lilith is mentioned very vaguely in the actual hebrew bible and its complicated bc “lilit” (or “liliyyot”) can be translated as “night creatures”, “night monster”, “night hag”, or “screech owl”, and is found in isaiah only in a list of animals
lilith as a kind of demon is probably derived from an earlier class of female demons in mesopotamian religion but we are not sure. in the dead sea scrolls there is only one mention: “I, the Instructor, proclaim His glorious splendour so as to frighten and to te[rrify] all the spirits of the destroying angels, spirits of the bastards, demons, Lilith, howlers, and [desert dwellers…] and those which fall upon men without warning to lead them astray […]”
lilith is mentioned in the babylonian talmud like 3 times mostly just … various rabbis making shit up but notably theres a bit about how “HE WHO SLEEPS ALONE AT NIGHT WELCOMES LILITH” which is probably a reference to ~nocturnal emissions ~ birthing demons lol. from this we have an anecdote from R. Jeremiah b. Eleazar: “In all those years [130 years after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden] during which Adam was under the ban he begot ghosts and male demons and female demons [or night demons], for it is said in Scripture: And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years and begot a son in own likeness, after his own image, from which it follows that until that time he did not beget after his own image… When he saw that through him death was ordained as punishment he spent a hundred and thirty years in fasting, severed connection with his wife for a hundred and thirty years, and wore clothes of fig on his body for a hundred and thirty years. – That statement [of R. Jeremiah] was made in reference to the semen which he emitted accidentally.” (Babylonian Talmud on Tractate Eruvin 18b) so we have some stuff that’s supposed to warn men off having wet dreams basically (i guess, i am not actually that educated on talmudic historical context!)
the idea that lilith was adam’s first wife comes exclusively from “The alphabet of ben Sirach”, an anonymous medieval text which is widely characterized as satirical. here you can read a translation of the relevant passage which refers to lilith.
notably: “Some researched work from Jewish feminists urges us to re-examine Lilith’s depiction in The Alphabet of Ben Sira, based on the fact that this text served as a source of satire at the time. Although the negativity surrounding Lilith’s character as a demoness, terrorising pregnant women, fornicating with demons, and murdering infants was taken with a varying degree of superstition within Judaism, it should not go unrecognized that these claims originated from the same source that satirically dealt with flatulence, incest, and masturbation”, also, “The background and purpose of The Alphabet of Ben-Sira is unclear. It is a collection of stories about heroes of the Bible and Talmud, it may have been a collection of folk-tales, a refutation of Christian, Karaite, or other separatist movements; its content seems so offensive to contemporary Jews that it was even suggested that it could be an anti-Jewish satire” (although in the last case its notable that the text WAS taken seriously by quite a few medieval german jewish mystics)
also notably, none of the sources listed here (and ESPECIALLY not the alphabet of ben sirach, which is, as noted, a satirical text written by WHO KNOWS WHO in the middle ages) are like. canon??? in? judaism? or christianity. the dead sea scrolls are not canon. (this sounds funny bc of fandom but like that is how one describes such things)
the idea of lilith as a demonic queen, temptress of men, killer of children, is one which developed in the middle ages as european folklore. lilith is definitely a presence in most jewish mystical texts involving demons in the mid-late middle ages, and I’m by no means saying that the way her mythology evolved is not misogynistic or has nothing to do with misogyny. however! as you can see it is a complex issue and i am not comfortable with it being simplified handily so that people can make a really really complex thing having to do with the culture & history of my people into like a Commentary On Western Misogyny. idk. ymmv.
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