Who Was Lilith?

Lilith is an element of Jewish folklore who is first attested to in a Dead Sea scroll called “Songs of the Sage.” In that work and in the later Babylonian Talmud (A.D. 300-500), she is described as a demon. The later medieval Alphabet of Ben Sira first describes her as Adam’s wife. Lilith is not found in Sacred Scripture or in the Church’s tradition, and so stories about her being Adam’s wife can safely be described as myths.