How is it that Adam had a wife before Eve?

Question

The Bible only mentions one wife for Adam, so how did Lilith come into being? Where did she come from?

Nicky, you've heard of the Lilith Fair from a few years ago, right? That's where I first heard the name.

Answer 1

Lilith is a myth--she's not in the Bible.

Answer 2

I might be wrong, but I was told the only religion that believes Lilith (that believe in Adam and Eve) is the Jewish faith. Other then that it's just a story. If it is true that she was Adam's first wife, it doesn't make difference to our own salvation. But it is interesting. Lilith is also blamed for SIDS in medieval times.

I must say that although Lilith isn't mention in the bible, doesn't mean she didn't exit, after who was around then, Adam? Besides the Bible is very Vague (although somewhat true) about that time period.

P.S. you've heard of the "Lilith fair tour" right? Women singers on tour together named after her.

Answer 3

The Bible states that Eve was Adam;s first and only wife. It says nothing about any 'Lilith'.

Answer 4

Lilith, Adam's mythological first wife

According to some school teachers:
The Torah states that: God created Adam and a woman. This woman that God created was not a good person. God then created Eve for Adam.

No matter how you understand "Torah" the idea of a wife before Eve DOES NOT OCCUR at all. This idea is a rabbinic tradition and is completely non-Biblical (and I would add, quite anti-Biblical). This first wife is referred to as "Lilith." Lilith up and left Adam, winding up in rabbinic tradition as a baby-killing demoness who seduces sleeping men. Lilith is mentioned in Isa. 34:14, though the KJV renders lilith as 'screech owl.' [Actually, some think this Lilith, this demoness, might have been the "serpent" who tempted Eve.]

Lilith is a female Mesopotamian night demon believed to harm male children. In Isaiah, Lilith (לִילִית, Standard Hebrew Lilith) is a kind of night-demon or animal, translated as onokentauros in the Septuagint, as lamia "witch" by Hieronymus of Cardia, and as screech owl in the King James Version of the Bible. Lilith also appears as a night demon in the Talmud and Midrash. She is often identified as the mother of all incubi and succubi. Late medieval Jewish legend portrays her as the first wife of Adam. Considering Adam inferior, Lilith left the Garden of Eden of her own free will. Adam then bade three angels to find Lilith and bring her back. When Lilith refused, God punished her by commanding that she slay 100 of her children, called Lilin, each day. Lilith is also sometimes considered to be the paramour of Satan.

Answer 5

Lilith, I looked her up in "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (by Barbara Walker and published by Harper and Row. (1983). This book was strongly recommended to me by a Dallas parapsychology teacher, dealt with in the book from both historical and mythical viewpoints. I found this information, which I have paraphrased for the most part.

Lilith, (also know as Lilit), was a relic of an early rabbinical attempt to assimilate the Sumero-Babylonian Goddess Belit-ili, or Belili, to Jewish mythology. to the Canaanites, Lilith was Baalat, the "Divine Lady". Hebraic tradition said Adam married Lilith because he grew tired of mating with animals, a common custom of Middle-Eastern herdsmen, though the Old Testament declared it a sin. Moslems were insistent on the male-superior sexual position and apparently Lilith was not Moslem, disagreed with Adam and flew away to the Red Sea. God sent angels to bring Lilith back, but she refused to return. She supposedly spent her time mating with "demons" and gave birth to "a hundred children a day". (Busy woman!) So God had to produce Eve as Lilith's more docile replacement. Lilith became the "Great Mother" of settled tribes who resisted invasions of nomadic herdsmen represented by Adam. Early Hebrews liked the Great Mother who is said to have drank the blood of Abel after he was slain by Cain.

Answer 6

That is a good question if it were true, but it is not a factual one Lilith was not mentioned anywhere in Genesis, so, yes where did you hear that one, Adam was only married once!and not to Lilith either!

Answer 7

God created all the races, many male and female then. We only hear of Adam and Eve because thats the line that leads to Christ. Cain was thrown out of the garden and he went to the land of Nod where he found a wife. If not then there was a lot of incest going on.

Answer 8

Lilith is to be found in one of the many stories that was left out of the Bible. Lilith was made from the dust of the earth just as Adam was, but when she demanded to be equal to him, Adam would not have it, and she was thrown from Eden. She became a succubus, and God made Adam a wife from his rib so that she would forever be subservient to him. Nice, huh?

Answer 9

I've never heard of that but alot of people like playing into the what if this and what if that.Your probably reading something written from a college professor that also believes in evolution.

Answer 10

Lilith is part of Hebrew mythology. She is not part of the Torah (the Law) but became part of Jewish lore after.