Lilith, Adam and Eve, the Nephilim and a Child's Lullaby
An enigmatic character within the Biblical scriptures is that of Lilith. Her presence confounds that the current Christian teachings and paradigms of the church, concerning the story of Adam and Eve. Few churches claim Eve to be Adam's second wife, nor that Adam many have also fathered a race of demons. The presence of Lilith created a real and tangible fear to the early Sumerian and Hebrew peoples. This fear is easily recognized today in the etymology of the word “lullaby,” which comes from the words “Lilith abi” which means “Lilith, go away.”
Lilith is mentions in Isaiah 34:14, New Revised Standard, “The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.” Translations replace "Lilith" with "screech owl" or "night hag," the Latin word becomes "lamia." Lamia, is a Greek mythological figure who eventually became a child killer. It is evident that the mythology of Lilith existed when the Book of Isaiah was written, but largely omitted from the texts,
According to Jewish writings, Lilith was the first wife of Adam. She was expelled from the Garden of Eden when she refused to make herself subservient to Adam. When she was cast out of Eden, she was made into a demonic figure, and Adam was given a second wife, Eve, who was fashioned from his rib to ensure her obedience.
Michelangelo's painting on the Vatican's Sistine Chapel depicting a serpentine Lilith with Adam and Eve. (1508-12). There is evidence inGenesis that the Serpent can be identified as Lilith.
Perhaps the most indisputable evidence of the rival between Lilith and Eve are the parallels between God’s curses upon the Serpent and upon Eve.
The belief that Eve was Adam’s second wife was a common theory in early Rabbinical writings. Early theologians on Genesis adopted this view to describe for the double account of the creation of woman. In the Bible itstates in Genesis 1 : 27, "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." In Genesis II we get another account of the creation of women, "And Yahweh said, 'It is not good for Adam to be alone. I will make a fitting helper for him.'...And Yahweh fashioned the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman; and He brought her to the man."
In the Jewish Apocrypha, Lilith is a Mesopotamian demon who was created by God to be Adam's first wife. However, Lilith disobeyed Adam's commands and so was rejected. After that, she was cast out of the Garden of Eden. In retribution, she became a demon and promised to give birth to a race of demons named "Lilim" who would murder humanity's children. From "Lilith's Cave," Lilith's Cave: Jewish tales of the supernatural
The "Lilim" are the Neph "ilim" whose gigantic skeletal remains have been found extensively in the British Isles and the Ohio Valley within the burial mounds. In Genesis 6 : 4 it says that the giant race was spawned by the union of the Fallen Angels and mortal women. "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were ofold, men of renown."
The Apocrypha corroborates the version that attributes Lilith as the mother of theNephilim. "Though he avoided intercourse with Eve, Adam was visited in his sleep by female spirits, and from his union with them sprang shades and demons of various kinds,and they were endowed with peculiar gifts." Female spirits visiting men while they sleep for the purpose of fertilization is the definition of a succubus.
"One of the earliest mentions of succubus comes from Mesopotamia on the Sumerian King List, circa, 2400 BC, where Lilitu, a female demon, appears to men in their erotic dreams. Two other corresponding demons appear as well: Ardat lili, who visits men by night and begets ghostly children from them, and Irdu lili, who is known as a male counterpart to Ardat lili and visits women by night and begets from them. According to Zohar and the Alphabet of Ben Sira, Lilith was Adam's first wife who later became a succubus.
More horrific attributes of Lilith is that she comes to men in the middle of the night, to take their sexual energy, harm pregnant women, steal male babies, and drink their blood. This story has merged with the Jewish tradition of placing amulets around a malebaby’s neck until they are circumcised. It was a Jewish tradition not to cut male child’s hair until the age of three hoping to confuse Lilith into thinking the child was female. To guard against her, young men would hang a script on their walls or door saying” Adam and Eve may enter here, but enter not Lilith the Queen.
Amulets like the one in Medicine Man would have been worn around the necks of pregnant women or hung in the fourcorners of rooms where newborn babies slept.
The theft of babies is reminiscent of the Fairies who are prone to kidnapping humans, either as babies, leaving changelings in their place. In Christian mythology is the belief that the Fairies were a class of "demoted" angels. One popular story held that when the angels revolted, God ordered the gates shut; those still in heaven remained angels, those in hell became devils, and those caught in between becoming fairies. Thefairies are inexorably tied in with the Nephilim because of the folkloric belief that the fairies dwell in the subterranean chambers of the burial mounds.
The story of Lilith and Fairies stealing babies appears to be ancient wives tales that has little relevance in today’s world. Historically, mothers would sing a song to their children at night to keep Lilith, an evil angel, away from their children." Today, it is common practice to encourage children to beckon demonic fairies and sell them their teeth.
Proverbs 22:3 “prudent[man] foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.”
