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Flood narrative in bible
Essays on comparisons of flood myths
Essays on comparisons of flood myths
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Why do this major flood in The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis occur? “What is the purpose for? The Gods weren’t pleased with humankind because of their awful behavior on earth. Both The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis had widespread flood stories; some similarities are wickedness of mankind, which causes the flood, they Gods both build Arks, they use the birds to help them find land, and make sacrifices to God after the flood. The events that took part during the flood stories are very similar although there are some differences in their too. In what ways are the stories similar? The wickedness of men destroyed the old world that causes the flood in Genesis and Gilgamesh. God saw the wickedness of mankind was great on earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time (Genesis 6:5). The reason for the flood in Gilgamesh was a way to kill the people who were living a sinful life. The flood was supposed to be a punishment for their sin. The flood of Gilgamesh was a slaughter of humanity (Tablet 11). The flood heroes were Noah and Utnapishtim both of them were righteous men. Both of the floods …show more content…
Building the arks or the boat was a way to save the people from the flood. However in Genesis a storm starts up and wipes out everything that wasn’t on board. Gilgamesh flood lasted for only 6 nights, but rained for 7 days while Genesis flood for 260 days and rained for 40 days (Genesis 7). The flood in Genesis was so powerful, “After seven days the water of the waters of the flood was upon the earth” (Gen.7:10). As you can see the flood in Genesis lasted longer than the one in Gilgamesh did. Noah’s ark was higher than a three-story-building 450x75x45 feet (Gen.6:15). Upnapishtim ark was 200x200x200. The roof top of Noah’s ark was wooden and Upnapishtim roof was slate. On both arks were humans and Noah’s and Upnapishtim’s families, animals and
*The boat dimensions are quite different. The boat in the story of the Babylonian flood is a cube, equal on all sides. While in the Bible, Noah is told to build his Ark in a 450x75x45 ratio. This ratio is what is known to ship builders as the perfect ratio for stabilty for a boat but it was not known until the 15th century AD. The Gilgamesh boat, being equal on all sides, would have been wildly unstable and unseaworthy.
I would describe the Mesopotamians ideal of kingship as courageous and a shepherd of the people. The basis of the monarch’s legacy is his arrogance, courage, beauty, and god like self.
The theme in Gilgamesh, Genesis and Sur 11 are comparably the same in that the people in each story were with sin and wickedness. In all three literatures, the people in the beginning were mean and sinful. The people in the Epic of Gilgamesh were evil and when Gilgamesh came to power he did not known what to since it was his first time beinging king. So, he would rule in a stern way to keep the people from sin. On Genesis God wanted to flood the Earth from the people who were sinful. God asked Noah to build an ark and to take his family and two of each animal.
In this way the Jewish faith is able to truly bridge life and death in a way that the
is the idea of a divine being or, in other words, god. Early humans were
After reading the two stories I concluded that forty days and forty nights was too long for it to rain without stopping; that is why the flood in Gilgamesh is more realistic. The length of the rains in the flood story in The Epic of Gilgamesh is easier for someone to believe than the length of the rains in Genesis. Even though the stories were different there was many similarities in the stories.
Whether in Christianity in the form of Noah’s Ark, or through Mesopotamian history in the form of an immortal, the idea of a great flood has proven to be a common story throughout the world. Though Noah’s Ark may be the most popular form of the story, it is not the oldest. Many people believe Noah’s Ark was based on Utnapishnem’s flood story. The two stories are obviously based on the same thing, but one must wonder which one is true or which came first.
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.
Charles de Montesquieu contradicts the human tendency to be apprehensive towards death in one statement: "We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death." The struggle to accept this revelation is demonstrated in the Babylonian epic poem known as, The Epic of Gilgamesh, through an extraordinary man's journey to achieve immortality, and his eventual acceptance of death's inevitability. The guarantee of death's arrival is further explored in Descent of Inanna, an epic in which Inanna abandons her post as the holy priestess of heaven to explore and later test the absoluteness of death. Death and its relationship to human nature is explored in both the texts, The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Descent of Inanna, by emphasizing its totality
Other similarities closely tie these two Flood Myths almost mirroring the symbolic ideas within both stories. The number seven is very significant in both of these stories. In the story of Utnapishtim, the Boat he built was finished on the seventh day. Also the rain that flooded the earth, stopped on the seventh day. In the Hebrew story of Noah, the waters of the flood were upon the earth seven days after Noah constructed the arc. After the earth was flooded and the rain subsided, during two seven day instances, Noah sent forth a dove to determine if dry land existed nearby. The two stories also showed that the Gods gave specific instructions down to the dimension regarding the construction of the two boats and both men were ordered to keep the blood line of animals alive by sparing the lives of a male a female being of each species.
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...
Ancient world literature and early civilization stories are mostly centered on human’s relationship with higher beings. Ancient civilizations were extremely religious, holding the belief that their very lives were in the hands of their almighty god or goddess. This holds true for both the people of biblical times as well as those of the epic era. However, their stories have some differences according to cultural variation but the main structure, ideas, and themes are generally found correlative. It is hard to believe that one work did not affect the others. The first great heroic epic poem of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament are parts of two cultures that are hundreds of years apart. Whereas Gilgamesh is a myth and the book of Genesis is the basis of many religions, they both have notably similar accounts of symbols, motifs, meaningful events according to the relationship between the divine and humans in literature.
The flood of Gilgamesh was written before 2000 B.C, while the Genesis story was written in 400 BC Which was much later then the Gilgamesh flood. Biblical writers probably knew of the much older flood but revised it so that it fit with their own history and worldview. They most likely intended the original story with their own mythology. Despite the many similarities between the two stories, the differences are revealed in a number of different topics that distinguish the biblical version of the story from the ancient version.
Some of the simpler similarities are that the extent of the flood reaches every part of the earth, the flood is intended to destroy mankind, aside from the heros and their families, Utnapishtim and Noah are found righteous by their God or gods, and they build an ark to certain qualifications. An example of a less obvious similarity is the location of where the arks first touche land. In the general sense, they both landed on a mountain: Noah’s “ ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventh day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 75) and Utnapishtim's “boat stuck fast beside Mt. Nimush” (Gilgamesh 57). Taking this information a Step deeper reveals that Mt. Ararat and Mt. Nimush are about 300 miles apart. Both boats land in a relatively close proximity. Further proving the idea that the Sumerians and Hebrews experience the same event. Utnapishtim’s and Noah’s lives are dramatically changed by the flood. They sacrifice all that is familiar to them in order to receive the blessings of God or the gods. The heroes are both examples of a term I will call the archetypal path of blessing. Utnapishtim and Noah are both comfortable with what they have before the flood, but as Christopher Columbus States “One can never cross the ocean until one has the courage to leave the shore.” Utnapishtim and Noah give up what is ordinary to receive what is great. The blessings of both characters exceed
One obvious distinction between "The Epic of Gilgamesh" and Genesis can be traced back to the cultures of the authors. The Gilgamesh epic comes from a culture and religion that is polytheistic. The author (and thus the characters in the epic) believed in a pantheon of gods and goddesses, each possessing human attributes and vices. The Hebraic culture that gave us Genesis revolved around the belief in one Almighty God. The Hebrew God was above man in every way: He was omniscient and all-powerful and yet retained compassion for the humans He had created. While Noah had but one God to serve, Gilgamesh was responsible to many. It seems that many human-like gods each command less respect than one all-powerful God. This idea can be examined by looking at Ishtar's advances to Gilgamesh. This goddess desired the mortal Gilgamesh and he responds by shunning her, thereby being disobedient to his gods. Gilgamesh may be king of Uruk and two-thirds god but that does not make him an equal. "Come to me Gilgamesh, ...