# Adam & Eve and the need to know **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 14, 2005, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-eve-and-the-need-to-know/284649 "2005-01-14T02:11:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ekim1969](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8797f3/32.png) [@ekim1969](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekim1969)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-eve-and-the-need-to-know/284649/21 "2005-01-18T23:50:41Z")
> [@raydon](#): > > Hi cecil and crew, love your coloumn, I like how you give in depth ansewers. I have a big Burning question, I hope you can help me. ??? Has anyone ever ben able to definitively explain the probale issue of incest between the children of Adam&Eve. How could this be?I can t get any resonable explanation from ministers or scholars. Looking for ansewers, One of Gods children, Donnie Fitch Cinti Ohio thanks Adam and Eve were not the first people on earth. God created man and women in genesis 1:26. He created Adam and Eve in genesis 2:7. The world was already populated when Adam and Eve came around. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-eve-and-the-need-to-know/284649/22 "2005-01-18T23:53:22Z")
> [@ekim1969](#): > > Adam and Eve were not the first people on earth. God created man and women in genesis 1:26. He created Adam and Eve in genesis 2:7. The world was already populated when Adam and Eve came around. Either that or Gen. 2:7 is just a more detailed version of Gen. 1:26. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-eve-and-the-need-to-know/284649/23 "2005-01-19T04:06:32Z")
> [@ekim1969](#): > > Adam and Eve were not the first people on earth. God created man and women in genesis 1:26. He created Adam and Eve in genesis 2:7. The world was already populated when Adam and Eve came around. I suppose you also think that God created two skies because he created one in Genesis 1:1 and the other in Genesis 1:6-8. And two earths, because one was created in 1:1 and the other in 1:9-10. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-eve-and-the-need-to-know/284649/24 "2005-01-19T06:21:09Z")
What about the Jewish story about **Lilith** , **Zev**? I googled and found it may come from the Gnostics, but one book that is mentioned is [**Hebrew Myths**]([http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385263309/gnosisarchive](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385263309/gnosisarchive) /002-8177515-4549601) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-eve-and-the-need-to-know/284649/25 "2005-01-19T07:28:38Z")
The early 20th Century [Jewish Encyclopedia on Lilith](http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=421&letter=L&search=lilith). ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-eve-and-the-need-to-know/284649/26 "2005-01-19T07:34:27Z")
Drat! Hit Subit instead of preview. I notice in that article that there is no mention of the tradition that Lilith was Adam’s first wife who was put aside (due to her demonic nature?) so that Eve would be the mother of mankind as addressed in this SD Staff presentation, [What’s the story on Lilith, Adam’s “first wife”?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mlilith.html) ---
**Author:** ![Zonyx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a183cd/32.png) [@Zonyx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zonyx)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-eve-and-the-need-to-know/284649/27 "2005-01-19T09:00:04Z")
I think that a lot of the bible is metaphorical and this is so that we can all draw our own conclusions from it. I’m a Catholic but I believe in evolution and I think that the Garden of Eden refers to mankind straying off the path of innocence, whenever that may have happened. But each to their own. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-eve-and-the-need-to-know/284649/28 "2005-01-19T09:31:06Z")
Thanks **Tomndebb**. The way I heard the story is that Adam wanted to have sex in the missionary position (male dominant) and Lilith wanted it the other way around. I also have heard that the Hebrew word that was translated as “rib” could just as easily have been “side”. In otherwords, the original Adam could have been asexual and God simply split him/her in half. The Greeks believed that we all were looking for our other halfs. They had the idea that some couplings were male/female; some were male/male and some female/female. Then there is the belief in Ying and Yang. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-eve-and-the-need-to-know/284649/29 "2005-01-19T14:51:32Z")
> [@kniz](#): > > I also have heard that the Hebrew word that was translated as “rib” could just as easily have been “side”. In otherwords, the original Adam could have been asexual and God simply split him/her in half. That’s exactly correct. The Hebrew word used _tzela_ is exactly the same word used in Exodus 36:25, where the meaning clearly is “side” and not “rib.” It should be noted that the Midrash (a collection of Jewish teachings dating back a few thousand years) teach that Adam and Eve were created as a single being back-to-back and that God later split them. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-eve-and-the-need-to-know/284649/30 "2005-01-19T15:00:47Z")
> [@kniz](#): > > Thanks **Tomndebb**. The way I heard the story is that Adam wanted to have sex in the missionary position (male dominant) and Lilith wanted it the other way around. That detail comes from “The Alphabet of Ben Sira”, which the staff report mentions, but doesn’t really go into detail about. “The Alphabet” is a work probably from around the 9th century. It’s a parody…22 stories, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each story is about a biblical hero…Adam, Abraham, Isaac, King David, etc., and puts him in embarrassing or sexual situations. From “The Alphabet” > [@](#): > > After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone’ (Genesis 2:18). He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, ‘I will not lie below,’ and he said, ‘I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.’ Lilith responded, ‘We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.’ But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air. Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: ‘Sovereign of the universe!’ he said, ‘the woman you gave me has run away.’ At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels to bring her back. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-eve-and-the-need-to-know/284649.md?page=1)