Gilgamesh Flood Vs Biblical Flood

The Epic of Gilgamesh flood story and the flood story found in Genesis certainly have some similarities between them, have some major differences. The Epic of Gilgamesh flood story is thought to have been written before the flood story in Genesis, so is the biblical flood story a transformed story of the Gilgamesh epic or a different story altogether for the same flood? When looking at the stories there are definitely some similarities. Noah, the main character in the Biblical story, and Utnapishtim, the main character in the Epic of Gilgamesh flood story, were both told by a god to build a ship because of a coming flood that would cover the face of the Earth. They both brought family, animals, and food onto the ship, they both sent out birds

after the flood to find dry land, both of the ships landed on a mountain top when they flood had subsided, and they both made a sacrifice to their God/gods after the flood. However, even within the similarities there are differences.
The Epic of Gilgamesh flood story is a story that begins with multiple god’s who come up with a plan to destroy the world by a flood because they are annoyed by the noise being made by the humans. One of the gods, Ea, warns a man named Utnapishtim that a flood is coming and tells him that he should build a boat and take with him a seed of all living things upon it. The boat was to be square, it’s dimensions equal to one another. The story doesn’t say why Utnapishtim was chosen to be saved. The Genesis flood story begins with God
It’s easy to see that these stories have many similarities at first glance, but when you really look at them, even the similarities are different. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a polytheistic story, Genesis has only one God over all. The gods of the Epic of Gilgamesh were causing a flood because they were annoyed with the humans, the God of Genesis caused a flood because, “the wickedness of man was great in the earth,” and it grieved God to his heart. Both stories involved the building of a boat; however, the boat of both the stories was to be built differently. Utnapishtim was told to build his boat square, Noah was told to build his rectangular. A square boat would be easily flipped on a sea with raging winds that were described in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but Noah’s rectangular boat makes more sense and would be more sturdy in the sea. Even though the Epic of Gilgamesh was written first, it does not necessarily mean that Genesis is a rendition of it. It is more likely that they are two different flood stories passed down and the Epic of Gilgamesh was just written first. Many of the similarities between the two stories would be expected of any flood story. There were no planes at the time so of course they would be told to build a boat. Since humans, animals, and plants are clearly still alive, there had to be people and animals who were chosen build the boat and be saved. Some unique commonalities between the two storied is the sending out of birds to check for land and that both boats landed on a mountain. However, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim sent out a dove, then a swallow, and then a raven. In Genesis, Noah sent out a dove all three times. There wouldn’t be any significance in changing the bird types between stories, so if Genesis was a rendition of the Epic of Gilgamesh it would’ve been more likely that this detail would have remained the same. In the same way, it is unknown why the mountain the boat landed on would have changed.