According to Jewish lore Adam’s first wife was not Eve
According to Jewish beliefs or legend the first man Adam had another wife before Eve. Like Adam, she was made from earth too and wasn't a mere rib material. Would that make her equal to Adam?
The first woman was called Lilith, but she didn't get along well with Adam, so she was expelled from the Garden.
"When the Almighty created the first, solitary man, He said: It is not good for man to be alone. And He fashioned for man a woman from the earth, like him (Adam), and called her Lilith. Soon, ......... She said to him: I will not lie underneath, and he said: I will not lie underneath but above, for you are meant to lie underneath and I to lie above. She said to him: We are both equal, because we are both created from the earth. But they did not listen to each other"
In Hebrew bible Adam's first partner Lilith wanted equal pleasure and took to "riding" Adam. The Hebraic authors of the old testament had her expelled from Eden and labelled her the mother of all monsters!!!
According to Jewish lore the pseudepigraphic 8th–10th centuries Alphabet of Ben Sira is considered to be the oldest form of the story of Lilith as Adam’s first wife. Whether this particular tradition is older is not known. Scholars tend to date the Alphabet between the 8th and 10th centuries CE. The work has been characterized as satirical.
After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone.’ He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, ‘I will not lie below,’ and he said, ‘I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.’ Lilith responded, ‘We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.’ But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air.
Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: ‘Sovereign of the universe!’ he said, ‘the woman you gave me has run away.’ At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to bring her back. Said the Holy One to Adam, ‘If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.’ The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God’s word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, ‘We shall drown you in the sea.’ ‘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.’
When the angels heard Lilith’s words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: ‘Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.’ She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels’ names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers. The background and purpose of The Alphabet of Ben-Sira is unclear. It is a collection of stories about heroes of the Bible and Talmud, it may have been a collection of folk-tales, a refutation of Christian, Karaite, or other separatist movements; its content seems so offensive to contemporary Jews that it was even suggested that it could be an anti-Jewish satire, although, in any case, the text was accepted by the Jewish mystics of medieval Germany.
Our story begins thus, as do all bedtime stories …
Once upon a time, far, far away, there lived a poor sod called Adam. God made him from dust. He was immortal. Our hero lived in a beautiful garden called Eden. In the garden there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If Adam ate its fruit, he would know the difference between … yes, good and evil. And that would be bad, or must have been, because God told Adam that if he ate from it, he would surely die (Genesis 2:16). Our hero got lonely. So God created Woman from his rib to be his ‘helper’. God loved them. He made them in his image, perfect and sinless. They would never be ill, never be harmed and never die. And God was a real sport when he said, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:27).
And how could they not live happily ever after? …
I must pause here. There is a tiny dispute of fact. This tale in Genesis of the Christian God, his Adam and Eve, suggests that Eve was the first woman. However, a Jewish book called The Alphabet of Ben Sira (circa 8th Century A.D.) tells the story of Lilith; that she and not Eve, was Adam's first wife, created at the same time and from the same dust. Claiming to be thus created equal, Lilith refused to sleep “under him”. This was a problem for our hero who, ever the ladies man, insisted,
“I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.”
Lilith freaked. She flew away into the air where she ‘knew’ many demons, spawning hundreds of baby demons a day. And thus was coined the oath “I wouldn’t sleep with you if you were the only man in the whole universe”. Adam sobbed to God, “O Sovereign of the Universe, the woman you gave me has run away”. Oh boo hoo. But God was good to Adam, so he sent three angels after her. They threatened to drown her if she refused to return to him. “O piss off” she must have said, because they did. So God, perhaps regretting Free Will a little, made Eve, but this time from Adam’s rib to prevent her from leaving him.[1]
I readily accept this version as Genesis 1:27 suggests a woman before Eve, but more so because Lilith sounds really hot. Despite Lilith, the consensus is that Eve represents Woman and that She did not come into existence in her own right but only to fulfill man’s needs. This is significant, as we shall see.
There was a serpent in the garden who was actually Satan (Revelations 12:9). Before he lost the War in Heaven, he was called Lucifer, God’s first and most beautiful angel, the Angel of Light. The Morning Star. He felt that although Adam and Eve would be eternally happy in paradise, they would also be eternally ignorant. So he persuaded Eve to eat the forbidden fruit for then her eyes would be opened, and like God, she would have knowledge. She ate. The now wicked Eve then seduced poor Adam into taking a bite himself. Immediately his eyes were opened. With all this knowledge, he realised he was butt naked and so put on an apron (Genesis 3:7).
But then he heard God walking in Eden in the cool of the day. ‘O bummer’, he must have thought and he hid. But God called for him and Adam said, “I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:10). (What happened to the apron?).
God figured it out (well, of course He would) and asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Adam blamed Eve, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12). Eve blamed the snake, “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate (Genesis 3:13).
God didn’t buy it. The serpent got off lightly though, probably because it was Satan and he was only doing his job. But it was off on its belly for the rest of its life. And to be hated by Eve and her children (oh that must have hurt).
Adam was cursed (for listening to evil wifey, of course), (Genesis 3:17-19):
“And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it’, cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
But Eve’s curse was worse (Genesis 3:16):
“To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
And God banished them from Heaven, to the East of Eden. And Death did come to Adam and Eve.
The Christians, in another one of their cool euphemisms like ‘the Rapture’, call it ‘the Fall’. I think ‘the Almighty Cock-Up’ would be more appropriate. But I don’t get what’s so awful about knowledge. Certain Gnostic sects actually honour the snake for bringing knowledge to Adam and Eve. But it is the treatment of Eve that is truly baffling.
Her curse is two-fold. The first was increased pain[2] during childbirth and in raising children.[3] There is also the post natal extra fat, wider hips, stretch marks and of course, the sag. And children will always find ways to break a mother’s heart. Coincidence? Perhaps not. Women have more pain in childbirth than any other creature.
And the Puritans took the Curse very seriously. In 16th and 17th century Europe, midwives were tried and burned at the stake as witches for administering any form of pain relief. There was an outcry from the Church when chloroform was discovered and used in childbirth by Sir James Simpson in the early 19th century. It was seen as an unholy attempt to rebel against God’s curse on Eve. Even Queen Victoria was heavily criticized for having used anaesthesia with the birth of her 8th child.
But Eve’s second curse is the real cracker: “… yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” I confess I am thoroughly enjoying the very suggestion of a man’s divine right to rule over his wife. After all, Adam did name her Woman because she was created of man (Genesis 2:18-23). This is no slip of the quill; Genesis earlier recognised the headship of man before the Fall (Genesis 2:18 and 2:22). This means that God’s later ruling ‘he shall rule over you’ cannot be a punishment in itself and is accordingly, simply the way things are. So to obey God’s edict the wife must submit to her husband, I surmise with glee. What’s worse is ‘desire’ is interpreted as Woman’s need to ‘control’[4] her husband. This is a curse because her need can never be fulfilled, as man’s headship is an edict of God that cannot be usurped.
St. Paul himself did not accept Woman’s control over man. He said (I Timothy 2:11-15), “And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.”
The Twentieth Century New Testament provides a truly brave translation of this clause, “But women will find their salvation in motherhood”. Try telling Liz Taylor that childbearing and submission to her husband (singular) are her salvation.
But the puritans condemn Eve for the consequence of her deeds. This is what they say. She disobeyed God and seduced Adam to follow suit. Adam was then punished because he ‘listened’ to her over God. Consequently, God cursed the Earth. Their sin, which had not been forgiven by God, was bequeathed to all their descendants. To absolve Man of this ‘original sin’, God sacrificed Jesus, his son in Christian dogma. (Umm, why God did not simply forgive us all without crucifying Jesus is not for me to ask.)
So Eve caused Adam’s sin, the original sin of all Man, the death of Christ and the end of the world. It’s like blaming the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil for a tornado in Texas.[5] All butterflies should have their wings removed and like Woman, find salvation in raising larvae.
Running Out Of Luck...
The reality, however, is that women are attributed with the qualities of the Biblical Eve, unworthy, manipulative and filled with deception and guile.[6] As an example, see Ecclesiastes 7:26-28: “I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare ... while I was still searching but not finding, I found one upright man among a thousand but not one upright woman among them all”.
Orthodox Jewish men in their morning prayers recite the following benediction to Yahweh, “Blessed be [God] King of the universe that Thou has not made me a woman.”[7] And another: “Praised be [God] that he has not created me a gentile. Praised be [God] that he has not created me a woman. Praised be [God] that he has not created me an ignoramus.” Equating Woman with gentiles is a little harsh.
But there are limits to this sexist Biblical nonsense. The joke ends with the original Protestant, Martin Luther, if he actually[8] said: “If they become tired or even die, that does not matter. Let them die in childbirth, that's why they are there”.
Ironically, there is no Quranic condemnation of the Muslim Eve and her purdah practicing daughters. In the Islamic version of our story (2:31-36), (7:19-25), (20:115-123), Allah never blamed Eve for Adam’s sin and neither Eve nor her daughters were cursed with the misery depicted in the Bible. The Hadiths may say otherwise, but not the Quran.
The real disappointment is Adam, or at least the Genesis/Ben Sira version. He is a wuss. He was given Lilith but went whinging to God when she left him for demons. He was then given Eve. But he could not even say ‘No’ to her for God’s sake. He hid behind aprons and even blamed Eve for disobeying God. Clearly, he was no match for Woman. He was conned by Eve and bollocked by Lillith; but in her defence, Lilith cannot be blamed for refusing to spend eternity with a poof like Adam. God, of course, is far more formidable. So after more than 3,000 years, Christian puritans must be appalled at Woman’s late charge in the 21st century in meeting her Curse. The epidural has all but rendered pain in childbirth obsolete. And in the modern home, her control over her domesticated husband (inexplicably called a pussy) is all but complete. And even without a Hilary win, we have women prime ministers and presidents who, despite St. Paul, rule over nations of men. Oh ... and what was that Curse again?
Thus end of story. And Woman lived happily ever after.
A Ride of Joy???
To Be In a Joy Ride; For Within A Ride there Is a Need for Joy!!!
Lilith prefers Adam to submit to her for she prefers to be at the top so as to feel the ride but Adam prefers to be at the top too so as to feel the joyride by ensuring Lilith to be the ones to submit. So the question now is are Man created Equals to Woman?
And is Woman supposed to be submissive towards a Man? A fateful believer should follow God's rule. For it's my way or the highway. Yeah!!!
[49.13] O you men! surely We have created you of a male and a female, and made you tribes and families that you may know each other; surely the most honorable of you with Allah is the one among you most careful (of his duty); surely Allah is Knowing, Aware.
In Translation TWO, it is slightly different: [49.13] O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).
A Race Towards Unity...
How can people be of “Different Races” if everyone was to come from the same parents? Would anyone in his right mind call his cousin a different race, or a different Tribe? Would Adam have called his grandchildren or even great-great-great- grandchildren spawns of a different race? He would have had to be senile to do that ! So, using the Brain which God gave us, how can any of Adams great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren call each other of a different race? Didn’t we all come from Adam and Eve?
ONE United People...
Did God make more than one Adam? If He did, then surely anyone from that “alternate Adam” would be free from the “Adamic Sin”. That Sin had nothing to do with Sex. That Sin has everything to do with a Talking-Snake and a fruit of unknown Species (I’ve proposed the Durian, but it has been rejected) in a particular Garden of which DNA tells us was in East Africa in the Olduvai Gorge near Laetoli. Combining modern day research allows us to conclude also that if God made Man in His own image, then God must look like Eddie Murphy, because, all mankind’s origins started out in East Africa. So, sorry, God does NOT look European or Malay at all. He would look more like the Negritos at best.
Now, why did I suggest an “Alternative Adam”. It’s because that it is recorded in the Bible. Warakah was preaching from this same Bible, before Prophet Muhammad was born. And it would now depend on which Version his Arabic Bible was translated from.
In the Hebrew Bible, Cain and Abel (Hebrew: קין ,הבל, Hevel, Qayin)[1] (Arabic: هابيل قابيل – Hābīl and Qābīl) are two sons of Adam and Eve. The Qur’an mentions the story, calling them the two sons of Adam (Arabic: إبني آدم) only,.[2]In the Greek New Testament, Cain is referred to as εκ του πονηρου.[3] In at least one translation this is rendered “from the evil one”,[4] while others have “of the evil one.”[5] Some interpreters take this to mean that Cain was literally the son of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. A parallel idea can be found in Jewish tradition,[6] that the serpent (Hebrew nahash נחש) from the Garden of Eden was father to firstborn Cain.
So, not only do we either have Eve being raped by a Talking Snake as a possibility, we also have an even greater and darker possibility that Eve either seduced or was seduced by a Talking Snake.
Now on the story of Lilith, who was the original and first Wife of Adam the strange things about Lilith, is that not only did she divorce Adam, she went to a different Land and decided to marry other MEN, and bear a hundred children !! Adam had competitors now? The same would apply to Cain, whom after God decided to put a mark on his forehead, so that he would be safe from the other Tribes. And this word is crucial !! What other Tribes is the Bible referring to? How can Lilith marry m,en from other tribes, or Cain have a God-Tattoo on his head to protect him from other tribes if everyone was a descendant from Adam? Was Cain considered of a “different Tribe” because his Daddy was Mr Talking-Snake? Hence, all his other half-siblings had to limit the choice of their spouses to severe in-breeding, while he went off to the Land of Nod, to mate with Lilith’s offspring and from the other Tribe(s) whom she married?
Where All I Want, And All I Need Is...
If, and only if this is true, then we can Justify Racism. Also important to note then, is that if Cain’s Daddy was not Mr Adam himself, then many many “Tribes” of today would be completely free from that “Adamic Sin” which binds Mankind to justify “Salvation”, via a Human Sacrifice.
A question to ponder upon is what race is Adam, and what Race is Eve? and if truly ALL mankind started out from ONE SEED, then the entire Human Race should be of the same race ! And by the way whose seeds outlived? Who really triumph on that fateful day when a brother kill a fellow brother in the story of Cain and Abel. Did the serpent's seed live to rule the Earth and as such could it be possibly that we are a gift of the Devil? or Serpent? Because without Satan or the Devil mankind might not have exist after all. Right???
Sounds Creepy, Isn't It Not???
What Is the End going to be? In the END do I just fade into the night??