Adam and Lilith, the first Eve who leaves

Excerpted with permission from Mineke Schipper (Hindustan Times); edited by Wisdom Quarterly

The real "first woman" [of this generative human experiment], Adam's first partner, Lilith

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Creation: God, Adam, Eve (Jean Fouquet)

The old wisdom that men and women are molded from the same clay must have inspired the story about Adam’s first wife -- her name was not Eve, but Lilith -- who was created by God from the same dust as Adam.

There having been created on an equal footing had terrible consequences, because Lilith wanted to have [relations] on top, and she insisted on her right to do so.

According to some variants, Adam refused this, divorced her, and sent her away. But in other versions Lilith was the one who abandoned Adam.

She pronounced the name of [the tribal Jewish] God [YWVH], flew up into the air and out of Paradise, then went off to the Red Sea.

God sent angels ["messengers"] to capture her and force her back to Adam, threatening that if she didn’t come along, she would lose a hundred of her demon children daily. But she preferred even that to returning to Adam.

I don't like that Lilith. Adam's totally over her. He's all about Eve. He's all about me!

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Ever since, she has taken her revenge on Eve (her rival) by [being blamed for lost] babies and swallowing the [issue] of men who sleep alone at night [and have certain dreams they want no responsibility for having].

No, MacFarlane, it was the other end. - Kuba

An oral narrative from the Congolese Kuba people tells of how, in the beginning, God has a sick stomach. He feels so ill that his whole-body aches and he begins to throw up. He creates everything from his insides, by vomiting all the plants, trees, animals, and human beings, one after the other onto the earth.

Apparently, being on top during intercourse is an enviable position of power.... The main conclusion of the Lilith story is that equality between men and women is not such a good idea.

Eve has inspired other origin stories, first in Jewish culture, but also in the Arab world, Africa, and Europe. More