The story that makes Lilith Adam’s first wife comes from the medieval Alphabet of Ben Sira where Lilith and Adam are created from the same earth, quarrel over sexual hierarchy, and separate after Lilith pronounces the Ineffable Name and leaves. The narrative itself ties Lilith’s oath to protective amulets bearing the names or images of the three angels sent after her. This sequence belongs to medieval Jewish literary tradition and is much later than Genesis.[1]
Where the Lilith and Adam Story Comes From
The narrative is available directly in the Otzar Midrashim text on Sefaria; the English edition used here is the Norman Bronznick translation published in Rabbinic Fantasies by Yale University Press and documented by the Posen Library.[1][2]
Eli Yassif’s 1984 critical edition provides the page’s textual-critical foundation for the Alphabet; his Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception entry places the work in its historical and literary setting.[3][4] The surviving medieval witnesses do not preserve a single fixed text of the episode.
Joseph Dan tentatively places this stage of the Lilith myth around the tenth century while tracing its later transmission into Kabbalistic traditions.[5] Kosior shows that the Alphabet’s Lilith inherits features previously attached to Eve in rabbinic literature.[6] Bitton treats “Lilith the First Eve” as a late Jewish myth and follows its place in the longer history of Lilith’s reception.[7]
Genesis and Eve
The LORD God said, “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him.”
Genesis 2:18
The Ben Sira Lilith story explicitly reuses that line from Genesis 2:18 as its point of departure, then gives Adam a woman made from earth as he was. Genesis itself names no Lilith in this scene. Genesis 1:27 describes humanity as created male and female, while Genesis 2:21–22 describes the woman formed from Adam’s side.[8][1]
For the biblical occurrence of lilit in Isaiah 34:14 and the history of its translation, see Lilith in the Bible.
Lilith and Eve: What Is the Difference?
| Question | Eve | Lilith in Ben Sira |
|---|---|---|
| Primary source | Genesis | Medieval Alphabet of Ben Sira |
| Creation | Genesis 2 describes the woman formed from Adam’s side | Created from earth like Adam |
| Named in Genesis | Yes | No |
| Adam’s first-wife tradition | Absent | Developed in the later medieval narrative |
| Central conflict in this comparison | Genesis creation and fall narratives | Equality, sexual hierarchy, departure, and the angels sent after Lilith |
Was Lilith in the Garden of Eden?
Genesis does not place Lilith in Eden. The association of Lilith with Adam before Eve belongs to later Jewish tradition. Ben Sira borrows the Genesis 2:18 problem of Adam’s solitude and develops a different story in which a woman named Lilith is created from earth like Adam.[1][8]
Ben Sira makes shared material origin part of Lilith’s argument. Adam and Lilith have both been made from earth, and Lilith invokes that common origin when she rejects his claim to superiority.[1]
The disagreement concerns sexual position and what that position signifies. Adam claims the superior place; Lilith refuses the hierarchy and answers from the premise of equal creation. The episode joins sexual conflict with a broader argument about status and submission.[1]
Adam reports to God that the woman given to him has fled. The narrative then sends three angels after Lilith.[1]
What Happens After Lilith Leaves Adam?
After the departure, God sends three angels—Sanoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof—to bring Lilith back. They find her at the sea associated in the narrative with the future drowning of the Egyptians. Lilith refuses to return. The episode then turns to a severe bargain involving her children and her danger to human infants. She swears that where she sees the three angels, their names, or their images on an amulet, she will have no power over the protected child.[1]
The Center for Jewish Art notes that the Ben Sira legend may have served to explain a protective amulet custom that was already widespread.[9] A marital quarrel has now become a story about demons, endangered infants and household protection.
How the Story Shaped Later Lilith
Modern feminist readings return especially to Lilith’s equal origin, refusal of hierarchy and departure, recasting the medieval figure through female equality and resistance to patriarchal authority.[7]
References
- Otzar Midrashim, The Aleph Bet of ben Sira, The Alphabet of ben Sira (alternative version), sec. 34. Sefaria Library. Primary text. ↩
- Unknown. “The Alphabet of Ben Sira.” Translated by Norman Bronznick with David Stern and Mark Jay Mirsky, in Rabbinic Fantasies: Imaginative Narratives from Classical Hebrew Literature, edited by David Stern and Mark Jay Mirsky, Yale University Press, 1998, pp. 172–174. Posen Library edition and credits. ↩
- Yassif, Eli. “Alphabet of Ben Sira.” Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception Online, De Gruyter, 2009. DOI: 10.1515/ebr.alphabetofbensira. ↩
- Yassif, Eli. The Tales of Ben Sira in the Middle Ages: A Critical Text and Literary Studies. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1984. Publisher record. ↩
- Dan, Joseph. “Samael, Lilith, and the Concept of Evil in Early Kabbalah.” AJS Review, vol. 5, 1980, pp. 17–40. DOI: 10.1017/S0364009400000052. ↩
- Kosior, Wojciech. “A Tale of Two Sisters: The Image of Eve in Early Rabbinic Literature and Its Influence on the Portrayal of Lilith in the Alphabet of Ben Sira.” Nashim, 2018, 32:112–130. DOI: 10.2979/nashim.32.1.10. ↩
- Bitton, Michèle. “Lilith the First Eve. A Late Jewish Myth.” Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions, 1990, 71:113–136. DOI: 10.3406/assr.1990.1347. ↩
- Genesis 2:18; 1:27; 2:21–22. Sefaria Library. Genesis 2:18; Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:21–22. ↩
- Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Lilith Amulet Printing Plate.” Object record and historical commentary. ↩
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