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kjv noah and the ark
the bible vs mythology
the story of noahs ark kjv
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Two Great Floods In both the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh the God or Gods create a flood to destroy mankind. In Gilgamesh,the Gods decide something needs to be done because the humans are being loud and disturbing the Gods. In the Bible's version of the flood story, God regrets creating mankind because the humans have become evil God chooses Noah and his family to start a new beginning. In the Bible God becomes regretful of creating mankind because he sees that they are wicked and they only have evil thoughts. The Lord decides, he "will destroy human beings I made on earth. And I will destroy every animal and everything that crawls on the earth. I will also destroy the birds of the air." (Genesis 6:7) After God makes his decision to create a great flood he chooses Noah to build an ark to save his family and a number of each animal to live on after the flood so they can start a new and better life on Earth. The Epic of Gilgamesh relays to readers a story very similar to Noah's flood story. "Enlil heard the clamour and he said to the gods in council `The uproar of m...
It contains useful comparisons and historical data to help support his analysis. The author considers the story to hold very value for Christians. It concerns the typical myths that were tied to pagan people. Despite that theory, there have been many Christians who have studied the afterlife and creation in the epic. He suggests an interesting thought when he starts to explain the story. The author hints that maybe the main character, Gilgamesh, was a historical figure. The base analysis for his line of thought is the story of the flood found in the bible. After looking at the lengths of time of each story, he considers it to not be a problem. To provide some evidence, the author shows a chart of a series of questions about each flood and compares the two. The most striking comparison in the chart was the command to build a boat; "O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu, tear down thy house, build a ship; abandon wealth, seek after life; scorn possessions, save thy life. Bring up the seed of all kinds of living things into the ship which thou shalt build. Let its dimensions be well measured."17 The text from the quote can almost match what the bible said. In both stories the person was commanded to build a boat because a flood is coming due to man’s sins or man’s wickedness. In the conclusion of the article, the author says a bold statement; “the widespread nature of flood traditions throughout the entire human race is exce...
Rosenberg notes that Gilgamesh is probably the world's first human hero in literature (27). The Epic of Gilgamesh is based on the life of a probably real Sumerian king named Gilgamesh, who ruled about 2600 B.C.E. We learned of the Gilgamesh myth when several clay tablets written in cuneiform were discovered beginning in 1845 during the excavation of Nineveh (26). We get our most complete version of Gilgamesh from the hands of an Akkadian priest, Sin-liqui-unninni. It is unknown how much of the tale is the invention of Sin-liqui-unninni, and how much is the original tale. The flood story, which appears in the Sin-liqui-unninni version, is probably based on an actual flood that occurred in Mesopotamia around 2900 B.C.E. (26).
The most well-known parallel between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible is the story of the Flood, in Genesis 6-7. This is essentially equivalent to the story that Utnapishtim, the Sumerian Noah, tells to Gilgamesh on Tablet XI. Even the way the narrative is laid out is similar - the gods put a bug in Utnapishtim's ear; a description of how the ark is built ("daubed with bitumen," a common glue or mortaring agent in Mesopotamia); everyone piles in, and it starts to rain. When it's over, Utnapishtim releases a dove, then a swallow, and finally a crow.
In the ancient Mesopotamian world, the realm of civilization was viewed to be highly illustrious. At the same time, this state of advancement of great antiquity was also an attribute of divinity. The elements of civilization were intimately associated to the highly esteemed divine mediation. Despite the prominent theology culture in The Epic of Gilgamesh, divine intervention is not the only element that could transform the crude heroic figures into sagacious men. Strength and power are definitely not the only possessions that could advance one in life even though they clearly distinguish the heroes from ordinary men. It is rather, more significantly, the process of internalization. No civilization emerges directly and independently – it is through the very concerns and actions of a man that one begins to assimilate as he or she encounters and surmounts them. In this epic poem, through the actions and larger than life experiences, emerged a very human concern with mortality, the quest for knowledge and also an escape from the common lot of men – death. For Gilgamesh, the most predominant heroic figure, the desires for divinity and destiny as a mortal man in this regard have become the gateway for the internalization of humanity through the following intertwining aspects: the meaning of love and compassion, the meaning of loss and of growing older as well as the meaning of mortality.
The Epic of Gilgamesh has a lot of similarities to the Bible. The place where I noticed the most similarities was in chapter 5. In this chapter it takes about the flood. In both the Gilgamesh and the Bible a person is approached and told to abandon the possessions they have and to build a boat. But I do not remember God asking Moses to tear down his house before he builds the arc. Also in both the person is told the exact dimensions of which to build the boat/arc. In both pieces of texts they have similar reasons why God was angry with the current state of the human race.
Across mythology, many of the same themes can be seen. Although they are different in narrative, they remain similar in the idea being portrayed. One example of this is the flood, or deluge; most notable in the story of Noah's ark in the bible. In the story of Noah's ark, the flood was brought upon humanity by God because of the “folly and wickedness” of humankind. Essentially, the flood is brought upon by a god and can take different forms, but its purpose is the same: to wipe out or bring death to the world. Throughout many of these myths that follow, the flood comes in the form of a woman. Three different versions of the flood are in the form of Sekhmet in Egyptian mythology, Pandora's box in Greek mythology, and Kali in Hinduism.
The story of Noah is about how God wanted to destroy mankind because he believed man to be sinful and wicked so he decided to send a flood to drown all animals and people. In the biblical text Noah was considered a righteous man because he was blameless and he was told to build an ark and that he could save his family along with all his cattle. In Gilgamesh the righteous man was Utnapishtim who
The flood story that is told in The Epic of Gilgamesh has the same principle as the story of Noah told in the book of Genesis in the Bible, but there are some major differences. In the epic, Utnapishtim is immortal and, although Noah was extremely old when he died, he wasn’t immortal. Utnapishtim was a human, but because he saved mankind, Enlil said, “Hitherto Utnapishtim has been a human, now Utnapishtim and his wife shall become like us gods.” (Gilgamesh 11.206-207) In the Biblical story, God told Noah that he was going to send a flood and asked him specifically to make the ark in order to save mankind. In Genesis 6:13-22, God tells Noah why he’s flooding the earth and exact instructions to build the ark. “13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[b] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[c] high all arou...
In the literary world a great deal of interest has been given into interpreting the story of the flood, found very often in literary, historical, ethical or religious accounts of literature. There are documents mentioning the flood that are old thousands of years and the area of their discovery spreads all over the Middle East, India, China, Southern Europe and even the Central and Southern America. It has been proven that the ancient world was fully aware of this myth1 and I am going to find out why it was so popular and what the purpose of the story was. I have found five possible uses of this myth and I am going to explore every single one with a focus on the nature of documents mentioning the flood and the story itself. I am going to take a closer look at the most known and popular stories and I will analyze the purpose of telling this story in the past days.
In both versions of the flood story something angers God (in Genesis) and the gods (in Gilgamesh). "The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reasons of the babel" (Gilgamesh 12). The Gilgamesh reason seems very illogical. The Gods decide to destroy mankind because they are making too much noise. It seems that the gods didn't think over their decision wisely. They are gods, wouldn't they have the power to block out the sound? One would think so, but obviously that was not the case. This is the first major difference between the two stories.
Foster, Benjamin R. "The Epic of Gilgamesh." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Gen. Ed. Martin Puchner. 3rd ed. Vol. A. New York: Norton, 2012. 95-151. Print. 13 March 2014.
The depictions that this poem contains regarding the flood hold specific details that most individuals could relate to the biblical story of Noah’s Ark. However, being that this epic poem is over four thousand years old, the origin of such a familiar story stands in curious position. Within the epic, the gods become unhappy with mankind and decide to send a great flood to wipe out humanity. The god Ea betrays the other god’s intentions by tasking Utnapishtim to act as the Mesopotamian Noah. Ea warns Utnapishtim to abandon his worldly possessions and create a giant ark, stating to “forsake possessions and seek life, belongings reject and life save” (Gilgamesh 143). With this, Utnapishtim follows in suit, gathering his family and friends to board the ark and await the impending flood. This story of Utnapishtim’s journey doesn’t stray far from the depictions we see in the religious texts of today. In fact, the only notable differences between them consist of the time frame in which the flood takes place, Gilgamesh’s polytheistic perspective, the birds used to search for land, and Utnapishtim’s gain of immortality. Regardless, the poem presents such an uncanny similarity that it poses questions towards the overall significance of the event, as well as the influence behind it during that
As one of the oldest written literary works of human history, The Epic of Gilgamesh has influenced us since the dawn of civilized society. Aspects of the poem can be seen in the Greek tales such as the Odyssey and the Iliad, however some elements also carry into Christianity by the telling of the great flood and loss of immortality due to a serpent. The rapid grow of the poem outside of its home, Mesopotamia, is a marvel that still surprises scholars today. Nevertheless, the ripples that Gilgamesh created can still be seen in our collective pool of knowledge today.
In, Noah and the flood, god’s punishment of destroying the world with a flood, I believe was justified. It was justified because the lord saw the earth filled with evil, which lead him to think about a consequence for human creatures. The lord felt sick of his creation even stating, “ Every scheme of his heart’s devising was only perpetually evil”. The lord was referring to his human creation showing how furious he was towards these creatures that lead to him to create the flood. The usage of the flood in my opinion was a great way to eliminate human creatures because this caused them to suffer and drown to death. The lord didn’t just want to kill them instantaneously but make them think of the sins they conducted, while they drowned. When
During Genesis 6-9, the wrath of God is felt by all of humanity through God’s flooding or purification of the earth. Only Noah, a righteous man in the eyes of God, is saved. For through Noah God saw a saviour for His creation. As when humanity started to expand, and became larger He began to see man’s wickedness was spreading, and because of this evil He needed to flush the Earth of all those who had done or will do wrong/evil. Throughout this part of Genesis God is seen as possessing the nature of being vengeful, and destructive, however right in his actions. Concluding that humanity is evil at heart, violent, and corrupt, yet deserving of grace, in the end God realises that destruction of his creation is not the answer, instead entering a new covenant with Man, symbolised by the rainbow (Ch. 9, v 11 – 16).