3.3) Only the Man was Created in God’s Image

An intriguing Biblical evidence for Lilith comes from the first and third creation accounts of Adam.  Both Ge 1:27 and Ge 5:1-2 state that when God created the male and female, only the male was made in God’s image.  It is nearly inconceivable that Eve was not created in the image of God.  She was taken from Adam’s side.  She was in Adam’s image, and his image was in the image of God.  How can these passages be rectified against the known linage of Eve?  If the female they mention is Lilith, then all makes sense.  Lilith was not animated in the image of God, but rather in the image of Lucifer.

Although the passages are reasonably clear in the KJV translation, I have provided a literal translation below in Table 3‑4 and Table 3‑5 to elucidate completely the underlying Hebrew.  The passages are very clear that God made only the man in God’s image.  Ge 1:27 re-iterates this fact twice.  First, it states that God created ha’adam (the man) in his image.  It then re-iterates this fact for emphasis.  It states, “In image of God he created him.”[1]  The verse then goes so far as to remind the reader that God created both a male and female.  The passage is clearly stressing that the female was not created in God’s image, whereas the man was.  Could this be true of Eve?  It hardly seems that it can.  Eve was taken from the man and is fully in the image of God.  So why does the passage go out of its way to announce that God created both the female and the male, but then reiterates twice that only the man was created in the image of God?  Only Lilith explains this emphasized statement. 

Ge 1:26-27 (My Literal)
26  And God said, Let us make Adam in our image, as our likeness: and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 And God created the man in his image.  In image of God he created him.  Male and female he created them.

Table 3‑4: A Transliteration  of Ge 1:27 (View Pic)

The fact that the female is not created in God’s image is stated again in the third creation account of Ge 5:1-2.  The fact is not repeated twice for emphasis as in the first account, but it is again very clear God only created the masculine “him” in God’s image. 

Ge 5:1-2 (My Literal)
1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created Adam, in the likeness of God made he him.
2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

Table 3‑5: A Transliteration of Ge 5:1-2 (View Pic)

There is another indication that the female was not created in the image of God.  In verse 2 both the male and female went by the masculine name Adam.  This implies an ascendancy of the male over the female that was inherent in their creation.  The female not being created in the image of God would explain the inherent inequality between the first created male and female  Only the Lilith legend explains this inequality, as she was animated by the mist of Lucifer whereas the man was created from the breath of God. 

If one asserts that the female not created in God’s image was Eve, then that causes serious theological issues.  However, if one accepts that Lilith is the female of the passages, then all is well.  She was created by God just like the man Adam from the dust.  But instead of being animated by God’s Holy Spirit within her, she was instead animated in the image of Lucifer.  For that reason, the man would have ascendancy over the first female. 

There is one final hint that Lilith is the female referenced in both passages.  It centers around a word play concerning the literal Hebrew meaning of the words for “male” and “female.”  These words are zakar and neqebah (“male and female”).  The two words are not commonly used in the Bible, as there are other more common words that mean “man” or “woman.”  Zakar (rkz – Strongs 2145), which means “male”, is used 81 times in the Bible.  The Gesenius lexicon relates this word stems from the root zaker (rkz – Strongs 02142), which means “to remember”, “recall”, or “call to mind.”  Gesenius holds that zaker came to mean male because it is through the son that the memorial of his father is continued.  Hence the Hebrew word for male in Ge 1:27 has a very positive connotation.  It is as if saying that through Adam, the memorial of his father Jehovah would continue upon the earth. 

Now consider the word for female, neqebah (hbqn – Strongs 5347).  It is used only 22 times in the Bible.  This word has a negative connotation.  It comes from the root naqab (bqn – Strongs 5344), which means “to curse”, “to blaspheme”, or perhaps more literally “to pierce” or “to perforate.”  The meaning of “to curse” stemmed from a more original meaning of “to pierce” or destroy, and hence curse.  Gesenius holds that naqab came to be used to denote a female because of its descriptive power for her genitalia, which is a piercing or slit in her.  In any case, the root of the word for female, naqab, has a negative connotation of cursing.  This is precisely what the female Lilith did.  She received curses and was a curse unto God’s creation. 

[1] The singular masculine pronoun et’v (w:ta) means “him.”  This pronoun makes it clear that the passage is speaking only of the man Adam being created in God’s image.