The first two people named in the Bible are Adam and Eve, but scholars have long wondered if there may have been other, unnamed people in existence at that time. According to ancient Jewish oral tracition, God had created a woman even before Eve to be Adam's first wife. Her name was Lilith, and like Adam she had been formed from the dust of the earth, not from one of his ribs as Eve was. Because she, too, was made from the earth, she considered herself Adam's equal. When Adam tried to dominate her, they quareled, and Lilith ran away from the Garden of Eden. Afterward, Lilith became an Assyrian goddess of Night, ruling the darkness.
Some scholars believe Lilith is "the queen of heaven," the pagan goddess worshipped by Israelites who fled to Egypt during the times of trouble (Jer 44:17). The Prophet Jeremiah predicted that worshipping other gods would bring down God's wrath upon the Israelites.
Another legend about Lilith says that she was exiled from Eden and besame a ghostlike being that hovered in the air and swooped down without warning on small children. During the Middle Ages Lilith was widely feared as a witch, and parents gave their children little charms to ward off her power. It may be that the traditional lullaby, used to put infants to sleep, takes its name from the Hebrew phrase Lilla abi, which means "Lilith, begone." |
