Comparing The Epic Of Gilgamesh And Genesis

In both Gilgamesh and Noah and the Flood, man’s wickedness leads to death, destruction, and rebirth all caused by billions of gallons of water sweeping the earth’s surface. The flood in both stories destroys most of mankind. The floods represent rebirth and a new beginning for mankind, as well as the gods and God’s wrath. In Gilgamesh the gods decide to destroy mankind by flooding the earth for six days and nights. Utnapishtim is chosen to build a boat in order to restart mankind after the flood. In the Bible God also decides to flood the earth due to the increase in wickedness. God chooses Noah to build an ark and store seven pairs of every clean animal and two of every other kind of animal on it

The tales of Gilgamesh and Noah are as memorable as they are incredible. They materialize the beliefs of two cultures telling very similar yet very different stories. Gilgamesh, a mighty warrior overwhelmed by grief of his passed friend, went an an epic adventure to find the secret of eternal life. Noah, a morally right and genuine man saved the future of the entire human race and every animal through great endurance and faith. The personality traits, reasons for journeys, and stories of origin of each myth have a plentiful amount of both commonalities and diversities.

The Epic of Gilgamesh has many similarities to the Bible, especially in Genesis and it’s not just that the both begin with the letter “g”’! One major similarity being the flood story that is told in both works. The two stories are very similar but also very different. Another being the use of serpents in both works and how they represent the same thing. A third similarity being the power of God or gods and the influence they have on the people of the stories. Within these similarities there are also differences that need to be pointed out as well.

The Hebrew Flood story of Noah and his obligation to preserve man kind after God had punished all living creatures for their inequities parallels The Epic of Gilgamesh in several ways. Even though these two compilations are passed on orally at different times in history the similarities and differences invoke deliberation when these stories are compared. Numerous underlining themes are illustrated throughout each story. Humans are guilty of transgressions and must be punished, God or Gods send a flood as punishment to destroy this evil race, a person is selected by the gods to build a craft that will withstand the flood and allow this person to create a new race. An

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the stories reminded me of the Holy Bible because many of their stories are similar. For instance, in the Holy Bible, it starts off with “In the beginning...Now, the serpent was more cunning...You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”. Which meant that there was a snake and it had tempted Eve into consuming a plant of the tree which God had specified that they should not eat to where they get banned out of the garden. As to in the Epic, it says “A snake smelled the fragrance...While going back it sloughed off its casing.”. Where the snake had stolen the plant of eternal life from Gilgamesh and consumed it. So, the comparison in between the two stories is the snake was the culprit of good will and luxury.

Multiple differences are seen in between the two stories of the flood; as stated, a major difference is that Gilgamesh is a an epic told to entertain, when Genesis is a religious text. Another difference is the length of the rains and floods. In The Epic of Gilgamesh the rains only

Gilgamesh was said to be written around 3300 to 2990 B.C., while the Bible was said to be written around the 6th century B.C. The Bible has around 40 contributors, but only one real author, which is God. According to the authors of “Who Were the Authors”, “Humanly speaking, the Bible was written by approximately 40 men of diverse backgrounds over the course of 1500 years.” God guided these men to write this piece of literature for future Christians. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew while the New Testament was originally written in Greek. No specific person has ever been named to be the author of Gilgamesh, which was written in cuneiform, as it is one of the oldest pieces of literature in the world. Pictured in Figure 1, is one of the original tablets. The Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh can be compared in many ways; however, the most common way is by the similarities and differences in the floods that occur. “This [Gilgamesh] story contains the closest parallels to the biblical account…” writes Lloyd Bailey. Both Gilgamesh and the Bible have two big floods that change humanity in more ways than one. To really understand and compare the floods in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible, both pieces of literature need to be thoroughly examined in every way that their natural disasters are similar and different: the creators and their reasons for making the floods, the hero of the flood, the period of grace, the two arks and their passengers, and the bird scene.

     The two main stories largely discussed are the Genesis and Gilgamesh flood stories. Although different in regards to the details, the main plot is similar between the two stories from two different civilizations. Because of this similarity, many

Traditional oral and written stories have been passed down throughout history since the beginning of time. Because of the spirituality of the time of the Second Millennium BCE, these narratives usually involved the presence of divinities in certain types of religion. Some chronicles even overlap or have many similarities, like we see in The Epic of Gilgamesh, a collection of Sumerian poetry, and Genesis, a book from the Hebrew Bible. Both narratives explain that the God or Gods of the people living in these separate societies were unhappy and disgusted with how the humans were acting within the natural world. This caused both sets of religious Gods to seek the wipe out of mankind over the entire world through a horrifying flood. The stories end up being similar in the cause of the flood, how the God choose one man to live through the floods, and what happened after the flood because of their shared opinions on how humans were operating within the world they

While mortal characters contain differences that deal with mortality and age, the depiction of higher power and divine characters come in very different forms, but maintain similar overall behaviors. Due to the similarities in behaviors, the major events are depicted very similar and the outcomes are almost identical. The differences in the stories arise simply because of the context in which each story is written. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in ancient Mesopotamia where religion was extremely polytheistic. The story in The Hebrew Bible is written with a monotheistic mindset. While these religions are different in terms of the number of gods, there are obvious similarities that arise between the divine figures in each story. The gods in The Epic of Gilgamesh represent different personalities and virtues, but there is

The floods in Genesis and The Epic of Gilgamesh are in no doubt different but in so many ways similar. The two men are given a task to save humankind from a flood and succeed and are rewarded. The major basic events that take place in the stories a similar however the smaller details of them and how they are carried you are different. They two also tells us a lot about the relationship between humans to Divinity.

Many cultures have stories of a great flood, and probably the best known story is of Noah's Ark. The next most notable is the Sumerian story of Ut-Napishtim found in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the ancient Babylonian depiction of the flood story, the god Enlil creates a flood to destroy a noisy mankind that is disturbing his sleep. Gilgamesh is told by another god, Ea, to build an ark (Monack 1). The Epic of Gilgamesh has broadly the same structure and plot as Noah's Ark, suggesting the possibility that the Biblical account has drawn influence from the archaeologically older Sumerian depiction. University professor Alexander Heidel concludes that these accounts are undeniably

The heroes in the two stories are heroes in different way but also similar ways. Utnapishtim from “the Epic of Gilgamesh” and Noah from “Noah and the Flood” had the same start in become a hero they both were chosen by their god to build an ark and survive the flood because they are both willing to do anything for their god. In “Noah and the flood” “Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age; Noah walked with

In the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’ and ‘The Biblical Flood Story’ have a very similar plot line, but many several key differences. In both stories a flood occurs, which were caused by the God/s( This shows that in Gilgamesh they were polytheistic while in the Biblical version they were monotheistic. ) to destroy the people of the earth. For both flood stories, a specific person is chosen to build an arc but for different reasons. In the Biblical story, Noah builds the arc due to his righteous character but in Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim built the arc to save himself. Later on in both stories birds are released making them seem very similar. In the end, the stories are separated because of the covenants

Though Gilgamesh and Genesis are completely different stories, they both contain flood narratives that have similarities and differences within each. The three comparable points in these texts deal with the gods and heroes of the stories. First the gods in these narratives all have a specific reason behind their decision to wipe out mankind. Second the unique characteristics of the heroes or survivors of the flood are shown throughout the events of the texts. Finally the gods who bring these floods upon earth all reveal their qualities through their actions against humanity. These three topics relate from one book to another in many ways.