The Flood Of Gilgamesh And The Story Of Noah And The Flood

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Noah’s Ark is the story of a man who builds a boat for animals and his family to escape a fatal flood. The flood was caused by God because he was dismayed by the evilness of humans. In the end, Noah, most of the animals and his family survived and God swore that he would never destroy humankind again. The Flood of Gilgamesh is a story in which the gods are infuriated by the obnoxious behavior of humans, so Utnapishtim builds a boat to save his family and animals from a destructive flood. They survived and the Gods gave Utnapishtim immortality thanking him for his actions and apologized for destroying humankind. Despite the time difference both stories were written, The Flood of Gilgamesh and The Story of Noah and the Flood are more similar than they are different. Gilgamesh was written in 2000 BC whereas Noah was written much later in 400 BC. The Story of Noah takes its inspiration from Gilgamesh, however it earned more recognition because of its Biblical affiliation. The summary of both tales conclude with a relatively symmetrical moral, however Gilgamesh has been believed to have less sensitivity. There are small details in both stories that differ from each other, but in retrospect they preach the same morals. Because of its polytheistic myths, Christians have tried to veer away from admittedly attending to their interests in Gilgamesh. Biblical writers inevitably referred to the Epic during the production of Noah and the Flood, however they deny any labeled connections further than mutual mythology. The timeline of human history ensures that there are minimally some similarities amongst religiously written tales. Both stories revolve around floods, leaving little room for a religious moral to remain original. When an oppo... ... middle of paper ... ...radually repopulated the earth. Contrary to the Genesis, Utnapishtim and his wife are given immortality and 14 humans were sent to earth to help repopulation. Most of the differences between these two influential pieces of literature are superficial details. Christian followers have denied their admiration for The Flood of Gilgamesh, because of its insensitivity and polytheistic beliefs. However, in order for a culture to develop and evolve, it must take influence from others of the past. This is inevitably why the two stories are so similar, although have differences within the broad category. The only way to truly differentiate them was to alter minor details, only with the intention of providing proof of originality to the Genesis. Regardless, both pieces of literature have been vital sources to cultural, religious and philosophical aspects of life development.

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