Analyzing the Epic of Gilgamesh by F. Lorey through a Creationists Viewpoint

Epic of Gilgamesh Annotated Bibliography

Lorey, F. 1997. The Flood of Noah and the Flood of Gilgamesh. Acts & Facts. 26 (3) Web. 4 Feb. 2014. When reading the story, someone can take many different viewpoints. In the article above, the author is analyzing the Epic of Gilgamesh through a creationists view point. 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...

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...anity so one can tell the author is analyzing this as a sad, depressing kind of story. As the author is concluding his analysis he states “This was the great benefit of reading the Epic – its despairing philosophy dramatically contrasts with the hope and freedom offered to the great Old Testament saints.” The benefit to reading this analysis is that out of the sources used, it was the only one that offered the story was a grim, dark, and hopeless story. Other takes of the story was the story was not happy necessarily but had a happy side to it because of Enkidu changing Gilgamesh. Overall, the analysis by the author was refreshing to read because the story had a different effect on him/her than most. Most took the view where they could find a good moral of the story and find happiness to it but this author called it how it was, a grim, hopeless for mankind story.