Short Story: The Lore of Lilith

Biblically speaking, the Creator made women for men to become their equal. Remember that story about Adam and Eve? In other versions, there exists another woman who was, technically, never the “other woman” of the story. Her name was Lilith, and nobody knew of her story. According to popular culture, she was Adam’s first wife and the mother of all things evil.

A demoness. 

But how did this woman become the icon of “evil” women of the dark ages? Nobody knows for sure, not even The Book of Creation, as described in the Book of Genesis. It is complicated to wrap our heads around various versions with little to no explanation as to why. Therefore, I will be narrating a tailored version of the story to justify how this one woman arrived in Adam’s life as quickly as she had disappeared out of the picture.

In the beginning, the Creator was a loving and forgiving god. However, in the last testament, he also admitted to being as jealous as a vengeful spirit capable of wiping away an entire population.

It all started when he was alone in a vast, space. To cope with his sadness, the Creator began thinking of a way to combat his sadness by looking for and creating his perfect partner and, after his search, he began acting upon his brilliant plan.

He spent six days creating the perfect place for his subjects. A garden where “free people” would adore him as he bestows them gifts and everything larger than life. In this place, all creatures roam freely. There was never any notion of death. The people of the ancient times call it Paradise. However, this kind of blessing comes with its conditions or rules. 

Then came the seventh day. The Creator molded his first person out of clay, breathed him a breath of life, and called him Adam, the first man. Adam began to exist freely inside the garden, adoring his creator and enjoying its bountiful produce and the sights of his Paradise. Even so, he was all alone.

Adam began to show his discontentment and sorrow to his Creator. It was a feeling he knew best as he was all alone in the little world he calls “Heaven”. 

The Creator, dissatisfied with Adam's submissive and unquestioning nature, decided to put him to sleep and create a new being. He pondered over how his first creation could not challenge him and speak his mind. The new creation was designed to be a fully dedicated servant, but to the Creator, this felt like the biggest flaw in his design.

He created a man too perfect to make a simple mistake so he created another person he would call a Woman, to compensate for Man's rigid ways. After all, the goal of his creation was finding his perfect pair and not just a doting duplicate. He wanted someone who stayed but never followed him around, somebody who could speak his mind and say what they wanted. 

And so, he created Lilith.

Lilith looked a lot like Adam. Yet on the inside, she has a fiery temperament that Adam has. The Creator has introduced them to each other to be husband and wife, a title that a man and woman shall carry in the union throughout eternity. 

From the first day that they met, Lilith had proven to be Adam’s direct opposite. She was brash as he was gentle, the rude one to his kindness but a good wife and partner to her husband. Adam, being a gentle soul grew to love this strange new wife his father gave him, and he learned how to compensate and make independent decisions for their sake. There were times when the Creator would leave him for days on end back when he was alone and he would always call for a messenger to send his greetings to his father up above. But now that Lilith was in the picture, he began to think and act differently.

Adam becomes his own man.

The pair existed for many, many years until the Creator finally decided to take Lilith to be his bride. Unbeknownst to the Creator, Lilith, and Adam grew to love each other dearly due to his absence and wrongdoing. The god mistakenly created two opposites that complement each other and, in return, forged a bond that is almost impossible to break. Not even death can separate them. That is unless they fall under the Forbidden Tree in the middle of Paradise.

Life is filled with happiness and bliss. Adam became happier despite Lilith’s haughty and domineering attitude. Even so, it has proven to be challenging but refreshing for the Creator and Adam. They spent their days roaming around and taking care of the animals, organizing get-togethers during their Day of Rest, and singing songs of praise despite Lilith's reluctant attitude at times.

It is the type of spirit the Creator had been looking for. An independent being that acts and speaks their mind. Someone who is not afraid of the presence of a god in their midst.

The Creator tried to woo Lilith the same way he saw Adam wooing his wife but to no avail. He tried showing her all of the better things he could do up in heaven and even went as far as promising the whole garden to her as her own. But Lilith was too stubborn to accept. If there was one good thing she was good at, it would be her undying loyalty to her husband and her husband alone.

“I, Lilith, shall stay beside whom I was made for,” she rightfully insisted.

From Adam’s perspective, she just saw it as a father and daughter bonding in his absence but to Lilith, this is trouble brewing from behind her husband's back. She told her husband about her worries but Adam, being a loyal son to his father, ignored her concerns and defended him. Their first and last argument ensued.

In the dead of the night, Lilith disappeared.

The next day, Adam woke up next to a strange lady who was sleeping by his side. To him, she looked a lot like Lilith but he could feel that it was not her. He looked around the garden, high and low, for his real wife, shouting at the top of his lungs to his Creator, calling him by name. Upon realizing his mistake of not standing by his wife, Adam went back to the sleeping woman and asked her for her name.

The woman woke up and blankly stared at him, mustering a gentle smile and an alluring gaze. 

“This is not my Lilith,” he said under his breath, “I shall call you Eve, for I only had one wife whom I love.”

As expected, life went on as usual. Eve started replacing Lilith. She began taking good care of Adam, and would never dare to talk to them back nor question his authority. She revered her husband as a god but lesser than that of the Creator.

Day by day, Adam grows lonelier but never shows his weaker side to his new wife. He began taking long walks around Paradise in hopes of running into his father and Lilith but to no avail. Everything beautiful in his sights became mere fragments of his memories with Lilith and every day he yearned for her. At times, he wished he could forget his first wife but he would not dare to ask for it. Living with Lilith made him grow to be independent and free from asking his father for favors. He was not one to easily break out of character.

A life spent with Lilith made him stronger but never enough to contest the god who made all things including him.

Meanwhile, up in a lonely mountain in the middle of Heaven, Lilith was caged and coaxed to forget her old life and live freely up in Heaven as her father’s equal. To preserve her rare spirit, Lilith will have to decide to stay on her own and willingly forget her first husband, Adam. However, Lilith’s mind had already made up her mind to stay with her husband with their memories for all eternity. As a result, pain and suffering began clouding Lilith’s and Adam’s minds for the Creator had not severed the bond that united them as husband and wife.

To add to her pain, the Creator made Lilith watch Adam’s everyday life with his new wife. It added even more fire to the flames. Instead of sadness and submission, all Lilith ever harbored was vengeance and a plot to destroy every creation that their father made.

Adam’s life with Eve was never troublesome. Every day was at peace and the Creator’s presence seldom except for when he came and planted a strange tree in the middle of the garden. He forbid them from touching nor eating any of its fruit. Adam thought that this sudden rule had something to do with his wife. Even so, he knew better than to disobey his father. He stayed away from the tree while constantly looking for his Lilith all over the garden.

Eve, in return, followed her husband’s every word and never made a mistake. Early on in their relationship, they had come to an understanding that Adam was “hurting” and was “looking for something precious that he has lost”, hence, he was always roaming the garden every single day.

Also, Adam knew better than to hurt his new wife so he treated her kindly just like he did with Lilith. The changes within the relationship dynamics were very different so he made sure to show Eve that none of these was her fault.

Up in Heaven, emotions of anger, rage, and contempt were bubbling inside Lilith. The constant, loving interactions between Adam and Eve made her tear her skin to shreds as well as a burning sensation in her soul. She was hurting far worse than Adam. 

By this time, Lucifer was dead set on plotting against the Creator and visited Lilith in her lonely cage in the middle of a mountain up in Heaven. He told her of his dangerous thoughts and offered her the freedom to do whatever she wanted back there on earth. Lilith never had any second thoughts and shook hands with the devil. She was allowed to finally get back at her Creator and see her husband once more.

The day of The Fall had arrived and Lilith, along with countless angels, were dropped down into the earth along with Lucifer who then adopted the name Satan. Due to the Creator’s decree that all faithless beings up in Heaven must fall into the depths of the earth.

“All faithless beings sinning shall be thrust into the depths of hell to rot away until their final day of judgment let this be my judgment.” The Creator’s voice boomed across the heavens and shook all beings on the earth below. 

Thunder crackled across the horizon. Thousands upon thousands of broken angels fell into the depths and became demons.

The lonely mountain in the middle of the heavens becomes empty, and Lilith’s revenge is nearing its completion. Upon meeting up with Lucifer, now Satan, they devised a plan to lure Adam, the Creator’s much-beloved son; the one whom the fallen angels despised. To do this, they needed Lilith's help, and she was more than happy to assist them. Fueled by her rage, Lilith sneaked into the garden and hid next to the forbidden tree where Eve was taking an afternoon walk.

Eve was happily conversing with the animals and was following a trail of some of the animals she liked best while thinking of yet another way for her and Adam to get closer. The odd appearance of the Forbidden Tree caught her sight, but she better than to get near the tree, right? Wrong. Instead, she began to harbor thoughts of helping Adam on his “mission” of searching for the one that he lost.

“Adam has already searched around the garden yet he never even set foot on that small patch of that dry, barren land,” Eve said to herself. 

The tree in front of her was massive and magnificent. It was oozing with mysterious evil in its core. Eve glanced at the tree and saw something moving from behind its branches. 

“This could be what my husband has been missing!” Eve exclaims while taking even smaller steps near the tree roots. As expected, the tree was something that was not familiar to her so she only got nearer but never close enough to come in contact with the forbidden tree.

“I should tell Adam. But where can I find him?"

“I can help you find him,” a voice said from behind the tree.

“Who goes there? Are you an angel?” Eve smiles and walks toward the other side, craning her neck to find the owner of the mysterious voice.

“An Angel? I doubt that Eve,” the voice replied in a sing-song manner, “You are looking for Adam, yes?”

Eve stopped in her tracks and took a step backward, stunned. She turned around and saw dark, heavy clouds looming over the tree and the wind whispering dangerous things into her ear. 

“We can help you find your husband,” the voices said.

“Really?”

A beautiful woman appeared to her from behind one of the branches of the tree. She was clad in nothing more than rotting flesh and burn marks all over her body and arms. Even so, she looked just as magnificent as any other creator but only clad in mystery.

“You are beautiful…” Eve said, taking in the beauty of this seemingly dangerous creature in front of her.

“Not as innocent as you, Sister,” Lilith smirks.

“You said you will help me find him. How do I do it? I’d do anything to help my husband.” The sudden mention of the word ‘husband’ caused Lilith to feel guilt, pain, and remorse. Lilith picked a fruit from the forbidden tree and handed it to Eve.

“Eat,” she told the woman.

“N-no. Is there any other way?”

“We can help you. If you go away, you won’t be able to find what you’re looking for,” the treacherous voices whispered against Eve’s ear. The wind around them became crisp and warm, the skies turning darker and darker by the second.

“We call this the Tree of Knowledge, not sin. We have the answers to all of life’s greatest wonders. We can help you find those that you wish to seek. If only you would do something as simple as partaking from our fruit of knowledge and deliverance. We can be gods of our right!” Lilith said.

Fooled by their words and promises, Eve took a different fruit from a branch next to her and reluctantly took a bite, causing her to feel dizzy for a moment. As if on cue, Adam’s voice boomed across the garden and Even quickly ran towards the direction of her husband’s voice. She was so happy to share with him the good news regarding the forbidden tree that she never noticed the beaten and worried look marring her husband’s face.

Adam sees the strange fruit in his wife’s hand and asks her where she took it. She quickly explained how some beautifully, strange creature that looked like them told her all about the secret behind the tree and how he might be able to find what he had been looking for right under that very tree. Hope welled up in his heart.

The pair ran towards the tree and, just like how Eve had described, the strange creature resembling them was not slowly turning into a serpent. The creature was crouched under the tree, clutching at her chest, and was staring into Adam with eyes filled with anger and sorrow. Before he could even utter her name, Eve was already falling towards the ground with Lilith handing Adam the fruit from her hand.

Adam understood what was going on and accepted the fruit, sealing his fate. The moment Adam’s lips touched the fruit was the moment that Lilith burst into flames with countless demons ravaging her spirit. Adam broke down and cried, holding the hands of his first wife, pleading for her to stay with him, but it was too late.

The Tree grew even larger and more beautiful. But the barren patch of land where it stood grew larger and larger until all that was left was a horizon of soil and a healthy, magnificent tree filled with its forbidden fruit. Adam spent the rest of the day carrying Eve on his back, looking for shelter from the sweltering heat and unforgiving winds. When they got home to their favorite spot in the garden, it was at that moment when the strip of innocence covering them began to disappear. Adam and Eve grew ashamed of each other’s bodies. They quickly ran into the woods to clothe themselves.

By this time, the Creator had been made known of Lilith’s fall from the heavens and was then looking for her. He came across Lilith underneath the tree — weakened, slowly dying, and being eaten alive by the flames coming from the roots under the tree. He offered her one last chance to be with him or suffer along with his Fallen angels. Lilith did not hesitate and chose to be with her newfound acquaintances, but not before cursing the very god that made her and the land from which she had grown and had been conditioned to love.

Adam was quick to judge, but Lilith preferred to take her time to know people for who they are, not just for what they appear to be.

Upon realizing the extent of the damage, the Creator began looking for his children and calling them by their names. She called for Adam and Eve over and over again but to no avail. Finally, after days of searching, he found the two of them hiding under a row of bushes.

Adam appeared dressed in leaves with his wife. Taking the blame upon herself, Eve pleaded for forgiveness while Adam accepted his doomed fate. Their sentence of toiling the ground and the cycle of life and death was declared. The pair were banished from their garden home. 

After their life in Paradise, Adam found the courage to own up to his mistakes. Eve took it upon herself to protect and nurture their growing family while he was out and about hunting or toiling the land. Pain and suffering became a significant part of their daily lives. As their family grew, so did Lilith’s wrath for vengeance.

Lilith, in turn, became a demoness and was cursed to roam the lands where Eve and Lilith's children would continuously hunt each other. The anger and jealousy between the two women gave birth to endless amounts of discord surrounding the entire human existence. The battle between good and evil began to take shape as Lilith, with Satan by her side, wreaked havoc wherever she went. Despite the efforts of Eve's sons to capture her, not all of them were successful as the seductive promises of the vengeful serpent proved to be too strong for Lilith's love for Adam, the first man.

The end.

Nobody knew where to find Lilith after that, nor was she widely recognized as Adam's first wife. Throughout history, she was made to be the villain of a pure love story between Adam and Eve without any regard for her origin. However, this version might shed a little light on how one, small misstep can cause a ripple of unfortunate events, leading to immortal chaos and destruction. 

Some might say that a woman scorned is dangerous to confront which is what Lilith's existence was all about: a woman who was taken from the arms of the very man she loves by the very god who created her all for the wrong, selfish reasons. Maybe we could learn a little from this story. Maybe not. All that matters is that origin stories have their unique way of painting the truth behind a dark past with an even darker present.