Lilith
The feminine figure who fled Eden rather than submit.
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Lilith is a feminine figure in Jewish mythology. She does not appear in the Hebrew Bible or any other biblical source, although the Hebrew word lilit appears in the Book of Isaiah, specifically in Isaiah 34:14. The meaning of this word is debated by scholars with interpretations ranging from a primordial she-demon to a night bird. The King James translation renders the term in this verse as 'screech-owl'. Based on medieval Jewish folklore, Lilith is said to have fled from the Garden of Eden because she did not want to submit to Adam.
Quick Facts
- Role
- Feminine figure in Jewish mythology
- First appears
- Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q510-11)
Lore & Background
The earliest known mention of Lilith is in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q510-11), and afterwards in Mandaean and Jewish sources from late antiquity (300 AD onward), in historiolas – incantations that incorporate a short mythic story – that give partial descriptions of her. She is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (at Eruvin 100b, Niddah 24b, Shabbat 151b, Bava Batra 73a), and in the Zohar § Leviticus 19a as 'a hot fiery female who first cohabited with man'.
Some rabbinic authorities, including Maimonides and Menachem Meiri, reject the existence of Lilith. In some Jewish folklore, such as the Alphabet of Sirach (c. 700–1000 AD), Lilith appears as Adam's first wife, who was created at the same time and from the same clay as Adam. The legend of Lilith developed extensively during the Middle Ages, in the tradition of Aggadah, the Zohar, and Jewish mysticism. For example, in the 13th-century writings of Isaac ben Jacob ha-Cohen, Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden after she had coupled with the archangel Samael.
Reader's Guide
In the Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, the terms lili and līlītu mean spirits. Archibald Sayce (1882) considered that the Hebrew and the earlier Akkadian names are derived from Proto-Semitic. Charles Fossey (1902) has this literally translating to 'female night being/demon', although cuneiform inscriptions from Mesopotamia exist where Līlīt and Lilītu refers to disease-bearing wind spirits. The Sumerian líl root has no etymological relation to Akkadian līlu, 'evening', and an unlikely connection with the biblical lilith appearing in Isaiah 34:14, which might derive from laylah, 'night', and is thought to be a night bird by modern scholars such as Judit M. Blair.
The name Lilith seems related to the masculine Akkadian word lilû and its female variants lilītu and ardat lilî. In Mesopotamian religion according to the cuneiform texts of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia, lilû are a class of demonic spirits, consisting of adults (and ardat-lilî of adolescents) who died before they could bear children or get married. Lilith in Aramaic sources is believed to be a conflation of lilītu/ardat-lilî and Lamaštu, as she is both a succubus, and also a threat to children, the traditional role of Lamaštu in Babylonia.
Elsewhere in The Binding of Isaac
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