The Flood story has been retold, and interpreted in different styles or versions and pass on to generations. For instance the two stories – the Babylonian version in the Atrahasis and Gilgamesh epic, and the Yahwist version from Genesis are the two famous flood stories with similar themes and a few similarities like, the flood occurred in Mesopotamian plain, main characters were asked or warned to build a boat to escape from the flood, but they differ in the events that took place, i.e., the details in these stories are different. The main difference is Genesis has a monotheistic mythology and Babylonian epic has polytheistic mythology. Atrahasis is a Babylonian or Akkadian epic of the great flood. Atrahasis was a Sumerian king of Shuruppak …show more content…
The first tablet describes the creation of humans in the world, the second deals with the over crowded humans who made noise which was distracting for Gods, so they gave flood in order to control the overpopulation which is in the third tablet. It is same as Gilgamesh epic; Gilgamesh was a king of Uruku, “Gilgamesh epic was written in 1900 BC by some Akkadian scholars” (Colavito, Jason). Atrahasis was saved along with his family and makes offerings to God just like Utnapishtim, survivor of the flood story. Both stories are similar; they are almost same. But there are some dissimilarity between Genesis flood and Babylonian flood. Noah the main character from genesis flood was addressed directly from Yahweh while in Babylonian stories Gods addressed about the flood in dream to the main character. Yahweh was the God in genesis while Ea in the Babylonian version. The Gilgamesh epic was written before the Genesis, the former was written in 2000 BC in Sumerian cuneiform, and the latter in 400 BC. Humans showed wickedness, wicked schemes, corrupt, and lawlessness, Yahweh regretted himself for creating man so he decides to destroy the world by flooding. The reason of …show more content…
We saw the Babylonian and Genesis versions above. There are later traditions on the flood like Enoch literature, New Testament, the Qur’an that tries to fill gaps while interpreting the story and many more aspects. The Enoch is a religious work of ancient Jewish. “Genesis in Noah’s flood has no sign of cannibalistic monsters, wicked angels, and anthropophagous giants wrecking havoc upon the earth,” (Goff, Matthew). It mentions about angels declination in Genesis 6, but don’t have specific numbers, their names their origin or arrival. Enoch literature says 200 angels arrived on the earth to mount Hermon, from which their twenty chiefs were recognized or titled. The wives of angels were taught beatific, godly divine and customs, rules and laws by angels. The logic behind was to advance the sexual impulse in females. Angels learned to acquire metals from the earth and taught the males to make gems, swords and different weapons to lead more violence and up skill the as warriors. These traits are lacking in Genesis, Watchers suggest there was more violence than Genesis, for instance man eating Giants. This demonstrates a reason for the flood according to Watchers, there was evil, killing, murder and blood shedding and drinking creatures so God decided to destroy the world. They used to annihilate people by drinking their blood. Bible (Leviticus 17:11) express that blood is the lifeline for humans so blood is pondered as
Almost all myths around the world have the particular section on the “Great Flood.” It has been universal, indicating that at some point in their lifetime, all of the cultures experienced a flood that almost wiped their civilization out. However, many of the flood myths of different cultures take different features in time period, area that they happened, heroes, and the story itself. But, surprisingly, the flood myths in Bible and Gilgamesh are almost similar except for the slight differences for the names of the heroes, shapes of the arks, and story itself. Besides few small details of the story, though, everything else is very parallel to each other.
...nd his family to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” God promises that “never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” The offering of sacrifice, and its acceptance by God – these are repeated in both accounts of the Flood.
Most of us have probably heard the famous bible story about Noah’s Ark and The Flood. What most may not know, is that this story is just one of a great many. A variety of ancient cultures, from the Greeks and the Middle East, to Asia and the Americas, have in their mythologies a story of a Great Flood that drowns the earth. These stories mostly contain the same themes: a god or group of gods becomes angry; they flood the earth but save a small group of people. These people build a boat to survive. After the flood they repopulate the earth.
Even though The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis: Noah and The Flood have similar details they both differ dramatically, because of the religious aspects, their different views of destroying mankind , and the importance of the arc.
Most everyone knows something about the story of Noah and the great flood. It is one of the most illustrated and common stories from the Bible. The knowledge that God was angry, Noah built an ark to carry animals and then there was a flood that killed everything. Though this is the basic picture of the story, it does not capture alone the main point of the story. God’s saving grace is the message. Believe and follow in the path of the Lord and salvation will be yours. All of God’s characteristics and boundaries he conveyed spawn off of the following of this or the ignoring of His omnipotent power and being. Just like in much of the text in the Bible, you have to read between the lines to find the meaning; the same is true for Genesis 5-9.
The Sumero-Babylonian version of the epic of Gilgamesh, after two and a half millennia of dormancy, was resurrected by British archaeologists in the nineteenth century. Amid the rubble of an Assyrian palace, the twelve clay tablets inscribed the adventures of the first hero of world literature – King Gilgamesh, whose oral folk tales go back to at least 3000 years before Christ (Harris 1). Tablet XI contains the story of the Flood. In this essay let us compare this flood account to the more recent Noah’s Flood account in Genesis of the Old Testament.
While the Epic of Atrahassis, Book of Enoch, the Heavenly Cow and Gilgamesh contrast in a multitude of ways, they are similar in that they convey a severed relationship between mankind and the divine, as well as the divine's attempt to reconcile humanity by use of natural disasters or the wrath of one god. Additionally one is spared, and the world is recreated.
Noah and Utnapishtim both were told to do something similar by their God or gods. The two differences that I noticed the most between these two texts include; the duration of the flood and the landing spot of the ark. In both the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible a person is approached and told to abandon the possessions they have and to build an ark. Noah is approached by God and told to build an ark. Utnapishtim had a different experience. He was told of what to do through a dream that was caused by one of the gods. Another similarity is the way that Noah and Utnapishtim were told about the ark was that they both were given specific measurement of how to build the ark.
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...
1. Flood is sent by God to destroy his creation, which has become corrupt and evil The humans are so wicked and evil that "it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart" (Gen. 6:6). He says,"I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. . . " (Gen. 6:7)
Perhaps the most popular comparison with Noah's Flood is that of an ancient Babylonian story of a similar flood. A quick look at the text does show some key similarities between them however there are also some pointed differences. I will show you both and let you decide whether there is or is not a connection.
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.
Comparing each record of the flood can reveal how different cultural and religious backgrounds explain events of the world, and despite the stories differences, their similarities prove
The roles of Noah and Utnapishtim in the Flood Myths are quite similar. There are several differences regarding the two flood myths, but the general idea behind the two remains consistent. In the Mesopotamian Flood Myth, the Gods were overwhelmed by the amount of humans that existed on Earth and were unable to sleep due to the noise of men. So they decided to "exterminate mankind." While in the Hebrew story of Noah and the Flood Myth, God grew tired of the evil that had plagued mankind and engulfed the earth. So God decided to start the world over to undue the mistakes of man. Both of these stories display an attempt by the Gods to start the world over to cleanse the earth. Both Utnapishtim and Noah were spoken to by Gods and asked to build large boats from which all who were to be spared would seek shelter during the storm. Both men were allowed to spare the lives of their family via the safety of the boats. Also, the method used by the Gods in these myths are the same, the skies would rain down upon the earth flooding the land and killing all who were not ordered onto the boats.
Before going any further, the story of Noah and the Flood will be summarized according to the book of Genesis in order to be able to make the comparison later in this paper. The story begins in Genesis chapter 6 describing the then current state of “wickedness.” The descendants of Adam and Eve grew in number and many of them intermarried with anyone of their choosing. God saw in them great “wickedness” and most people only had evil in the...