Essay Comparing The Book Of Genesis And The Epic Of Gilgamesh

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The book of Genesis and The Epic of Gilgamesh have come a long way. They were both passed down from generation to generation through oral presentation and eventually made its way onto scripts. Today, these two iconic literary pieces have spread its way into the knowledge base of many nations. As a result, when discussing ancient texts like the Epic of Gilgamesh and the book of Genesis from the bible and the term ‘heroes’ is used, most readers can name some characters, like Gilgamesh, Enkidu, Abraham, and Jacob, but what many fail to discern is the differences amongst the heroes from the two different cultures. First off, the term ‘heroes’ in this case does not refer to the common meaning of heroes. Many people today imagine when hearing the term ‘heroes,’ Superman, Ironman, Captain America, someone with superpowers that saves the day, but in this case, the term ‘heroes’ simply refers to the main characters of the stories like Gilgamesh and Abraham, whether they are good or bad. The heroes in the Book of Genesis each have very diverse background stories resulting in unique personalities, but there are some key characteristics that majority of them possess. One of the most important characteristics of these heroes was their tendency to remain righteous and be very faithful to their one and only God. It is easy to see examples of this in all of the …show more content…

Although Abraham believed, his wife Sarah doubted the Lord because she believed she was too old to conceive a child ("The Hebrew Bible" 169). This shows another key characteristic of the heroes in Genesis. All the heroes in Genesis were mere human beings and as human beings, they were not perfect. They were all flawed in one form or another. A hero from the Book of Genesis that makes a great example of this would be Jacob, one of the sons of

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