Who were Eve and Lilith? The Myth of the Two “First Women”

What’s the difference between Eve and Lilith?

Lilith was made at the same time as Adam, and Eve was made after. In some Judeo-Christian literature and theology, Eve was made to be Adam’s wife by splitting him in two, and Lilith was the original first woman, made from the same dust as Adam. There are two creation stories in the Bible, Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. In Genesis 2, the female part of humanity is named Eve. However, Gen 1 has no names, humanity is just split into “male and female.” Some people have theorized that Lilith is the first unnamed woman. Lilith is only mentioned by name in the Bible once, in Isaiah 34:14, where she’s described alongside other creatures dwelling in a wasteland.

Lilith is the mother of demons, while Eve is the mother of humanity. Both Eve and Lilith are heavily associated with their children, Eve’s being Cain and Abel and Lilith’s being incubi and succubi, sexual demons. Eve's image, however, has been used in art and literature to represent motherhood, especially in Europe, while Lilith’s has been used to represent demons. In Lilith’s myth, she leaves the Garden of Eden after refusing to sexually submit to Adam, so some see her as a symbol of female empowerment. However, these myths aren’t in the Bible. In different myths Lilith’s children have different fathers. Sometimes they come from sperm she stole from Adam, sometimes they’re fathered by the angel of death, Samael.

Lilith and Eve are seen as dominant and submissive counterparts. Lilith and Eve don’t get a lot of attention in the Bible, but their popularity in art and other texts has set them against each other as two sides of feminine nature. Eve is the more dutiful, submissive side, while Lilith represents more dominating aspects.

Who was Lilith?

Some believe that Lilith was Adam's first partner. Lilith is most commonly known as the first wife of Adam, but her story actually starts before Judaism was an established religion. In midrashic texts, Lilith is inserted as the first woman, made from the same clay as Adam, to explain why there are two creation myths, Genesis 1 and 2. Midrashic texts were written by rabbis to help explain passages in the Torah and Hebrew Bible. The most famous of these texts may be The Alphabet of Ben Sirah.

Lilith was originally a Sumerian demon. Although she shows up in early Jewish texts, Lilith originally was a Sumerian succubus, a kind of sexual demon. Her name may come from a feminine Mesopotamian word for demon, lilītu. In ancient Babylonian religions ilītu were demons made from the souls of women who had died young. Images of lilītu are most often associated with Aramaic “incantation bowls,” illustrated earthenware bowls used for exorcising demons. In the Bible she is referred to as “screech owl” or “night bird” instead of by name.

Lilith represents female sexual empowerment to some. In the midrashic explanation of the creation myth, Lilith and Adam almost have sex, but Lilith wants to take the dominant role, which Adam refuses. Lilith leaves Eden instead of submitting to Adam and goes to the Red Sea to give birth to demon children. God, at Adam’s request, sends three angels to get Lilith back. The angels tell her that they will kill 100 of her children a day until she returns, but she still refuses. This is also seen as a sign of sexual freedom since she gives up her children and place in Paradise in order to be free.

Lilith is said to prey on young children and single men. In some stories, Lilith returns to Eden and sees Eve, which makes her furious. She “takes” sperm from Adam, then creates lilium, or earth demons, to replace her killed children. Wearing amulets with the names of the angels that tried to get her back is one way of protecting yourself from her. Baby boys are targeted by Lilith until they’re circumcised (8 days after birth), and baby girls are in danger for the first 20 days after birth. Lilith is associated with stillbirths and crib deaths. It is said that Lilith takes sperm to make lilium from sleeping single men and people who masturbate.

Who was Eve?

Eve is considered the first woman in Christianity. In the Christian creation myth, humanity begins with “Adam and Eve,” the first man and woman. The Hebrew word adam refers to humanity, so more updated translations see Adam and Eve as two parts of one thing, made at the same time by God. By this logic, Eve is the first named person in the Bible since “Adam” more correctly translates to “humanity” and isn’t usually used as a proper name. It could be that the biblical “Adam” is humanity in general, and Eve is the first distinct human. While many translations say Eve was formed by Adam’s rib, the word translated as “rib” may be more correct as “side,” so adam (humanity) was split into two sides.

In Eden, a serpent tells Eve to eat the Fruit of Knowledge. Adam and Eve live in a paradise created by God at the beginning of time, the Garden of Eden. To stay in the Garden, all they have to do is not eat the Fruit of Knowledge. A serpent brings Eve to the Tree of Life, and she brings the fruit to Adam, who eats it with her. Eating the fruit gives Adam and Eve the knowledge of Good and Bad, which breaks them from their innocence and causes God to cast them out of the Garden.

Eve is associated with motherhood. Eve is considered by some to be a biological mother to humanity, but more broadly, by taking the fruit of knowledge Eve broke out of her unconscious innocence and became an enlightened, conscious being, close to God in that way, but now necessarily imperfect. This enlightenment is the creation of humanity.

One book of the New Testament associates Eve with original sin. Eve is only mentioned a few times in the Hebrew Bible, and she’s never associated with sin (the first sin is when Eve’s son Abel kills his brother Cain). However, Timothy 1:2 references Eve sinning. This is the only mention of Eve and sin together in the Bible. The book of Timothy, supposedly letters from the Apostle Paul, may be a forgery. There are many Epistles (sets of letters) written by “Paul” that are likely forgeries, most notably Second Thessalonians 2:2, where the author warns the reader of other forged letters—a common tactic of forgers at that time.

Modern conceptions of Eve are almost entirely from post-biblical texts. Nowadays, Eve is associated with sin, submission, and the consequences of temptation. However, Eve is only actually mentioned twice in the Bible, and histories of biased translations have obscured the original Eve in the text. For example, translations of Genesis 3:16 often have God saying “I will increase your pain in pregnancies,” but the word translated as “pain” for Eve, itzavon, is translated as “toil” for Adam, which is closer to its original meaning. The passage was written by people in a hot, dry farming-based society, so it’s more likely that the passage means humanity has to toil to survive, and they will have to have more children to help them work.