Essay Comparing The Epic Of Gilgamesh And The Book Of Genesis

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This paper will compare The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of Genesis flood narratives. In Gilgamesh, the humans were so rowdy, loud and unpleasant that the god, Enlil wanted to erase humankind completely by using a massive flood. In the book of Genesis, the humans were running amok, sinning and procreating with the giants. God frowned upon their actions and was ashamed of his creation; he too decided to wipe them out and start anew. In each story there is a hero that will survive the floods. After the flood in Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim and his wife were granted immortality and in the book of Genesis, Noah made a covenant with God and was instructed to repopulate the earth again. The flood narratives in both stories are symbolic of judgment and cleansing or becoming pure again.
The table above shows the similarities and differences between the flood narratives in the two stories. There are several similarities and most differences are minor things that are only different in detail. Both stories take place take place in the Mesopotamian Plain (Deem). The Epic of Gilgamesh was recorded on ancient cuneiform tablets in 650 B.C. The date of when the biblical flood occurred is often debated to this day, but most researchers believe that the Epic of Gilgamesh was told first (Deem). Each of the main characters Utnapishtim and …show more content…

The characters in The Epic of Gilgamesh came off to me as whiny and selfish, from the Gods down to the humans. I thought it was selfish to create a flood because humans were loud and unruly; another selfish act was when Ea instructed Utnapishtim to use his neighbors to help make the boat but to refrain from telling them what it is for. In the book of Genesis, although Noah was only allowed to bring his household, he told his neighbors about the upcoming judgment day. This means to me that these stories are similar but there were major differences in culture and moral

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