Lilith

    There’s an image floating around the internet of a church sign that said, “satan was the first to demand equal rights.” Which isn’t just offensive, it’s not true. In Abrahamic religions the oldest, is Judaism by a rather wide margin. and in Hebrew satan means the adversary, at it was not the name of an individual or the reference to a specific person. Satan, as the ultimate evil/devil is a Christian invention. Even in the Abrahamic mythology, there is someone who demands equal rights quite a bit before Satan. It’s understandable that most people seem to forget her existence, I’ve seen some versions of the Bible that don’t even include her anymore. I’ve talked to some Christians who don’t even recognize her as a biblical character. I’m speaking of Lilith, the first woman.

   In Abrahamic mythology, Adam is a reference to both all of mankind as well as to an individual first-man. On the sixth day, God created all mankind, not just Adam. When Adam was made from the dust of the earth, God also created for him a partner, Lilith, from the same earth. Lilith saw herself as Adam’s equal, which if you know anything about history, did not go over well with Adam. She should clearly be subservient to him when she refused Adam decided it couldn’t work between them. Lilith somehow escapes Eden, turns into a demon thing and leaves Adam alone, he gets lonely and mopes around a lot.

    Here’ the story gets a bit weird, because in some tellings she acts like a creepy ex and sneaks into Eden to rape Adam at night and have his children, he is of course completely unaware of it. He pleads to god for him to ask her to return. God does, and threatens to kill all her children if she refuses, a bit extreme if you ask me, she refuses and God kills her children. God then creates a woman for Adam who will be subservient to him and then stroke his wounded ego. This was Eve.

    This is where her story, gets back on track, Lilith forgets Adam and consorts with the powerful demon/angel Samael. Like many biblical characters at this point, she blended with every story that’s remotely similar to hers. She is maybe a demon mother whose children kidnap and eat children. In some instances, like the Wiccan religion, she’s seen as a positive force with much reverence. Others assert that she is a negative force and the reason for homosexuals and abortions.

    You could see the story of Lilith as a decent allegory for the struggle of feminism. Lilith was made equal so didn’t see how she could be anything less, Adam didn’t see why Lilith needed to be equal and why she couldn’t just be happy being subservient.

    Lilith is actually by far one of my favorite characters in Abrahamic religion. Anyone who has read my old works (that never got more than random piles of paper I’ve handed to people to get their opinion on) would likely know that. Those that have read my story, UWoF, can spot the references to her there as well. She hasn’t disappeared from my works and will return in some form, but maybe not like most people would expect, even those that have read my old stuff. Other favorites would include Samael, Lucifer, and of course who I take my nickname Raziel.

    Lilith has always been one of the issues I took with Christianity during my earliest days, even before my atheism. I understood her reason for wanting to be treated as an equal, and I never understood why she had to be cast aside for it. No one seemed able to explain it to me, or explain to me how the story wasn’t sexist.

    I could have gone into all the other stories of Lilith that predate Abrahamic mythology, but I feel they’d be too obscure. Too often have I encountered people who aren’t even aware of the Abrahamic version, so I feel going into the other stories would wind up just being too abstract and take too much from the main point of the entry. I felt it would be better for me to stick with the Abrahamic story.