There are flood stories from many cultures. The flood stories usually consist of a higher power that floods a civilization due to some act that has made the higher power angry. The stories talk about one specific family and how the flood consumes the entire globe. So many cultures have a story about a great flood that have many similar details that it is hard to not believe that it is not true, but whether the story of a great flood is true or not, it is up to the individual to decide.
Judaism is religion that many Hebrews are a part of. Many Christian religions like Catholicism also believe the same story that the Jews do about the great flood. They believe that God had become so upset with mankind’s evil ways, he wanted to destroy it. He did so with a great flood that consumed the earth except for Noah, his family, and the animals that he saved. The story uses many religious pieces, such as the dove, which represents the Holy Spirit. There are many objects and pieces like statues, trinkets, paintings, and things that have symbols or representations of Noah and the ark he built. This flood story is one of the more commonly told versions of the great flood.
When God decided to flood the earth he saved one righteous man and his family. The righteous, deserving of life man was Noah. He found that Noah was a good man and believed he should be saved. God commanded Noah to build an ark that was 450 by 75 by 45 feet, with three decks. Noah did as he was told. He and his family boarded the ark. This was eight people. They gathered pairs of many animals, so that they could reproduce after the flood was over with. For forty days and forty nights the flood raged on. The earth was flooded for one hundred and fifty days. God ...
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...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.
Flood myths help to explain events which cannot be controlled, such as natural disasters. The Hebrew flood myth tells of a man named Noah, who is selected, along with his family, to survive an epic flood. The flood must occur to cleanse the world of its impurities (Leeming, 47-53). The “flood” in Mabel’s own life involves the many things she loses: her mother, her family’s money, her idea of the future. However, these losses allow her to become a stronger person, to move away from merely being a daughter or a sister and become Mabel (Lawrence, 1-15).
Dalley, Stephanie. "Gilgamesh." Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh and Others. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991. 39-153. Print.
On our planet, phenomena’s occur occasionally in nature. Tornadoes, earthquakes, and flashfloods are all types of phenomena’s that could occur. Most of these mysterious events are small and go unnoticed; however, on a rare occasion these sorts of event can be horrendous. One such occasion occurred back around 4,000 BC (Werner Keller, 48). As the story goes, God’s population was growing rapidly on earth. At this point, he had been growing bored with the same people on earth so he made sure no man would live past the age of 120. Given this time, the people of earth started to take advantage of the human race; these acts of selfishness disgusted God. He decided to destroy everything on earth. A man by the name of Noah had lived his life by God’s nature, which eventually led to a close relationship between the two. God had told Noah to build a boat with exact measurements. God had instructed Noah to put two of every kind of animal into the boat; one had to be male and the other female. Then God told Noah to get into the boat with his family, their families, and the animals. Then for forty days and forty nights the clouds seemed to have poured endless amounts of water onto the earth (Genesis 6:1-9). Floods rushed through the landscape, destroying everything in its path. The waters were higher than the tallest mountains, standing above the highest peaks. All living things on earth had died. The water covered the earth at this level for five months (Paul S. Taylor, 1). In time the water began to dry up. Eventually Noah was able to leave the ship and release all he had brought with him. From this point, evolution occurs.
The story of Noah’s Ark begins with God being upset at mankind's wickedness. He decides to destroy it with a flood. God new Noah was righteous and told him to build an ark so he would be safe from the rain. Noah did so and took aboard his family and pairs of every kind of animal. It rained for forty days and nights, until the highest mountains were covered. Then God sent a wind and the waters receded, and the...
Column 1 on Tablet 11 begins the Sumero-Babylonian Flood narrative (Gardner 226). The sage Utnapishtim from Shurippak (100 miles south of Babylon), says:
“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...
Across mythology, many of the same themes can be seen. Although they are different in narrative, they remain similar in the idea being portrayed. One example of this is the flood, or deluge; most notable in the story of Noah's ark in the bible. In the story of Noah's ark, the flood was brought upon humanity by God because of the “folly and wickedness” of humankind. Essentially, the flood is brought upon by a god and can take different forms, but its purpose is the same: to wipe out or bring death to the world. Throughout many of these myths that follow, the flood comes in the form of a woman. Three different versions of the flood are in the form of Sekhmet in Egyptian mythology, Pandora's box in Greek mythology, and Kali in Hinduism.
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...
*The Babylonian tale never says why the gods chose to save the man in the story. It was pretty much dumb luck. In the Bible, Noah was a rightous man amidst a population of evil.
For six days and nights the wind and flood raged. On the seventh day the flood abated. Everything, including mankind, had turned to mud and clay.
The depictions that this poem contains regarding the flood hold specific details that most individuals could relate to the biblical story of Noah’s Ark. However, being that this epic poem is over four thousand years old, the origin of such a familiar story stands in curious position. Within the epic, the gods become unhappy with mankind and decide to send a great flood to wipe out humanity. The god Ea betrays the other god’s intentions by tasking Utnapishtim to act as the Mesopotamian Noah. Ea warns Utnapishtim to abandon his worldly possessions and create a giant ark, stating to “forsake possessions and seek life, belongings reject and life save” (Gilgamesh 143). With this, Utnapishtim follows in suit, gathering his family and friends to board the ark and await the impending flood. This story of Utnapishtim’s journey doesn’t stray far from the depictions we see in the religious texts of today. In fact, the only notable differences between them consist of the time frame in which the flood takes place, Gilgamesh’s polytheistic perspective, the birds used to search for land, and Utnapishtim’s gain of immortality. Regardless, the poem presents such an uncanny similarity that it poses questions towards the overall significance of the event, as well as the influence behind it during that
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.
I think so many creation myths have this motif as part of the story because they used the flood to show power and destruction. An example to show the cause of a flood is, during the Yoruba Creation, Obatala began making creatures out of clay. The only problem with this was he was drinking wine constantly, and his creatures were deformed and ugly. He swore to himself that he would never drink again. He then started making new creatures, and he made sure those were perfect. Obatala had Olorun breathed life into them. When Olorun did so, the creatures started building houses and cities. All of the Orisha were pleased with the work, but Olokun the master of the sea sent a flood through the houses and the city and wiped them all out, even almost all of Obatala’s creations. Olokun did this because he wasn’t okay with the creatures or the creation of the earth in the first place. Zeus also sent a flood because he wasn’t happy with the other gods. The other gods made him angry, and Zeus was a very powerful god. He was one not to mess with. The creation myths that included the flood was, the greek creation which is The Theogony. The Yoruba Creation was another creation