon causing the death and abduction of children embodying infertility. However, the story of Lilith does not stop here. She is also mentioned in the Zohar, a work written in the 12th century in Spain and an introduction to Jewish mystical literature known as Kabbalah. In Kabbalah, Lilith possesses extraordinary powers. Lilith is not only Adam's first wife, but also the wife of Satan. She is a chaotic counterpart to the divine feminine presence. In the Zohar, the Holy One, the masculine aspect of the divine separates from the feminine aspect of the divine and instead unites with Lilith. Lilith and the Holy One are linked in a sexual and spiritual relationship of chaos and evil, which can only be resolved and healed by the coming of the Messiah. So there you have the real origin of Lilith. A fun fact is that in the United States in 2020, Lilith was the 316th most popular name for baby girls, meaning that in 2020, in the US, about one in every 760 baby girls was named Lilith. From the early days of Sumerian civilization to modern culture, Lilith has become a figure of power and mystery. Her story is a journey through time and space, with each culture and era adding new and diverse elements. Lilith is a symbol of independence, power, and defiance a woman who refuses to submit to any form of oppression. Whether in ancient mythology or modern culture, Lilith continues to be a powerful source of inspiration, offering valuable lessons on the strength and resilience of women. Story of Lilith is a reminder that regardless of time and circumstances, human strength and independence will always endure and deserve respect.