Comparing the Epic of Gilgamesh Flood Myth and Book of Genesis Biblical

Comparing the Gilgamesh and Genesis Floods The rendition of the historic, worldwide Flood put down in Genesis of the old(a) Testament is similar to the account save on Tablet 11of the Sumero-Babylonian version of the epic of Gilgamesh, discovered in the 1800s by British archaeologists in Assyria. Let us comp atomic number 18 the two in this essay. Alexander Heidel in his book, The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels, provides a background for the survivor of the Sumero-Babylonian Flood, Utnapishtim Utnapishtim was the son of Ubara-Tutu, the Otiartes, or, rather, Opartes of Berossus. According to Berossus, the deluge hero was the one-tenth Prediluvian king in Babylonia. Also in the Sumerian inscription he is referred to as king there he occupies also a priestlike smirch, viz., that of the administrator of the temple provisions of a certain god. In the Gilgamesh epic, Utnapishtim is non invested with any royal power or entrusted with any priestly office from it we le arn simply that he was a citizen of Shurippak (Tablet XI23) and a gay of considerable wealth (XI70ff). (227) N.K. Sandars in the Introduction to his book, The Epic of Gilgamesh, sums up the battle by the pagan gods in the Sumero-Babylonian Flood narrative In the Gilgamesh bombardment Ishtar and Enlil are as usual the advocates of destruction. Ishtar speaks, perhaps in her capacity as goddess of war, but Enlil prevails with his weapon of the storm. Only Ea, in superior wisdom, either was not present, or being present was silent, and with his usual cunning saw to it that at least one of the race of men should survive. (41) Column 1 on Tablet 11 begins the Sumero-Babylonian Flood narrative (Gardner 226). The sage Utnap... ...nd his family to be productive and multiply, and fill the earth. God promises that never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. The offering of sacrifice, and its acceptance by God these are repeated in both accounts of the Flood. WORKS CITED Gardner, John and John Maier. Gilgamesh Translated from the Sin-leqi-unninni version. advanced York Alfred A. Knopf, 1984. Harris, Stephen L. Gilgamesh. The Humanist Tradition in World Literature. Ed. Stephen Harris. Columbus, OH Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co., 1970. Heidel, Alexander. The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels. Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1949. Ignatius Holy Bible. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. San Francisco Ignatius Press, 1966. Sandars. N. K. The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York Penguin Books, 1972.