21 Is Lilith really mentioned in the Bible? (Vampire)
Description
This article is from the Vampires FAQ, by BJ Kuehl bj@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu with numerous contributions by others.
21 Is Lilith really mentioned in the Bible? (Vampire)
The Bible is a compilation of many individual "books" written by
different authors at different times in history. The Old Testament
concerns events prior to the birth of Christ. The New Testament tells
the story of Christ and the teachings of his disciples. In some versions
of the Old Testament (Jewish Tanakh, Biblia Hebraica, etc.) the word
"lilith" appears in the Book of Isaiah 34:14, said to have been written
during or just after the Babylonian Captivity @597 BCE. Translated, it
reads something like:
"Wild beasts shall meet with hyenas,
the satyr shall cry to his fellow;
there shall [the lilith] alight,
and find for herself a resting place."
When this passage was translated for the Greek Septuagint in the 3rd
century BCE, "lilith" became "onokentauroi" [ass centaur]. When Jerome
translated it in the 4th century CE for the Latin Vulgate, he changed
it to "lamia". The King James version of the English bible, published
in the early 1600s, substituted "night hag." Modern translations may be
found using everything from "lilith" to "night creatures" to "screech
owl".
The oldest known copy of the Book of Isaiah is the Qumran Isaiah scroll,
found in the Dead Sea caves in the 1940s. It has been dated to the 1st
or 2nd century BCE. The text, handwritten on a 26cm by 7m leather scroll,
is in Hebrew. The word in 34:14 is "lilith." So, as of now, it appears
that "lilith" is indeed the original word. However, there are still many
questions surrounding this passage, not the least of which is: To whom
(or what) does "lilith" refer? Is it Lilith the Demoness herself, one of
a group of succubi known as the lilim, or is it merely a word for an
owl common to Mesopotamia?
Continue to:
My Books
