Okay, so maybe one more on the Lilith myth, and I'll be done with this topic.
Lilith, then, rejected her role as wife and mother. This myth was known in the 1st Century, and may have been one of the Jewish fables that Paul talked about in Titus 1:14-16 saying "not devoting themselves to Jewish myths..."
Paul, here, cannot mean the Old Testament Scriptures of the Jews, since that is the inspired Word of God. So, he must mean something else.
In post #3 of this series, I provided a link to a website that explained some Jewish Gnostic teachings about the Lilith myth. These teachings are very ancient, some being taken from the Talmud, according to the article The Lilith Myth found at the Gnosis Archive.
The long and the short of it is that Lilith did not want to be a wife, and she did not want to be a mother. What I call Lilith feminism, as I said earlier, is the brand of feminism that predominates the women's movement at this point in time, as I said in post #2.
So, maybe we can tie the Lilith Myth to the Biblical phrase I mentioned, "not devoting themselves to Jewish myths..." The Apostle Paul very likely had this myth, as well as others in mind when he wrote that phrase.
To support what I say, I would like to offer as evidence Paul's teachings on marriage found in the same book of Titus in the famous chapter 2. Here is the text that talks about how Christian women are to behave. A lot has been written about being that Titus 2 woman. Could it be that he is presenting the Christian alternative to the Lilith lifestyle?
Titus 2
3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,
4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,
5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
So, how is the Lilith myth related to Titus 2? It is very likely saying to women, "don't be a Lilith." Look at the extreme behavior Lilith was involved in. She was promiscuous. She destroyed her children. She refused to live with her husband. She wanted nothing to do with her home and family. In short, her behavior was outrageous, and she was unrepentant.
Don't be like her. Be devoted to one man, your husband. Love him and him alone - and I think that the implication is probably something like, "have sex with him and not with other men." The Bible does not assault us with sexual imagery, but it does give us the idea of what should go on between a husband and a wife. Of course, that phrase "to Love their husbands" would include things like being kind to him as well as caring for him.
Work at home. Many books or at least book chapters have been written on this phrase - a lot of it really silly. Wouldn't it mean something like make sure your home is cared for? I don't see a prohibition in there about working outside the home as well. Each family needs to weigh the pros and cons. Many women are stay at home moms or at least limit their number of hours at work. Other women work fulltime outside the home. That depends on many, many factors. So, there is no one size fits all solution for Christian women as far as working outside the home goes. Not all Christian women even have children, and of course, not all are married. It's just that the family should not be sacrificed to the wanton lusts of the wife and mother.
Take care of your children. Do not destroy them like Lilith did. Don't be a promiscuous party girl. Assume your responsibilities at home. Stuff like that.
I don't see how the Quiverfull teachings can be shoe-horned into Titus 2. Some families have faith to receive many children, and I actually love it that they do. It's just that there is no law about that in the New Testament, so we should not try to make one either for or against, IMO. It is undeniable, thought, that traditional Christianity - including pretty much every kind of Christian group before the advent of birth control - has always encouraged Christians to have large families. It's a beautiful thing. That's easy for me to say since I am the mother of an only child. I am also the daughter of a 10th child. My dad was the last in a series of 10 children that my grandmother gave birth to.
When I was a little girl, I wanted to be just like my Mumu from Finland. It wasn't meant to be.
Whatever else, the Christian wife and mother is not supposed to be like the demonic spirit, Lilith, of Jewish mythology. Paul gives the antidote.
I'm just throwing that out there. I don't think it's too much of a stretch, but I do not have access to a lot of historical stuff to support what I say. Besides, the Lilith myth is so creepy I don't want to study it any further.
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