Who says Adam, says Eve. But she was not the first woman and therefore not necessarily the only (mythological) matriarch of the world’s population. Before God created Eve from Adam, the first man shared his life with Lilith, according to an ancient text. But due to disagreements this did not last long.
Eva was not the first woman
Lilith’s name is not mentioned in the first book of the Bible (Genesis), and little else is mentioned about Adam’s first wife. That Eve was Adam’s second wife is evident from Genesis 2 verses 21-23. In this God creates a woman again, while in Genesis 1 verse 26-28 it can already be read that man and woman were created by Him on the sixth day of the creation week. The story about Lilith as Adam’s first wife first appears in The Alphabet of Ben Sira (written between 700 and 1000 AD). This Jewish medieval writing is considered a satirical text. Part of it is the history of Lilith, based on the two creation stories of the woman in the Bible.
Lilith and Adam from the earth, Eve from man
With Eve, Adam provided the first mentioned offspring, namely Cain and Abel. Adam and Eve had already been banished from the Garden of Eden (also called Paradise ) when they had children because they had eaten from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil while God had forbidden them to do so. According to The Alphabet of Ben Sira, Lilith was the first to disappear from paradise, before Eve existed. Lilith did not want to submit to the man and felt that they were equal. After all, they were made by God from the same substance and therefore not different. The situation that arose caused Lilith to quickly flee the Garden of Eden. God then instructed three angels to persuade her to return, but Lilith would not relent. In Genesis 2, Adam receives a woman at his side from God for the second time. This woman, later called Eve, was made from Adam’s rib. While man and woman in the first creation story were made from the same ‘dust of the ground’ (Genesis 2 verse 7), Eve is not Adam’s equal in that respect.
Cain’s wife
The medieval text on Lilith also offers a possible solution to the idea that Adam and Eve’s sons might otherwise have married their own sisters. Genesis 5 verse 4 states that Adam had an indefinite number of sons and daughters. However, it is not clear from the Bible who Cain’s wife was, where she came from and when Cain started a relationship with her. After killing his brother Abel, Cain left for the land of Nod. Only after he arrived in this land east of the Garden of Eden does the Bible mention that he had a wife. This gives the impression that he met this woman in Nod and she may have been a daughter of Lilith and Adam, and therefore a half-sister of Cain.