Comparative Analysis of the Flood in Genesis and the Epic of Gilgamesh
Religious stories remain a great reckoning for many believers and provide excellent teachings for its members. For instance, the famous story of Noah and the floods in the book of Genesis in the Bible has been recounted and told to many over the years. Nevertheless, while the story of Noah’s floods is widely known to the extent of the construction of a recent “Noah’s Ark” in the Netherlands aimed at helping educate masses on Christianity, little is known about the Gilgamesh flood story written before 2000 B.C. These two stories are astonishing since they describe the same theme despite occurring in different times and places. While both floods happened in antiquity, there is no clear evidence of the events happening. The only evidence that existed is written words and drawings that represented each and every event that took place during those times. Thus, this paper identifies the differences and similarities between Noah’s Flood and the Gilgamesh flood story.
Noah’s floods describe an angry God, one who was fed up with man’s sins. From this account, God had a great reason for eliminating humanity upon the earth. He sees great evil among people on earth and that made Him furious (King James Bible, 6:5). He then promised to destroy everything on the earth’s surface except two of each kind of every animal; that is, male and female of each kind and Noah’s family. Noah had to build a big ark to accumulate all of his family and other animals that had been chosen to represent others. After Noah had finished building up the ark, God did what He had promised by making the earth rain for forty days and forty nights, which destroyed everything that was not inside the Ark (King James Bible, 8:1).
During the floods of Gilgamesh, there are several gods involved in a plan to destroy humanity and other creatures on earth. One of the gods, “god Ea”, revealed the secret of human destruction to Utnapishtim and advised him to demolish his home and build a boat for the coming flood to save living things (The Epic XI. 10-15). After the completion of the boat, Utnapishtim loaded silver and gold, the animals he had chosen, and his relatives and craftsmen who had helped him when he was building the Ark. The rain lasted for six days and six nights and destroyed everything that was not inside the Ark (The Epic X1. 25-30). Scholars curious to know about the early life of Hebrews learned the whole epic of the Gilgamesh in the mid-nineteenth century.
There are several similarities in both stories; the major one being, both parties had to build a boat or an ark to save from drowning during the floods. Both boats were large enough to accommodate every species on the earth. Noah and Utnapishtim had been given instructions on the size, shape, and volume of their respective ark and boat. Although the two boats had large capacities, they were able to float and save lives of those who were inside during the floods.
Further, both Utnapishtim and Noah show proper devotion to God and are compensated with life. After the end of the floods, they both sent out birds to find out whether the ground was dry. Utnapishtim sent out three birds; the first one being a dove which returned as there was no resting-place for the bird to settle (The Epic X1. 150-160). He then sent a swallow, which also returned after finding no perch. Lastly, he sent a raven which did not come back as it had found a resting place and food to eat. Noah did send two birds; the first one being a raven which returned as it did not find land. He then sent a dove twice and the second time it did not return upon finding land (King James Bible, 8:7-11).
In both cases, humans offered sacrifices to their respective God/gods at the end of the floods to show their gratitude (King James Bible, 8:20). They were both given signs at the end which acted as evidence that God/gods won’t destroy the earth again through floods. Noah was shown a rainbow while Utnapishtim was given a necklace in the Gilgamesh version.
One of the differences between the two stories is that during Noah’s reign, there was only one God involved while during the Utnapishtim’s reign, several gods were involved in the story. Each god in Utnapishtim’s time had been given his own responsibility to take care of, but they had to discuss the fate of living things before making any decision. In Noah’s time, God was responsible for making the final decision regarding each and every living creature. Although there were many gods during Utnapishtim’s reign, the gods decided to destroy humanity because they were making a lot of noise, which may seem as unfair; while the God of Noah chose to destroy mankind due to sins and evil deeds that he had committed (King James Bible, 6:5).
In both versions, the floods symbolize the anger created by the human beings toward God or the gods. During the Genesis time, man committed sin and refused to obey God’s ways of life. When Noah started to build the ark, people refused to join him because they did not believe that God existed. The only individuals involved in the construction of the ark was his family, and as a result, they took a long time to finish building it. During Utnapishtim’s time, the gods were angry because people were making too much noise. One of the gods decided to save mankind through Utnapishtim. The boat and the ark were strong enough to support those that were inside from being drowned by the floods (The Epic X1. 80-85).
Another major difference in both versions is the existence of non-humans. During the Gilgamesh story, there existed half-humans on earth: They were final assemblies of the Olympian gods, animals, and men that were taken from the underworld and risen. In Genesis, there are no heroes that were on earth during the time. The only people that were seen to be inhuman were the giants who were considered to interbreed between the daughters of men and God and could be described simply as men of fame in the olden days. The Giants were already extinct even before the floods had happened.
The two narrations discussed in this paper, Gilgamesh flood and Noah’s flood, have many similarities although both versions took place during different eras. Both stories have a similar storyline, and one can only find the difference between the two stories by looking at the smaller details that happened during the main events. Based on the main events given, the biblical version mainly depends on existing Sumerian sources. Genesis is viewed to be far more historical than the epic Gilgamesh because it has a repute of passing information carefully from one generation to another and, thus, sustains its consistent reporting of events. The Gilgamesh is regarded as a mythological story due to the many gods and their interrelationship and conspiracies in determining the fate of humankind.
Works Cited
The Epic of Gilgamesh. Trans. Benjamin R. Foster. Norton Anthology of World Literature. VOL. A. 3rd Eds. Martin, Puchner, et al. New York: www. Norton, 2012. 99-151. Print.
The Hebrew Bible: King James Version.
