The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lilith, by Ada Langworthy Collier

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Title: Lilith
The Legend of the First Woman

Author: Ada Langworthy Collier

Release Date: February 23, 2008 [EBook #24679]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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LILITH

THE LEGEND OF THE FIRST WOMAN

BY
ADA LANGWORTHY COLLIER

BOSTON
D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY
FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS

COPYRIGHT, 1885.
D. LOTHROP & COMPANY.

PREFACE.

That Eve was Adam's second wife was a common Rabbinic
speculation. Certain commentators on Genesis adopted this view,
to account for the double account of the creation of woman, in
the sacred text, first in Genesis i. 27, and second in Genesis
xi. 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 Ecchelensis 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, prince of the
devils. This fable has been transmitted to the Arabs, from
Jewish sources, by some converts of Mohamet 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.'"--_Legends of the Patriarchs and
Prophets.--Baring Gould._

Lilith or Lilis.--In the popular belief of the