Sumerian Myth Of The Bible: A Historical Analysis

The Epic of Gilgamesh: story of the flood is a story telling of the time when the Sumerian gods flood the Earth hoping to get rid of the annoying humans. Throughout the story, Utnapishtim would be the preserver of life; by building a ship that would carry two of every animal. In Genesis 6-9, the Hebrew God chose to cleanse humanity by flooding the Earth, and in this story Noah would be instructed by the Lord to build an ark and put two of every animal with this ark. These stories of the flood have many differences, one major difference being that The Epic of Gilgamesh is a fictional story of Sumerian gods, while Genesis is a religious book with in the Bible. Although there are many differences between Genesis’ and Gilgamesh’s story of the flood, there are significantly more similarities linking the two stories.

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

The flood story that is told in The Epic of Gilgamesh has the same principle as the story of Noah told in the book of Genesis in the Bible, but there are some major differences. In the epic,

Evolutions of civilizations can occur because of differences in people’s religion, culture, or geographic setting of the settlement. The relationship between the world of the gods and that of men was perceived differently by the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Hebrew ancient civilizations. This is demonstrated by the way each group viewed the process of creation. They had different thoughts on the creation of their gods, the universe and of man. This essay will discuss the relationship between humans and their gods in three different ancient civilizations: Sumerian, Egyptian and Hebrew.

Religion was and is a major aspect of our everyday lives, but discovering its origin and meaning is a whole different concept. Many religions have similar aspects or stories due to cultural diffusion. For example, according to the Hebrew Bible, a virtuous man named Noah was instructed by God to build an ark to save him and his family from a great flood which would destroy the world. This ancient story and many other variations of it are still believed today. In the ancient Sumer religion, the epic poem titled The Epic of Gilgamesh recalls the god

I chose to do my research paper on the Sumerian Deities because Religion has always seemed to be such an interesting topic in my opinion. I find it fascinating to learn how an ancient civilization can build itself from the ground up, establish a form of writing, its own language, and also its own religion. Ancient Mesopotamia was home of some of the world’s earliest cities and the place where writing was first invented. Our knowledge of the civilization of ancient Mesopotamia is constantly expanding.

Agriculture was the basis for wealth. Religion played a central role in government and daily life. Leaders strongly identified themselves with the gods. Many societies rose and fell during the period we designate as the Ancient Near East. Stability was fleeting and this most of the objects pertained to religion and rule. The earliest of these communities were the Sumerians. The Sumerians are credited with many firsts: the wheel, the plow, casting objects in copper and bronze and cuneiform

This is true throughout the whole entire Bible stating that there is no inerrant part. In the Matthew 4:4, it says that “but he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God”. This verse allows us to see that God truly inspired every word written in the Bible. From a Christian stand point if God symbolically wrote the bible then the bible is without errors, or in other words the bible has inerrancy. There are four arguments that fight for the inerrancy of the bible using biblical support and faith based arguments. The first arguments state the bible teaches its own inerrancy, meaning that that are no errors since it comes from God. Second, the bible has divine messages that were inspired by God, written and interpreted by prophets. Third, the bible teaches it own authority, and to be able to do such a thing the book much have inerrancy. Fourth, the bible uses scripture to support its own inerrancy. I believe the strongest of these arguments are the first and third one, because each of them show that God is the source of all truth. The second argument is the weakness since its based on human’s ability to interpret God’s

  One  of  the  many  testimony  to  the  truth  of  the  Bible  is  Jericho.  Jericho  was  excavated  by  archaeologist  John  Garstang  and  Walter  Garstang  who  dated  the  destruction  of  Jericho  to  1400  BCE  based  on  the  type  of  pottery  that  was  similar  of  Cyprus  pottery,  however,  when  Kathleen  Kenyon  excavate  she  dated  the  time  of

Although, we widely attribute the ancient stories of the Sumerians to pure mythology, they went to great lengths to understand and create a way to record their history, society structure, and development; just as we do for historical events today. The most accepted view on what makes a culture civilized or having obtained civilization “is a culture which has attained a degree of complexity, usually characterized by urban life” (Guisepi). As far as the Sumerian culture is concerned, they created our foundation for what we consider today, as the standards for civilization. Even though human exploration and discoveries continue to uncover previously unknown chapters of our story here on earth, the extensive amount of archeological evidence we have for the Sumerians and time frame, allow us to accredit them for over 100 ‘firsts’ for the human civilization from their ingenuities, accomplishments, and inventions. Many of which we can still see in use, in some form, in our modern society today. According to Samuel Kramer, “For those not familiar with this remarkable, resourceful and intelligent people, who not only invented writing but also established the true mythological foundations of all main religions of the world, simply put, they taught us almost everything”.

Although, the ancient stories of the Sumerians are widely attributed to pure mythology, they went to great lengths to understand and create a way to record their history, discoveries, and development. The most accepted view on what makes a culture civilized, “is a culture which has attained a degree of complexity, usually characterized by urban life” (Guisepi). Even though human exploration continues to discover previously unknown chapters of the Sumerian story, the extensive amount of archeological evidence found and the time frame; allows us to accredit them for the foundation of what is considered today, as the standards for human civilization. Everything from their mythological creation,

As historians learn more and more about the ancient world, biblical scholars are required to look at their text and fit it into a historical framework. No longer is it a respectable practice to take what is written in the ancient script and assume that daily life functions exactly as it is spoken of in the text. Scholars are now questioning a variety of different aspects in this Jewish work. Thankfully, as the field of archaeology becomes more and more a source of information, biblical scholars can use it to place biblical history into its correct framework. Although this paper has the potential to interact with a variety of tels to demonstrate the necessity of archaeology in understanding daily life, will not. Instead, it shall focus on Tel Halif as an important excavation site, because of the window it provides to the ancient world, particularly Biblical history. This will be demonstrated by detailing the tel’s geography, periods of occupation, excavations including significant finds, and connection to the Hebrew Bible.

The Apostles wrote the Bible through divine inspiration; it is infallible. It will not contradict itself, but the writers put their own perspective, and the context matters. They add or omit certain ideas based on their audience. When Paul wrote his letters and when Matthew recorded Jesus' words they were guided by the Holy Spirit. We will look at how two passages from scripture relate to each other.

The Bible is considered to be inspired document written and it is not a conflation of variegated documents. As such, this researcher upholds the harmony and integrity of the book as a whole and holds it as an authentic word of God which means that it is also a reliable historical source.

To begin with, it is undeniably clear that Sumerian civilization is one of the greatest and earliest on earth. According to the text, it can be observed that Sumerian civilization had its rise at 3500-1750 B.C. and had a huge impact on Babylonians civilization, who thought to be the most developed in that area. However, it is clear that Sumerian civilization was well-developed in writing, religious beliefs and agriculture which was later proceeded by Babylonians.