In Holy Scripture, we have two accounts of the creation of man. The first in Genesis 1:26-27, the second in Genesis 2:7-25. Theoretically similar, but different. From a woman’s perspective, significantly different.
In the first account, woman is equal to man, created alongside him from clay. Adama in Hebrew means clay. Both are therefore earthlings, created by God. No one is better, no one is worse, they are equal. Both created in the image of God, both good. In the second account, we read that God first created man, and then made woman from his rib. Here, woman is to be subservient to man, to help him, to serve him. Both were commanded to subdue the earth and to reproduce.
According to some accounts, in addition to Eve, whom everyone knows well and was created from Adam’s rib, Lilith also appears in this story. It is she who is mentioned in the first creation account, that she was created from clay like Adam and together with him. However, according to legend, she refused to serve Adam and fulfill his sexual desires. For this reason, choosing freedom and considering herself equal to man, she voluntarily left the Garden of Eden, choosing a life without a master in the form of another human being, her equal. God, however, took pity on Adam and gave him a second woman, Eve, already created from his flesh and obedient to him.
Lilith is thus synonymous with an independent woman who refuses to be pushed around, refusing to fulfill the whims of men by force and against her will. Leaving paradise was an expression of Adam’s rejection of the authority he usurped over her, contrary to God’s will. In creating them, God created them equal to help and serve each other; he did not command that one should have authority over the other. She is therefore a symbol of femininity, emancipation, and opposition to patriarchal oppression.
It should also be noted that she was later identified with a demon. However, as usual, there’s a catch. Men certainly didn’t like this character, as they wanted and still do to dominate the world, often considering themselves superior to women. Therefore, it would have been easy for dominant men, literate, and obedient, to transform Lilith’s character into a demon in their narratives. To them, she was a demon because she refused to do what they wanted. She wanted to be their equal. Not to mention that this description suggests that God himself is a chauvinist, since it was a man who created Eve, not Lilith’s second husband. Unless, of course, the men were trying to erase something from the history of creation, of course, to their own advantage – the patriarchal and domineering one. We’re no less happy that there are women in this world, including brave ones. And we wish women confidence in themselves, their dignity, equality, and strength, so that they don’t allow themselves to be pushed around or blackmailed, but discover their own strength. This equality stemmed from the very act of creation. After all, she was also created in the image and likeness of God, and she was good. However, in some accounts, she was transformed from a good person, equal, created in the image of God, into someone evil. It’s easy to ultimately make someone evil when they refuse to listen to what we want and meekly do everything we tell them to do. However, this doesn’t mean that such a person is evil. They have their own dignity, they have the right to their own opinion, different from ours. They can be just as good as other people, in this case men.
Complementarity between men and women doesn’t mean humiliating one another; it should rely on cooperation, mutual respect, and equal dignity. These elements of equality remain problematic to this day. It’s obvious that women and men have slightly different anatomy, and this fact has certain consequences, often medical in nature (and which are also reflected, for example, in etiquette). However, from a spiritual perspective, they are equal and should respect their physical differences, but beyond that, recognize their equality, equal rights, and the consequences that flow from them. This issue has further repercussions, which will be discussed later.