The Flood: Gilgamesh and the Hebrew Bible

Comparing the two floods in “The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Hebrew Bible,” there are lots of similarities as well as differences that make the two accounts unique. Among the similarities is that the extent of the floods was global in both accounts. Regarding the cause of the floods, they both have a common cause, and that is the wickedness of man that resulted in the anger of the gods to punish the human race for being disobedient. The gods’ wrath was intended to fall to all mankind, and nobody was to be spared apart from those who joined the arch. In both accounts, the massager sent by the gods was righteous- from the bible Noah and from Gilgamesh, it was Utnapishtim. The message sent to the righteous was that they had to build a boat which had many compartments in it with only one door and at least one window. Another similarity in the boat was that it was to be coated with a pitch, and the human passengers on board were only family members; all other kinds of animals were allowed to enter the boat. In both, the landing spot was to be on mountains (Mt Ararat for Noah and Mt Nasir for Utnapishtim). In the end, both sacrificed after blood and were all blessed.

The main differences in the two accounts are in the means of the announcement in that for Noah, and the message was direct from God while in Utnapishtim, the message was passed in a dream. The other difference is that Noah did not complain after he received the message while Utnapishtim did complain. Another difference was in the height and shape of the boat with Utnapishtim’s boat having seven stories and cubed while Noah’s was oblong-shaped and three-storied. Noah’s flood duration was longer ranging up to 40 days and nights while Utnapishtim’s was short ranging to 6 days and night.

Based on my opinion, I can conclude that the two stories were real, taking into consideration that the two cultures had no prior contact with each other and thus there is no way that they could have shared a common story. With this idea in mind, I also tend to think that there were other similar stories from other cultures that have never been captured, and therefore, it is not just a common idea that cultures used as a storytelling device since the occasions are different.