Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Comparison Between The Flood In Gilgamesh And Noah's Story
Similarities between the flood of Noah and the flood of Gilgamesh
Comparison Between The Flood In Gilgamesh And Noah's Story
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
I’ve decided to compare The Flood of Noah vs. The Flood of Gilgamesh. In my opinion, both topics are Universalist. According to Mrs. Navare, “The Universalist maintains that myth is common to all humans’ cultures and is, in this sense, part of what it means to be human. The Universalist focuses on the continuities, or similarities, among the myth of different cultures. Before I explore all the differences between The Flood of Noah Vs. The Flood of Gilgamesh; I would like to discuss the similarities. First off, the God’s chose to males to take on this position. The God’s both chose Uthapishtim and Noah to be heroes because they are righteous. The Gods demanded both of the heroes to build their boat. Noah and Uthapishtim only could build one door for the ark. In both stories, the heroes had to put all species of animals on Page 2 the boat, and boat stories included the birds finding dry land. Both boats were large, but there shapes were different. Also comparing the stories, the heroes both survived the flood; it was filled with other family members, and all other species of land animals. Rain also covered both lands. God warned Noah to build a boat. God was going to flood the world because of global man’s wickedness. “^5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the Earth, and every inclination of the …show more content…
Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you, the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.” (Genesis NIV
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...
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.
It is interesting that despite cultural differences, many cultures have similar stories relating to a great flood. These stories have been passed down through the generations. Both Aboriginal mythology and the Bible on which Christianity is based, use stories to teach lessons to their people. To demonstrate this, one only has to compare the story of Noah's Ark (Genesis 6-9) with the Bundaba Flood Story told by the Bundaba people from Western Australia, to understand that the story of a great flood appears to be similar in many very cultures.
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.
Not doing suitably what you are advised to do, are human downfalls having no recompense; whereas, following the rules on timely basis will be the most worthwhile outcome. Contrasting the Benjamin R. Foster’s and Stephen Mitchell’s translation “Gilgamesh,” to the Robert Altar’s translation “The Flood,” each story has a very different emphasis and draws a different moral. The emphasis of “Gilgamesh,” becoming eternal and what steps can be taken to receive it. However, the emphasis of “The Flood” is true righteousness will give a prolonged life. The different emphasis of each story causes the moral of each story to be different. For instance, “Gilgamesh” teaches; not doing what is advised will cause lost opportunities and “The Flood” teaches; righteousness will cause unforeseen blessings.
“The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created-people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.”(Genesis 6:5-8)
The amazing stories of the great flood that are described in The Epic of Gilgamesh which is translated by N.K. Sandars and “The Story of the Flood” which is the King James version, both stories similarly. Many of the events of each story are very similar in ways and very different in some of them. From reading both stories I concluded that there was a huge flood that took place in that area of the world. Even though the way both stories describe the flood; The Epic of Gilgamesh is more imaginable. I say that because it is more realistic to have rain for six days, six nights than for forty days, forty nights. Both flood stories have a major similarity and difference though. Both stories described the same flood but they did it in different ways.
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that very imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
“And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy the earth. Make yourself an ark…” (Genesis 6:13-14, English Standard Version) “For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.” (Genesis 6:17, ESV) “And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.” (Genesis 6:19, ESV) “Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.” (Genesis 6:22, ESV) “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the second month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” (Genesis 7:11-12, ESV) Everyone has heard the story of Noah’s ark and the great Flood. But is that all it is? Just a story? If a catastrophe of this scale really happened, it would have left plenty of evidence behind. And it did. The fossil record shows evidence of a small period of time in which all the major groups of life (phyla) appear without ancestors. (Wieland, n.d.) This alleged explosion of evolution is called the Cambrian explosion. However, Christians believe the Cambrian explosion is actually the Flood, in which all life on earth is rapidly buried by sediments picked up from the flood waters. Another piece of evidence for the Flood is the perfectly preserved mammoths. The mammoths show signs of being instantly buried and frozen, many while standing up. (Brown, 1995-2013) Evidence for this is fou...
The rendition of the historic, worldwide Flood recorded in Genesis of the Old Testament is similar to the account recorded on Tablet 11of the Sumero-Babylonian version of the epic of Gilgamesh, discovered in the 1800’s by British archaeologists in Assyria. Let us compare the two in this essay.
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.
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 Epic of Gilgamesh has many similarities to the Bible, especially in Genesis and it’s not just that the both begin with the letter “g”’! One major similarity being the flood story that is told in both works. The two stories are very similar but also very different. Another being the use of serpents in both works and how they represent the same thing. A third similarity being the power of God or gods and the influence they have on the people of the stories. Within these similarities there are also differences that need to be pointed out as well.
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.
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