The relation to the Genesis Great Flood Myth: While every culture has their own version of the flood myth, they all have some similarities to each other. I found the resemblance between the Sumerian account of the flood and the Genesis narrative, Noah’s Ark, highly interesting. Both individuals from the accounts had someone who ‘warned’ them about the incoming flood so they can save rescue their family and creatures of the earth as a second chance. I also find that the ‘why the flood happened’ between the two reports is similar, yet different- similar because it was a God who wanted to start all over, yet different because of the why. The creation of ‘evils’ to keep population down: The main issue in the Akkadian epic, “Myth of Atrahasis” is that when the Gods created humans, the earth started to become overpopulated due to the unforeseeable rate of reproduction. In response to the overcrowding, Enlil – who was the most affected by it, created different types of evils as an attempt to keep the population down; these evils came in the form of famine and plagues. The interesting part I found about this, is that Enlil’s solution to the problem was in the form of catastrophes. It was not until Enki stepped in and created a less disastrous birth control method: women who could not conceive and woman who were not allowed to conceive. …show more content…
When they become too much, an annoyance or are no longer useful to the Gods, they have no problem discarding them, meaning humans must act a certain way and not step outside that figurative box, just to be able to keep their lives. This show just how indifferent the Gods are to the beings they created- there’s no emotional attachment to
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...
The telling of this story provokes many questions. Why didn’t God, being all-good and benevolent, "immediately restore His fallen creatures to their original union with...
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.
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.
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.
For example, if weather phenomena happened randomly without any influence from the inhabitants there was a potential for the people to develop a pessimistic outlook; the drought will come no matter what, so why try? The myth of Pygmalion and Galatea shows if one displays loyalty and humility towards a god they could have their wishes granted. Pygmalion’s worship of Aphrodite granted his Galatea mortality (Morford et al., p. 196-197). Consequently, this led to the belief that if they were good, good would come, or on the other hand, if tragedy stuck it is their own fault. Still, there was potential for tragedy to be amended by the divine power of a god if they were shown reverence and humility by the individual. In essence, the Greeks created and worshiped these entities to give them hope for the future.
The Epic of Gilgamesh records a story of a world-wide flood and pre-dates Genesis. So some claim that this invalidates the Genesis record. But P.J. Wiseman presents an interesting theory in this regard in his book Ancient Records and the Structure of Genesis (New York: Thomas Nelson, 1985).
He finds the god of love, Ishtar, who has a lust towards Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh rejects her offer. Ishtar gets angry and asks her father god of the sky, Anu, to send the bull of heaven to earth to punish Gilgamesh. The beast comes to earth and brings along seven years of famine. Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight together and conquer the bull. This second event with the gods is another clear indication that Gilgamesh has overwhelming courage. He does not believe that he has to do as the gods tell him. He does not believe in the divine power of the gods and feels that he can go through the challenges that will be brought about by the wrath of the gods. The society believes that the gods have powers over love. The god of love affects the emotions of love that people have. The gods in this example can still change the weather as the god's of wrath caused the famine. The gods, therefore, impact the economy of the city as, during the days of starvation, there is reduced production in the city and its surroundings (George
The Gods of Greek mythology feeling excessive greed towards the mortals on Earth was destructive and never turned out good. Aphrodite was jealous of Psyche’s beauty and in turn send her son, Eros, to strike her with his arrows of love. Aphrodite would place an ugly creature “the castle dwarf, perhaps. Or the gardener, who has just celebrated his hundred-and-second birthday. Or a donkey-yes that’s possible too” (Evslin 94).
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...
A good number of people know the famous story of the Genesis flood, but do they know how it resembles to the Gilgamesh flood story? It is mind bending how the main stories are so alike. The main theme is the biggest similarity between the two. They also differ greatly in the smaller details in the events that take place. In both stories the number of days for events are different, but the same basic event takes place. Along with many other similarities and differences. The stories are very much the same, but when comparing the details within they are very different.
For the second part, a contradiction between the Bible and Science will be discussed excluding the controversy creationism and evolution theory. For example, there is no single mention about dinosaur in the Bible. Not just dinosaurs but there are so many creatures that had been existed even before human came out in the world. According to this, what is written in the Bible denies all evidences about every single creature that had been existed before human. Still, there has been no public announcement from Christianity side. Also, the Great Flood and Noah’s Ark are questionable with a scientific perspective. It is mentioned that the great flood happened in all surfaces of the earth in the Bible. While Christians insist that salt lake placed at high altitude area, calm fossils found at the top of mountains and myths of floods in different countries prove the great flood, scientists deny their evidence through scientific evidences. In addition to that, it makes no sense that we are all decedents of Noah’s family.
The focus of this analysis is on Genesis (chapter 7) and Gilgamesh (lines 1 - 25). These two different passages will be analyzed to relate each document and how the author's worldview shapes his account of the flood.
(page 56). The third story that depicts the idea of human sin is India: Manu in which Manu and a little fish that came into his hands became a ghasha. The ghasha warned that there will be a flood and that he should prepare a ship in which Manu was the only one that was saved at the end, “The flood then swept away all these creatures, and Manu alone remained here.” (page 55). These stories share a common theme in which the deity or the deities eradicate civilizations based on their sins with the great flood.
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...