From: psyrobtw@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Robert Weiss)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Lilith, the Night Hag
Date: 22 Jul 92 03:07:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <CMM.0.90.2.711710649.alsberg@delphi.uio.no>, alsberg@math.uio.no (Bj|rn Alsberg) writes...

>The story about Lilith
> 
> 
> 
>Where can I get a translated version (to english) of the story
>about Lilith? I've read somewhere that Lilith was the first person
>before Adam and Eve to be created by God. 
>Why is this story not in the Bible? Was it because a woman
>was chosen to be the first human being ...?

     The Revised Standard Version translates the Hebrew liyliyth {lee-leeth'}
     as Night Hag. Yes, there is a reference in the Bible that contains the
     Hebrew liyliyth, but it has no bearing to the myth of Lilith as Adam's
     first wife. Isaiah 34:14 is the verse that contains liyliyth. The KJV
     renders it as:

       ``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.''

     The word `screech owl' in the above is the KJV translation for liyliyth.
     The NASB has `night monster' instead; with the footnote showing that
     this is the Hebrew Lilith.

     The reference that I checked (_The International Standard Bible
     Encyclopedia_), states that this word is derived from the Sumerian `lil'
     which is `wind' or `spirit.'  Liyliyth, it goes on to say, is also a
     cognate of a Phoenician word that referred to various demons. Thus, the
     Hebrew liyliyth refers to malevolent supernatural beings.

     As the article continues it addresses the myth aspects of Lilith...
     ``The paucity of information makes it impossible to say anything
     definite about the night hag in the OT. In rabbinic literature, however,
     doubtless reflecting older folktales and folk beliefs, Lilith is
     regarded as a feminine demonic creature of the night, possessing wings
     and long flowing hair. According to legend, Lilith was Adam's first wife,
     but remained with him for only a short time because she insisted on full
     equality with him. By pronouncing the divine name, Lilith flew away into
     the air and disappeared, and three angels sent by God could not persuade
     her to return to Adam, even though the penalty for not returning was the
     death of one hundred of her demonic children each day. Lilith now takes
     revenge on baby boys during the first night of their lives, and on baby
     girls for the first twenty days. In the talmudic period Lilith was
     thought to take the form of a female succubus (`one who lies under') and
     impersonate a man's wife for the purpose of luring him into sexual
     relations. As a male incubus (`one who lies upon'), a Lili (the masc.
     sing.) was thought able to impersonate a husband. Any children born of
     such irregular unions were thought to exhibit the effects of having a
     demonic parent.

     ``The feminine and masculine forms of liyliyth occur frequently in the
     texts of Aramaic incantation bowls. In one such text, the author seeks
     protection from `demons, demonesses, lilis, liliths, plagues [evil
     sat]ans and all evil tormentors that appear.' Such lists are meant to be
     as comprehensive as possible and reveal that liliths were but one class
     of an elaborate taxonomy of malevolent spiritual beings. The sexually
     aggressive character of the lilis and liliths accounts for the fact that
     exorcistic texts are often expressed in formal divorce terminology, such
     as this text: `Again bound and seized are you, evil spirit and powerful
     lilith....But depart from their presence and take your divorce and your
     separation and your letter of dismissal. [I have written against] you as
     demons write divorces for their wives and furthermore, they do not
     return [to them].'

     That's the end of the article.


Bob
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc