origins of a woman according to the Bible

[Kulapavana]

The follow text is quoted from:

Hebrew Myths by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai (New York: Doubleday, 1964), pp 65-69.

 

Chapter 10: Adam's Helpmeets

 

(a) Having decided to give Adam a helpmeet lest he should be alone of his kind, God put him into a deep sleep, removed one of his ribs, formed it into a woman, and closed up the wound, Adam awoke and said: 'This being shall be named "Woman", because she has been taken out o f man. A man and a woman shall be one flesh.' The title he gave her was Eve, 'the Mother of All Living''. 1

 

(b) Some say that God created man and woman in His own image on the Sixth Day, giving them charge over the world; 2 but that Eve did not yet exist. Now, God had set Adam to name every beast, bird and other living thing. When they passed before him in pairs, male and female, Adam-being already like a twenty-year-old man-felt jealous of their loves, and though he tried coupling with each female in turn, found no satisfaction in the act. He therefore cried: 'Every creature but I has a proper matel', and prayed God would remedy this injustice. 3

 

© God then formed Lilith, the first woman, just as He had formed Adam, except that He used filth and sediment instead of pure dust. From Adam's union with this demoness, and with another like her named Naamah, Tubal Cain's sister, sprang Asmodeus and innumerable demons that still plague mankind. Many generations later, Lilith and Naamah came to Solomon's judgement seat, disguised as harlots of Jerusalem'. 4

 

(d) Adam and Lilith never found peace together; for when he wished to lie with her, she took offence at the recumbent posture he demanded. 'Why must I lie beneath you?' she asked. 'I also was made from dust, and am therefore your equal.' Because Adam tried to compel her obedience by force, Lilith, in a rage, uttered the magic name of God, rose into the air and left him.

 

Adam complained to God: 'I have been deserted by my helpmeet' God at once sent the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof to fetch Lilith back. They found her beside the Red Sea, a region abounding in lascivious demons, to whom she bore lilim at the rate of more than one hundred a day. 'Return to Adam without delay,' the angels said, `or we will drown you!' Lilith asked: `How can I return to Adam and live like an honest housewife, after my stay beside the Red Sea?? 'It will be death to refuse!' they answered. `How can I die,' Lilith asked again, `when God has ordered me to take charge of all newborn children: boys up to the eighth day of life, that of circumcision; girls up to the twentieth day. None the less, if ever I see your three names or likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I promise to spare it.' To this they agreed; but God punished Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish daily; 5 and if she could not destroy a human infant, because of the angelic amulet, she would spitefully turn against her own. 6

 

(e) Some say that Lilith ruled as queen in Zmargad, and again in Sheba; and was the demoness who destroyed job's sons. 7 Yet she escaped the curse of death which overtook Adam, since they had parted long before the Fall. Lilith and Naamah not only strangle infants but also seduce dreaming men, any one of whom, sleeping alone, may become their victim. 8

 

(f) Undismayed by His failure to give Adam a suitable helpmeet, God tried again, and let him watch while he built up a woman's anatomy: using bones, tissues, muscles, blood and glandular secretions, then covering the whole with skin and adding tufts of hair in places. The sight caused Adam such disgust that even when this woman, the First Eve, stood there in her full beauty, he felt an invincible repugnance. God knew that He had failed once more, and took the First Eve away. Where she went, nobody knows for certain. 9

 

(g) God tried a third time, and acted more circumspectly. Having taken a rib from Adam's side in his sleep, He formed it into a woman; then plaited her hair and adorned her, like a bride, with twenty-four pieces of jewellery, before waking him. Adam was entranced. 10

 

(h) Some say that God created Eve not from Adam's rib, but from a tail ending in a sting which had been part of his body. God cut this off, and the stump-now a useless coccyx-is still carried by Adam's descendants. 11

 

(i) Others say that God's original thought had been to create two human beings, male and female; but instead He designed a single one with a male face looking forward, and a female face looking back. Again He changed His mind, removed Adam's backward-looking face, and built a woman's body for it. 12

 

(j) Still others hold that Adam was originally created as an androgyne of male and female bodies joined back to back. Since this posture made locomotion difficult, and conversation awkward, God divided the androgyne and gave each half a new rear. These separate beings He placed in Eden, forbidding them to couple. 13

 

Notes on sources:

 

1. Genesis II. 18-25; III. 20.

 

2. Genesis I. 26-28.

 

3. Gen. Rab. 17.4; B. Yebamot 632.

 

4. Yalqut Reubeni ad. Gen. II. 21; IV. 8.

 

5. Alpha Beta diBen Sira, 47; Gaster, MGWJ, 29 (1880), 553 ff.

 

6. Num. Rab. 16.25.

 

7. Targum ad job 1. 15.

 

8. B. Shabbat 151b; Ginzberg, LJ, V. 147-48.

 

9. Gen. Rab. 158, 163-64; Mid. Abkir 133, 135; Abot diR. Nathan 24; B. Sanhedrin 39a.

 

10. Gen. II. 21-22; Gen. Rab. 161.

 

11. Gen. Rab. 134; B. Erubin 18a.

 

12. B. Erubin 18a.

 

13. Gen. Rab. 55; Lev. Rab. 14.1: Abot diR. Nathan 1.8; B. Berakhot 61a; B. Erubin 18a; Tanhuma Tazri'a 1; Yalchut Gen. 20; Tanh. Buber iii.33; Mid. Tehillim 139, 529.

 

Authors’ Comments on the Myth:

 

1. The tradition that man's first sexual intercourse was with animals, not women, may be due to the widely spread practice of bestiality among herdsmen of the Middle East, which is still condoned by custom, although figuring three times in the Pentateuch as a capital crime. In the Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic, Enkidu is said to have lived with gazelles and jostled other wild beasts at the watering place, until civilized by Aruru's priestess. Having enjoyed her embraces for six days and seven nights, he wished to rejoin the wild beasts but, to his surprise, they fled from him. Enkidu then knew that he had gained understanding, and the priestess said: 'Thou art wise, Enkidu, like unto a godl'

 

2. Primeval man was held by the Babylonians to have been androgynous. Thus the Gilgamesh Epic gives Enkidu androgynous features: `the hair of his head like a woman's, with locks that sprout like those of Nisaba, the Grain-goddess.' The Hebrew tradition evidently derives from Greek sources, because both terms used in a Tannaitic midrash to describe the bisexual Adam are Greek: androgynos, 'man-woman', and diprosopon, 'twofaced'. Philo of Alexandria, the Hellenistic philosopher and commentator on the Bible, contemporary with Jesus, held that man was at first bisexual; so did the Gnostics. This belief is clearly borrowed from Plato. Yet the myth of two bodies placed back to back may well have been founded on observation of Siamese twins, which are sometimes joined in this awkward manner. The two-faced Adam appears to be a fancy derived from coins or statues of Janus, the Roman New Year god.

 

3. Divergences between the Creation myths of Genesis r and n, which allow Lilith to be presumed as Adam's first mate, result from a careless weaving together of an early Judaean and a late priestly tradition. The older version contains the rib incident. Lilith typifies the Anath-worshipping Canaanite women, who were permitted pre-nuptial promiscuity. Time after time the prophets denounced Israelite women for following Canaanite practices; at first, apparently, with the priests' approval-since their habit of dedicating to God the fees thus earned is expressly forbidden in Deuteronomy xxIII. I8. Lilith's flight to the Red Sea recalls the ancient Hebrew view that water attracts demons. 'Tortured and rebellious demons' also found safe harbourage in Egypt. Thus Asmodeus, who had strangled Sarah's first six husbands, fled 'to the uttermost parts of Egypt' (Tobit viii. 3), when Tobias burned the heart and liver of a fish on their wedding night.

 

4. Lilith's bargain with the angels has its ritual counterpart in an apotropaic rite once performed in many Jewish communities. To protect the newborn child against Lilith-and especially a male, until he could be permanently safeguarded by circumcision-a ring was drawn with natron, or charcoal, on the wall of the birthroom, and inside it were written the words: 'Adam and Eve. Out, Lilith!' Also the names Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof (meanings uncertain) were inscribed on the door. If Lilith nevertheless succeeded in approaching the child and fondling him, he would laugh in his sleep. To avert danger, it was held wise to strike the sleeping child's lips with one finger-whereupon Lilith would vanish.

 

5. 'Lilith' is usually derived from the Babylonian-Assyrian word lilitu, ,a female demon, or wind-spirit'-one of a triad mentioned in Babylonian spells. But she appears earlier as 'Lillake' on a 2000 B.G. Sumerian tablet from Ur containing the tale of Gilgamesh and the Willow Tree. There she is a demoness dwelling in the trunk of a willow-tree tended by the Goddess Inanna (Anath) on the banks of the Euphrates. Popular Hebrew etymology seems to have derived 'Lilith' from layil, 'night'; and she therefore often appears as a hairy night-monster, as she also does in Arabian folklore. Solomon suspected the Queen of Sheba of being Lilith, because she had hairy legs. His judgement on the two harlots is recorded in I Kings III. 16 ff. According to Isaiah xxxiv. I4-I5, Lilith dwells among the desolate ruins in the Edomite Desert where satyrs (se'ir), reems, pelicans, owls, jackals, ostriches, arrow-snakes and kites keep her company.

 

6. Lilith's children are called lilim. In the Targum Yerushalmi, the priestly blessing of Numbers vi. 26 becomes: 'The Lord bless thee in all thy doings, and preserve thee from the Lilim!' The fourth-century A.D. commentator Hieronymus identified Lilith with the Greek Lamia, a Libyan queen deserted by Zeus, whom his wife Hera robbed of her children. She took revenge by robbing other women of theirs.

 

7. The Lamiae, who seduced sleeping men, sucked their blood and ate their flesh, as Lilith and her fellow-demonesses did, were also known as Empusae, 'forcers-in'; or Mormolyceia, 'frightening wolves'; and described as 'Children of Hecate'. A Hellenistic relief shows a naked Lamia straddling a traveller asleep on his back. It is characteristic of civilizations where women are treated as chattels that they must adopt the recumbent posture during intercourse, which Lilith refused. That Greek witches who worshipped Hecate favoured the superior posture, we know from Apuleius; and it occurs in early Sumerian representations of the sexual act, though not in the Hittite. Malinowski writes that Melanesian girls ridicule what they call `the missionary position', which demands that they should lie passive and recumbent.

 

8. Naamah, 'pleasant', is explained as meaning that 'the demoness sang pleasant songs to idols'. Zmargad suggest smaragdos, the semi-precious aquamarine; and may therefore be her submarine dwelling. A demon named Smaragos occurs in the Homeric Epigrams.

 

9. Eve's creation by God from Adam's rib-a myth establishing male supremacy and disguising Eve's divinity-lacks parallels in Mediterranean or early Middle-Eastern myth. The story perhaps derives iconotropically from an ancient relief, or painting, which showed the naked Goddess Anath poised in the air, watching her lover Mot murder his twin Aliyan; Mot (mistaken by the mythographer for Yahweh) was driving a curved dagger under Aliyan's fifth rib, not removing a sixth one. The familiar story is helped by a hidden pun on tsela, the Hebrew for 'rib': Eve, though designed to be Adam's helpmeet, proved to be a tsela, a 'stumbling', or 'misfortune'. Eve's formation from Adam's tail is an even more damaging myth; perhaps suggested by the birth of a child with a vestigial tail instead of a coccyx-a not infrequent occurrence.

 

10. The story of Lilith's escape to the East and of Adam's subsequent marriage to Eve may, however, record an early historical incident: nomad herdsmen, admitted into Lilith's Canaanite queendom as guests (see 16. 1), suddenly seize power and, when the royal household thereupon flees, occupy a second queendom which owes allegiance to the Hittite Goddess Heba.

 

The meaning of 'Eve' is disputed. Hawwah is explained in Genesis III. 20 as 'mother of all living'; but this may well be a Hebraicized form of the divine name Heba, Hebat, Khebat or Khiba. This goddess, wife of the Hittite Storm-god, is shown riding a lion in a rock-sculpture at Hattusaswhich equates her with Anath-and appears as a form of Ishtar in Hurrian texts. She was worshipped at Jerusalem (see 27. 6). Her Greek name was Hebe, Heracles's goddess-wife.

 

[Kulapavana]

some people (even aspiring devotees) will criticize the way women are sometimes described in the Vedas. the above posted excerpt should give them some perspective /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Guest guest]

Why this hate for other religions? We are all the same. All religions are equal. If you find something wrong with semitic religions, it wouldn't take more than five minutes to deride Hinduism. And the cycle will go on and on and on. Is this what you want?

[theist]

f) Undismayed by His failure to give Adam a suitable helpmeet, God tried again, and let him watch while he built up a woman's anatomy: using bones, tissues, muscles, blood and glandular secretions, then covering the whole with skin and adding tufts of hair in places. The sight caused Adam such disgust that even when this woman, the First Eve, stood there in her full beauty, he felt an invincible repugnance. God knew that He had failed once more, and took the First Eve away. Where she went, nobody knows for certain. 9

 

 

I find this both hilarious and filled with truth. Women can just reverse the picture and imagine hubby being built from the inside out.

 

The lesson is to always visualize beyond the skin and the soft fluffy hair with the flower in it. Just imagine what goes on inside these stool making machines. Yoww!

[theist]

SB 6.18.30

TRANSLATION

In the beginning of creation, Lord Brahmä, the father of the living entities of the universe, saw that all the living entities were unattached. To increase population, he then created woman from the better half of man’s body, for woman’s behavior carries away a man’s mind.

[ancient_paztriot]

From memory…

 

It really works both ways very well… women crazy about men or men crazy about women. They may not necessarily have the "same" motives, but it is sill based on exploitation and DESIRE… mutual that is.

[theist]

Desiring to enjoy flesh in any form is just madness.

 

I am wondering what the better half of man's body might be that woman was made from.

[ancient_paztriot]

(Can't spell the title)

First time I thought of it! You ask…

 

"I am wondering what the better half of man's body might be that woman was made from."

 

How about the emotions? They are better in tune with the emotions? Affairs of the heart? Swayed by passions?

 

Hey, they're great at nourturing!

 

Later…

 

Actually, I have thought of it before. Many times. Just the subject of women makes me loose my mind!

[Kulapavana]

"Why this hate for other religions? We are all the same. All religions are equal"

 

This is very a ignorant statement. All religions are certainly NOT the same. Do you think that the bhakti religion of the Vaishnava tradition is the same as Durga worship for material gain?

 

And hate is a very strong word, which you use as a weapon against me. Since you are obviously ignorant I will let this slide.

 

The cycle of religious violence is pretty much limited to semitic religions. Did Vaishnavas EVER! use their religion as an excuse to invade other people's land and kill them? If you want to see bigotry you only need to look at the history of semitic religions to see the ugliest examples of it. Pointing it out to blind people like you is NOT bigotry. All religions are NOT the same. Krishna calls on us to reject all these cheating religions and surrender to Him alone. This surrender is the ONLY common denominator in different religions.

[Kulapavana]

"God knew that He had failed once more"

 

(sigh) only a fool could come up with this kind of nonsence... what kind of god can have hard time making a decent mate for a man? maybe a novice Prajapati?

[ancient_paztriot]

Very nice. I like your righteous mood. I'm inspired by you.

[theist]

Yeah, He tries and tries but just can't quite get it right. The universe was no sweat but women, what a headache. Poor god.

 

Prajapatis apprentice on the job. Say wasn't that a Disney movie from way back?

[theist]

SB 6.18.30

TRANSLATION

In the beginning of creation, Lord Brahmä, the father of the living entities of the universe, saw that all the living entities were unattached. To increase population, he then created woman from the better half of man’s body, for woman’s behavior carries away a man’s mind.

 

Of course to be fair I get a pretty strange picture from this verse also, when taken literally. Are we to assume that Brahma first created only males and then had an ah ha moment and noticed they weren't procreating, so it dawned on him to create woman from man. I wonder if he used man's rib?

[ancient_paztriot]

You don't want to go there. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

Hridy says this:

There's an all-encompasing, devastating force behind that trim little package (woman).

[Kulapavana]

the statement about using better half of man's body can also refer to the genetic code. (all bodies were created using pretty much the same gene system) a few small modifications of the male body code and you end up with a female body.

 

the "better half" can relate to certain auspicious bodily traits (especially in the subtle body of mind and intelligence) which are more prevalent in the female bodies.

[Guest guest]

All I am saying that we must understand that all religions lead to the same goal, regardless of their paths and approaches. I am also a Vaishnava, so there is no bias in this regard. But when you say semitic religions have caused conflict, I take it you are referring to Christians and Muslims ONLY, because Jews have been persecuted for ages?

 

Anyway, the point is, Vaishnavas haven't invaded other countries, for the same reason that Hindus or Buddhists or Jains have never invaded other countries-it is due to lack of resources, lack of will power, no courage, no conviction. Not due to any benevolence on their part. Given the chance, they would've but never got the chance. It is that simple.

[Kulapavana]

no apologies required, prabhu.

 

if we want to be generous and imprecise we can say that all religions lead to the same goal. in truth, that is quite incorrect. there is a huge difference of goal between someone who practices Christianity out of fear of hell and a Vaishnava who is dreaming of associating with Krishna as a gopi.

 

Vaishnavas did not invade other countries using religion as an excuse not because they had no resources, no courage or no conviction. to think like that probably is offensive to the whole Vaishnava community. You do not seem to know much about the Vaishnava faith you adopted.

 

Vaishnavas do not think that material conquest in the name of religion is honorable or practical. there was even no attempt to convert the Muslim invaders.

 

as to causing conflict by the semitic religions: ALL main branches are guilty, but certainly not in the same way. Read the Torah to find out how many tribes were exterminated by Jews in the name of their god, down to butchering women and children. And for more modern examples of causing conflict using religion as an excuse please look at the racist and illegal practices of the state of Israel. Yes, it is hard to top the barbarism of medieval Christianity or modern Islam, but Judaism is not blameless either.

[Guest guest]

there is a huge difference of goal between someone who practices Christianity out of fear of hell and a Vaishnava who is dreaming of associating with Krishna as a gopi."

 

What's the difference? They are both after something, right?

 

Vaishnavas did not invade other countries using religion as an excuse not because they had no resources, no courage or no conviction."

 

That's your statement. There is no proof that they did have them, but more significantly, they weren't around back then, it is more recent phenomenon, isnt it?

 

Vaishnavas do not think that material conquest in the name of religion is honorable or practical. there was even no attempt to convert the Muslim invaders."

 

When did Muslims invade Vasihnavas? I am confused. If you mean India, then it is because Muslims were victorious and Indians losers, so you dont normally find losers converting victors, right? If Muslims were the invaders, then why would they let "the conquered race" try and convert them? It makes no sense. BTW: I am also Indian, so dont think I am being insensitive, but truth is truth.

 

Read the Torah to find out how many tribes were exterminated by Jews in the name of their god, down to butchering women and children."

 

That's understandable. In those primitive times, what would you have expected from those ppl? Would you have expected them to live honorable lives, believe in peace and all that? Come on, the whole human race was barbaric back then, and so this sort of behavior isn't surprising at all. People are killing women and children even in this century. It is unfair to expect primitive tribes to have exhibited humanity, even as our own 'modern, progressive' people are killing their brothers and sisters in the name of imaginary gods.

 

And for more modern examples of causing conflict using religion as an excuse please look at the racist and illegal practices of the state of Israel."

 

Israelis are ppl too, and they need a place to stay. They were driven out of every country on the planet, so now they've got a tiny place like israel, it is only fair that they should do WHATEVER IT TAKES to hold on to it. You and I might become equally 'racist' if the world has been persecuting us for centuries upon centuries.

 

Yes, it is hard to top the barbarism of medieval Christianity or modern Islam, but Judaism is not blameless either."

 

Nobody is blameless, I agree, but at least Jews never forcibly converted ppl (like Muslims), nor do they try to convert with bribes, like Christians do. ANd I dont believe jews invaded other nations. But chris and islam have been doing it not only in medieval times, but even now. Arabia has a vedic past, now it is islamic. Persia was an advanced culture, now it is the most barbaric with fundamentalist mullahs. Even the west was conquered by chris, which was why they were in the dark ages for a long time. Once they revolted against church, they started making great progress. Industrial revolution is one good example.

 

 

 

 

[Kulapavana]

I said: "there is a huge difference of goal between someone who practices Christianity out of fear of hell and a Vaishnava who is dreaming of associating with Krishna as a gopi."

 

and you said: "What's the difference? They are both after something, right?"

 

If you do not see the difference in this case (especially since you are Indian by birth) we are wasting our time. have a nice day. Hare Krishna!

 

[ancient_paztriot]

I'ts just a game of rhetoric with many of these people. It will continue.

 

(They are not used to dealing with people who know.)

[Kulapavana]

I may be going out on a limb here, but I see the so called abrahamic approach to religion just as dangerous as Mayavada philosophy. It is now contaminating India like never before.

[Kulapavana]

This is straigt from Exodus in the Bible:

 

32:26 Moses stood up at the camp's entrance and announced, 'Whoever is for God, join me!' All the Levites gathered around him.

32:27 He said to them, 'This is what God, Lord of Israel, says: Let each man put on his sword, and go from one gate to the other in the camp. Let each one kill all those involved in the idolatry, even his own brother, close friend, or relative.'

32:28 The Levites did as Moses had ordered, and approximately 3000 people were killed that day.

32:29 Moses said, 'Today you can be ordained [as a tribe dedicated] to God with a special blessing. Men have [been willing to kill even] their own sons and brothers [at God's command].'

[ancient_paztriot]

"… the so called abrahamic approach to religion"

 

I don't understand this. You mean the 'ole medieval approach?

[Kulapavana]

judaism, christianity and islam (also known as the semitic or abrahamic religions) all share the same basic religious concepts derived from the Torah, or Old Testament.

 

the one concept I'm refering to here is the belief that it is OK to do the most horrible things to others as long as they can be seen as "heathens" or "non-believers". that is why I posted that quote from Exodus earlier.

[Guest guest]

to be so antagonistic. I am new to this thing, and you and your friend Paz didn't have to be so rude. Sensitivity is most essential when it comes to dealing with newcomers to this path. So what if I am wrong about a few things? If you claim to be a devotee, then you should've explained calmly and rationally, instead of insulting a fellow devotee with hateful one-liners. Alright, kula, that's all I have to say to you. Hope Kris gives you a heart.

 

And Paz, dont let me get started with you!