Have you ever read the Bible? In its entirety? Few have! At least Genesis then! Genesis? But yes, the beginning, the intro! When God creates the heavens, the earth, living beings, and finally, the man Adam! Well, Adam and Eve... You know this story, and often little else. When I discuss the Bible with friends or students—not always ignorant of religious facts—I often notice an abyss of ignorance about biblical history, as if people jump directly from Adam to Jesus. Ah yes: people also know Abraham and Moses.
I have always loved the beginnings of stories. The Bible is no exception. I don't know how many times I have read and reread Genesis. And then one day, a passage puzzled me. On the sixth day, God decided to fill the earth with animals, birds, and creatures. Then it is written:
Chapter 1:
26 God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
So far, nothing new. We understand that God had just created Adam and Eve at the dawn of the seventh day, which would see the Lord rest. However, there is no mention of Adam being alone in the garden, and especially no rib being removed. It is clearly written that on the sixth day, God "created them male and female" together, at the same time, on the same day. So why, in the second chapter of Genesis, is Adam alone, without the woman who was previously created in the first chapter? This woman is "created again" during a surgical operation where God takes one of Adam's ribs and fashions Eve from it. It should be noted that part of the intellectual subjugation of women promoted by monotheism comes from this key moment. Eve will be the flesh of man's flesh, or more simply: she is his, she belongs to him!
I was nevertheless disappointed by this repetition of the female creation. My studies in ancient history have taught me that the biblical text is more of a compilation and reinterpretation of older texts and very different cultures. Indeed, it is impossible not to see an obvious correlation between the creation of the first Sumerian man named Adamu and the biblical Adam! I am not talking about the well-known passage of the myth of the Flood, which is found in the Epic of Gilgamesh and told two millennia before the Bible. The latter was written, compiled, and modified over a long period by several different authors. The Jews have several interpretations of the Bible (Torah), some of which go back so far in time that they approach the very foundation of its creation. Thus, by returning to the sources, we would touch on the true writing and perhaps the truth about Genesis and this double creation of woman.
The answer to this mystery lies in the Kabbalah. The Kabbalah is indeed the oldest theological, esoteric—I would add historical—and philosophical tradition of the Bible. Indeed, passed down orally, it is transmitted only from initiate to initiate. By this very definition, the first initiate into the mysteries of God is none other than... Adam! The Kabbalists tell a completely different version of Genesis and human creation. Or rather, they tell the most complete version. Let's go back to where there seems to be a break. The Kabbalah tells that God created man and woman. The first we already know. The second is a red-haired woman with black eyes, bronzed skin, and perfect beauty. Her name is Lilith. Adam is smitten and madly in love. Unfortunately for him, Adam is chauvinistic and wants to establish a patriarchy in their relationship. Moreover, he wants to impose sexual relations where he would dominate the woman, an allegory of the famous missionary position! But Lilith refuses. After all, she does not have to be inferior to man. And yes! She comes from the same will of God and, above all, was created at the same time as Adam. So why not a matriarchy? She refuses the offer, and Adam is just as stubborn. The situation is inextricable, and Lilith decides to flee. She pronounces the name of the unpronounceable (the first name of God?), wings grow on her back, and she flies out of the garden to wander the earth.
Adam remains alone and sad. He laments and implores God to return what he considers his wife. Especially since Lilith is very stubborn. She will not even change her mind—ah, the feminists!—when angels come to reason with her and report God's orders, which want her to submit to the man's desires. The angels tell her that, in case of refusal, she would give birth to a numerous offspring, and a hundred of them would die every day. The divine behavior here is quite astonishing. If we refer to the text above, you will notice, however, that it addresses man and woman on an equal footing, giving—to both of them—the entire garden. God never expressly said that Lilith owed obedience to Adam! Why must she now submit? Why such a reversal?
Desperate, Lilith thinks of ending her life by throwing herself into the Red Sea. Moved—I love it when biblical reversals make no sense—the angels grant her the right of life or death over all newborns on earth until their circumcision! Why? The ways of the Lord are sometimes impenetrable!
This is where the well-known story resumes (Genesis, chapter 2). In the Garden of Eden, Adam, alone, after having named every animal, every tree, and every plant, is on the verge of depression. God, noting his failure, decides to put the man to sleep and remove one of his ribs. Thus, the woman he will fashion will come from the man and, by that very fact, be his obligee! Eve, who has just been born—and by extension the "new" woman—is therefore not the equal of man. She is rather blonde with white and pure skin and perhaps a little naive too; the rest will prove it!
And Lilith in all this! Well, she is jealous and feels betrayed! Contrary to what one might think, she also loved Adam... but not to the point of being dominated! She hates Eve and her innocence. Not only does she take her man, but she also degrades the female condition. She seeks revenge. The tradition is not always clear on what follows. She meets Samael (Satan), who had just lost his battle against God (Samael was God's right-hand man but was thrown out of paradise for demanding equality between angels and God). She marries him and thereby becomes a demon. It is not known whether it was she or Samael who seduced Eve, but she is the origin of the fall of man from Paradise (Michelangelo depicts Lilith as a serpent on the very famous fresco of the Sistine Chapel). Later, she will also be the origin of the murder of Abel by Cain by exciting the jealousy of the latter against his brother. She will also cause a very long sexual abstinence of Adam, which will deprive Eve of carnal love (explaining why Seth, the last son of Adam and Eve, was born much later than his two brothers).
This is the story of Lilith, which plays a major role in world history. Indeed, her story explains the history of the condition of women in society but above all the power struggle she had with her natural partner. Indeed, I have always had the theory that women dominated men in prehistoric times, but that this domination was reversed between the 10th and 5th millennia BC (I will return to this fact in a future article). The story of Lilith would be an allegory, a vague memory of these periods. But the most extraordinary thing is the manifest will of monotheistic religions to distort the original story and always further accentuate the domination of man over woman. The Jewish liturgical instances have cut the passages where the woman had importance (the story of Lilith is proof of this). The Christian clergy also (Mary Magdalene goes from Apostle to prostitute), while the Quran does not even name Eve. Let us give thanks for their oversights and literary clumsiness, which thus allow us to reconstruct the true history. And let us not speak of the general treatment of women—in their relationship with men only—in all religions!
To conclude, I will address women. Two more things are still told about Lilith. Do not forget that she always has a right of life or death over newborns. It is even said that if you see your child smiling into the void, it is because he is playing with Lilith! In this case, be worried! Finally, one last point. Lilith cannot give birth without a partner. Samael-Satan does not always have the time since he governs Hell. Know that Lilith comes to see men at night and incites them by desire to masturbate. Men, by this act, therefore, make love with the succubus (demon woman seducing men in legends) and will give birth to her! These stories persisted throughout the Middle Ages, where, despite ecclesiastical censorship, people feared the one who was the first woman created by God.
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