Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various SourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends
That Eve was Adam’s second wife was a common Rabbinic speculation;
certain of the commentators on Genesis having adopted this view to
account for the double account of the creation of woman in the sacred
text,--first in Genesis i. 27, and secondly in Genesis ii. 18; and they
say that Adam’s first wife was named Lilith, but she was expelled from
Eden, and after her expulsion Eve was created.
Abraham Ecchellensis gives the following account of Lilith, and her
doings:--“There are some who do not regard spectres as simple devils,
but suppose them to be of a mixed nature, part demoniacal, part human,
and to have had their origin from Lilith, Adam’s first wife, by Eblis,
the prince of the devils. This fable has been transmitted to the
Arabs from Jewish sources, by some converts of Mahomet from Cabbalism
and Rabbinism, who have transferred all the Jewish fooleries to the
Arabs. They gave to Adam a wife, formed of clay, along with Adam, and
called her Lilith; resting on the Scripture, ‘_male and female created
He them_:’[55] but when this woman, on account of her simultaneous
creation with him, became proud and a vexation to her husband, God
expelled her from Paradise, and then said, ‘_It is not good that
the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him_.’[56]
And this they confirm by the words of Adam when he saw the woman
fashioned from his rib, ‘_This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my
flesh_,’[57] which is as much as to say, Now God has given me a wife
and companion, suitable to me, taken from my bone and flesh, but the
other wife he gave me was not of my bone and flesh, and therefore was
not a suitable companion and wife for me.
“But Lilith, after she was expelled from Paradise, is said to have
married the Devil, by whom she had children, who are called Jins. These
were endued with six qualities, of which they share three with men, and
three with devils. Like men, they generate in their own likeness, eat
food, and die. Like devils, they are winged, and they fly where they
list with great velocity; they are invisible, and they can pass through
solid substances without injuring them. This race of Jins is supposed
to be less noxious to men, and indeed to live in some familiarity and
friendship with them, as in part sharers of their nature. The author of
the history and acts of Alexander of Macedon relates, that in a certain
region of India, on certain hours of the day, the young Jins assume a
human form, and appear openly and play games with the native children
of human parents quite familiarly.”[58]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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