Lilith in the Bible and Mythology
Connections between Lilith, Adam’s first wife, and Jadis, the White Witch of Narnia
C.S. Lewis’s character Jadis, the White Witch of Narnia, in his The Chronicles of Narnia novels is said to have descended from Lilith, Adam’s first wife. Pictured here is Tilda Swinton as Jadis, the White Witch of Narnia, in the film adaptation The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).
C.S. Lewis, one of the most beloved authors of the 20th century, created a magical, fictional world called Narnia. The primary villain of the first book of this series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, is Jadis, the White Witch. Below is the character Edmund’s description of the White Witch when he first meets her:
A great lady, taller than any woman that Edmund had ever seen. She also was covered in white fur up to her throat and held a long straight golden wand in her right hand and wore a golden crown on her head. Her face was white—not merely pale, but white like snow or paper or icing-sugar, except for her very red mouth. It was a beautiful face in other respects, but proud and cold and stern.
(The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)
Jadis, the White Witch, is beautiful—and terrifying. Although she looks like a human, she is not. According to the character Mr. Beaver, the White Witch was descended from Lilith, Adam’s first wife, on one side and from giants on the other.
Who is Lilith? Is there any warrant for calling Lilith Adam’s first wife, or is this just the baseless chatter of woodland creatures? Are there appearances of Lilith in the Bible?
Dan Ben-Amos, Professor of Folklore and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, explores the figure of Lilith in the Bible and mythology in his article “From Eden to Ednah—Lilith in the Garden” in the May/June 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. His analysis shows that Lilith is an intriguing figure who has taken on many shapes over the millennia. From this, we see that Jadis, the White Witch, shares more than just lineage with her supposed ancestor.
FREE ebook: Exploring Genesis: The Bible’s Ancient Traditions in Context Mesopotamian creation myths, Joseph’s relationship with Egyptian temple practices and 3 tales of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham.
Who is Lilith: Beauty or horror? English painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Lady Lilith (1866–68; altered 1872–73) depicts Lilith, Adam’s first wife, as a beautiful woman. Who is Lilith? According to Rossetti’s interpretation, she was a beauty. Photo: Delaware Art Museum
Lilith is first mentioned in ancient Babylonian texts as a class of winged female demons that attacks pregnant women and infants. From Babylonia, the legend of “the lilith” spread to ancient Anatolia, Syria, Israel, Egypt and Greece. In this guise—as a wilderness demoness—she appears in Isaiah 34:14 among a list of nocturnal creatures who will haunt the destroyed Kingdom of Edom. This is her only mention in the Bible, but her legend continued to grow in ancient Judaism.
During the Middle Ages, Jewish sources began to claim her as Adam’s first—and terrifying—wife. How did Lilith evolve from being a wilderness demoness to Adam’s first wife?
Interestingly enough, this story begins at the beginning—in Genesis 1.
The creation of humans is described in Genesis 1 and in Genesis 2. The first account is fairly straightforward: “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). The second account describes how God formed man out of the dust of the ground and then creates woman from the man: “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. … So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man” (Genesis 2:7, 21–22).
In the post-Biblical period, some ancient Jewish scholars took the stance that Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:21–22 must describe two separate events, since it appears that woman is created differently in these accounts. In her Bible Review article “Lilith” in the October 2001 issue, Professor Janet Howe Gaines explains this reasoning: “Considering every word of the Bible to be accurate and sacred, commentators needed a midrash or story to explain the disparity in the creation narratives of Genesis 1 and 2. God creates woman twice—once with man, once from man’s rib—so there must have been two women. The Bible names the second woman Eve; Lilith was identified as the first in order to complete the story.” Accordingly, Genesis 1:27 describes the creation of Adam and an unnamed woman (Lilith); Genesis 2:7 gives more details of Adam’s creation; and Genesis 2:21–22 describes the creation of Eve from Adam.
Who is Lilith: Beauty or horror? This Aramaic incantation bowl depicts Lilith as a demoness. A text that mentions Lilith and other evil spirits is written on the inside of the bowl in spiral concentric circles. Incantation bowls were meant to both capture and repel evil spirits. Who is Lilith? According to this representation, which is more consistent with the appearance of “the lilith” in the Bible, she was a horror. Photo: Courtesy V. Klagsbald, Jerusalem
Lilith’s creation is recounted in The Tales of Ben Sira, an apocryphal work from the tenth century C.E. Dan Ben-Amos explains that although this is the first extant text that records the legend of Lilith, her story probably existed earlier:
[Lilith’s] story seems to hover at the edges of literacy with sporadic references. … [I]n the post-Biblical period, the sages identify the lilith several times, not by name, but as “the First Eve,” indicating that her full story was well known in oral tradition, yet barred from the canonized Biblical text. Finally, in the tenth century C.E. in Babylon, an anonymous writer, who was not bound by normative traditional principles and who included in his book some other sexually explicit tales, spelled out the lilith’s adventures in paradise.
The Tales of Ben Sira relates that God created Lilith from the earth, just as he had created Adam. They immediately began fighting because neither would submit to the other. Recognizing that Adam would not listen to her, Lilith “pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air” (The Tales of Ben Sira). The angels Snvi, Snsvi and Smnglof were sent to pursue Lilith, but when they reached her, she refused to return with them to the Garden of Eden. “‘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’” (The Tales of Ben Sira). As a compromise, she promised that whenever she saw the angels’ names or forms on amulets, she would leave the child alone. She also agreed that 100 of her children—demons—would die every day.
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Janet Howe Gaines expounds the severity of Lilith’s sin and its consequences as described in the The Tales of Ben Sira:
Lilith sins by impudently uttering the sacred syllables, thereby demonstrating to a medieval audience her unworthiness to reside in Paradise. So Lilith flies away, having gained power to do so by pronouncing God’s avowed name. Though made of the earth, she is not earthbound. Her dramatic departure reestablishes for a new generation Lilith’s supernatural character as a winged devil.
Gaines also explains Lilith’s hatred for human babies: “Ben Sira’s story suggests that Lilith is driven to kill babies in retaliation for Adam’s mistreatment and God’s insistence on slaying 100 of her progeny daily.”
To learn more about Biblical women with slighted traditions, take a look at the Bible History Daily feature Scandalous Women in the Bible, which includes articles on Lilith, Mary Magdalene and Jezebel.
The Lilith legend continued to grow and change over the following centuries, which is reflected in various artistic depictions of her. While some portrayed Lilith as a beautiful woman, others showed her in a more sinister light. Some even depicted her as the serpent in the Garden of Eden who convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.
Jadis, the White Witch of Narnia, shares similarities with Lilith. Not only are both of them strong, terrifying women, but they also seem bent on destroying human life. Both wield dark magic and are immortal beings. As revealed in C.S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew, Jadis gains immortality by eating a silver apple inside a walled garden in Narnia. This episode has some obvious connections to the account of the Garden of Eden in the Bible. Additionally, both pronounce an ineffable word and suffer dire consequences as a result. The Magician’s Nephew tells how Jadis—before she became the White Witch—pronounced the Deplorable Word, which killed every living thing in her world, Charn, except for herself. So great was her desire for power and her refusal to submit, she spoke the Deplorable Word—knowing full well that it would kill every living person and thing in her world—rather than surrender her claim to the throne of Charn. These examples demonstrate that the character Jadis bears both the blood and the character of her foremother Lilith.
From demoness to Adam’s first wife, Lilith is a terrifying force. To learn more about Lilith in the Bible and mythology, read Dan Ben-Amos’s full article—“From Eden to Ednah—Lilith in the Garden”—in the May/June 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
BAS Library Members: Read the full article “From Eden to Ednah—Lilith in the Garden” by Dan Ben-Amos in the May/June 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
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This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on May 2, 2016.
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Genesis 2:18 ¶And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
This has hint that God created one woman, Eve. No mention of first or any woman if there was already a woman before Eve.
If Lilith had been killing babies etc then the act of eating the forbidden fruit was not the first sin in the worrld.. How and ftom where the sinning action of Lilith ?
This article states the Liltih was created with Adam and Gen. 1, However Lilith would not submit to Adam. Another account say’s she was a demoness. I find two problems with this. First one: God said everything He created was good. The first time He said something wasn’t good was when He said it wasn’t good for man to be alone. DEMONS ARE NOT GOOD! Second one: If Adam and Lilith were attempting to usurp power over one another, and fighting, and mentioning eneffable words (which by the way is described as SINFUL nature in the bible) then that clearly goes against the Idea of sin entering the world only after the serpent deceived Adam and Eve causing them to question God’s command and then committing what the bible records was the act that brought sin in the world further making the hearts of man corrupt and wicked. If Adam and lilith were fighting doin quarreling with each other, that would mean wickedness entered mans’ heart before the fall of Adam and Eve. That would mean that God lied!!! The Story of Lilith is completely inconsistent with the bible’s account of creation and everything pertaining to. I pray God opens the eyes of many to see that we cant read a Holy and Sacred book with heavenly concepts through a natural lends as if our intelligence trumps God’s wisdom.
To even put into the minds of non-discerning readers that Lillith is a possibility as Adam’s first wife is from a New Testament view, blasphemous heresy, abominable. Then mentioning C.S. Lewis while failing to mention the very much documented public domain works of his own that reveal he was an occultist, not really anyone who was truly a New Testament born again believer though he’s made out to be such by them duped by such things;
http://crossroad.to/Excerpts/warnings.htm
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/006/narnia-trouble.htm
Lillith – liyliyṯ: A feminine noun referring to a night creature; a screech owl. It refers to a creature of the night that will settle among the ruins of the nations whom God judges (Isa_34:14; NIV, night creatures; NASB, night monster; KJV, screech owl). — The Complete WordStudy Bible Encyclopedia/Dictionary.
I find it very angering when i come to a bible archaeology website which at times, will have good articles that reflect a more honest New Testament view of such daily dynamic discoveries etc of archaeology, but on the other hand allows itself either willingly our unwittingly to be a pawn that peddles outrageous diabolist kabbala dark religion of witchcraft, the very thing God (Jesus) made clear that;
1Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
..and it’s peddled as ‘academic illustrious study’ which is really the musings of the ancient sages of all them who were not exactly on the side of the Biblical God (Old/New) as many in history have claimed they were, and thus have repackaged to seem innocent while reprogramming a unknowing reader with the language of the kabbalists dressed in scholastic garb, as part of a conditioning process. Truly this an externalization of the very mode of thought of the mystery schools, that if one is a born again believer in Jesus the Christ, this mode of thought is clearly discernible as a diabolist view for it’s a intermingling of Mesopotamian secret society ideas with biblical narratives wherein only the most well studied would be able to tell a difference of what is actually biblical and what isn’t.
Then the mention of the “Gap” theory which is another intellectual disingenuous reading of the genuine societal more Hebraic way of reading out how Genesis was written, and one doesn’t have to be scholar just to learn a bit of how Hebrews would tell a story, first a brief intro.. then a more expanded retelling (for various Biblical reasons).
Then looking to the Apocrphyal texts when the very name itself implies it’s not canon or doctrinal, King James himself said, “As to the Apocriphe bookes, I omit them because I am no Papist”. The basis of Romanist doctrines are formed on more Apocryphal writings than that of the Holy Bible. There is partial validity to the Apocryphal writings but not according to New Testament 1st century teaching. The fulfillment of some Old testament prophecies, such as those in Daniel, can be confirmed by the historical information in the Apocryphal books such as Maccabees. Any studied historian being honest knows not to consider the Apocrypha as part of scripture. Catholic Bibles included the Apocryphal books mixed with scripture. “Apocrypha” (which means “obscure”). The Apocrypha is no more inspired than are other things that might be included in today’s editions of the Bible, such as study notes, book introductions, devotional tips, etc.
The darkest occult books on spellcraft/witchcraft all praise Lilith with the utmost praise as she (supposedly) is the devil they call on quite a bit to perform their craft of incantations, curses, spells, and divining.
In Isaieh some commentators read Lilith, the Mesopotamian female night “demon” (v. Isa_34:14), as one of the creatures inhabiting this nightmare world. But we know clearly that the Bible does state there are female ‘spirits’ but them who were born of Adam and Eve (the only way it happened) and died and either ended up in heaven or hell. Lilith is seen as a screech owl — rather, “the night specter”; in Jewish mysticism/superstition (something they learned from pagan babylonians etc who are a offense to God) a female, elegantly dressed, that carried off children by night. All these are paganized worldviews of a false understanding of the reality we are in according to the God of the Holy Bible.
This article is teaching the ideas/views of high level dark craft as innocent academic truth seeking. A formidable deception for them who don’t have the right armor on.
–awakened2truth@youtube
Adam had prior wives?
Bet he didn’t dwell California, land of divorce lawyers.
It is absurd to interfere with the pure creation of almighty Lord that is creation of Adm.and Eve in Genesis by their fictional work
Israelites wrote the book of genesis while in Babylon using stories legends to create the their historical origins; it is all about the sumeriain of ancient iraq
further more, the book of genesis had more than one Israelite author as can be evident in that chpt1 uses the narrative god then after in chpt2 the narrative uses lord god
there is a link between the abram and adam: ancient sumerians and perhaps ancient Armenians also look into the book of enoch dead sea scrolls
Adam had a first wife? Sounds like another California marriage to me.
Lilith the female(dirt woman) would not submit….replaced with Eve… the rib.
Satan (lilith) replaced in heaven with Wisdom.
Vashti replaced with Esther.
and the Devil was wroth with the woman…… yall catching up.