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Eve and Lilith: Two Female Types of Procreation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Vanessa Rousseau
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Abstract

Here we are dealing with the two central figures of the female gender in the Judeo-Christian tradition of Holy Scripture, or at least the texts that apply to the narrative of the first couple. The paper focuses on procreation and its symbolic implications in the Genesis narrative. There is a great difference between Eve and Lilith, the opposite archetypes of the female gender. So examining the forgotten existence of Lilith compared with the creation of Eve is an attempt to understand the schema of reproduction and distinction between the sexes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , November 2005 , pp. 94 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2005

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References

Note

1. The Bible, Genesis 2, 15–18.

2. In Hebrew the word ‘sdam means soil and at first in the bible corresponds to everything about the primal Adam, both male and female.

3. These two points are the subject of my 2002 paper entitled ‘L'alimentation et la différenciation des sexes', Analyse philosophique d'un récit de la chute de l'homme, Paris, L'Harmattan, Collection ‘Ouverture Philosophique'.

4. In Midrash ber'eshit Rabba[BR], Editions Vilna, 1887 (quoted by chapter and ß); Midrash Tanhuma' Haqadum weha-yashan[Tan B], Editions Buber, Vilna, 1885 (quoted by book and page); Genèse Rabba, critical edition by J. Théodore & C. Albeck, Berlin, 1912–27 (French translation by M. Stern, 1981–5); Nombres Rabba[Num Rab], Ed. Vilna, 1884; Midrash Abkir(a Midrash compiled in the 9th century but now lost), certain passages are quoted in the Yalkut Shimoni, the Yalkut Reubeni and the Sefer Yalkut Re'ubeni ‘al ha-Torah', Paris, Fayard, 1987.

5. For more details on the Jewish versions of the various (and many) stages of Eve's creation, see my paper entitled ‘Lilith et le phénomène androgyne' in Archives de Science Sociale des Religions, CNRSEHESS, no. 123 (July–September): 61–75. For the Midrash texts recounting Eve's creation, see Gen. Rabba158 and 161–4, and Mid. Abkir133–5.

6. In Luc Boltanski (2004), ‘Une sociologie de l'engendrement et de l'avortement', La Condition ftale, Paris, Gallimard, Collection Essais, pp. 73–5.

7. In Genesis 2, 23.