Most ancient civilizations have a legend that speaks of a great flood that covered the whole Earth. The civilizations include places as the Middle East, India, China, Australia, southern Asia, the islands of the Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. (“Creation/Flood”) With so many stories in so many regions of the world, is it safe to say that perhaps these legends in fact really happened?
In recent scientific investigations, it has been discovered that floodwaters from the Persian gulf may have covered southern sections of the Mesopotamian valley. There are also many details between the biblical and other Near Eastern flood stories that are in agreement, such as the ark, the raven, and the dove. However, “there are fundamental differences in approach.” (Plaut 56)
In Gilgamesh, the flood hero is elevated to immortal status and thereby is removed from human history. In the Bible, it is human sin that causes the Flood and Noah is saved so that he might begin the human voyage over again (Plaut 56).
The story of Noah and the Ark, as recounted in Genesis, is the most famous flood story in Western Society. “But the flood legend on which the story of Noah is based had its origins among the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia, in the epic Gilgamesh.” (“Creation/Flood”)
“Gilgamesh was an historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the River Euphrates in modern Iraq; he lived about 2700 B.C.” (“Gilgamesh”). Towards the end of the story, Gilgamesh discovers the secret of the flood and its survivor. (“Amorites”)
In the beginning of the story, “Gilgamesh is the epitome of a bad ruler: arrogant, oppressive, and brutal” (Mack 11). The people of Uruk complained to the Sumerian Gods whose response was to create Enkidu. Enkidu was to act as Gilgamesh’s counterpart, but although they tried to destroy each other at first their encounter resulted in a deep bond of friendship. (Mack 11)
Enkidu died after the last of his and Gilgamesh’s adventures. His death revealed to Gilgamesh the hollowness of mortal fame and led him to undertake a journey in search of immortality. His journey led him to Utnapishtim, the survivor of the great flood. This point of the epic tells the story of the Old Babylonians’ version of the Flood. (Mack 11)
In the story, Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh that the great god of the city Shurrupak was aroused by the clamour of the many people of the world. Enlil, the gods’ counselor heard the clamour and complained about it to the gods of the council. He told the gods that mankind’s uproar was intolerable and prevented him from sleeping. (Gilgamesh 37)
Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh that the God Ea warned him of the flood and told him to tear down his house of reeds and build a boat. When Utnapishtim asked Ea what he should tell the people, Ea replied that he should tell them that Enlil will rain down abundance. (Gilgamesh 37)
Utnapishtim continued to tell Gilgamesh how he built the boat, slaughtered bullocks for the people and killed sheep, gave shipwrights wine to drink, and feasted with them. The boat was built on the eleventh day. Utnapishtim loaded it with his gold, his family, his kin, the wild and tame beast of the field, and all the craftsmen. That evening, the rain began. (Gilgamesh 37)
“For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together like warring hosts. When the seventh day dawned the storm from the south subsided, the sea grew calm, the flood was stilled” (Gilgamesh 38). Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh “I looked at the face of the world and there was silence, all mankind was turned to clay. The surface of the sea stretched as flat as a roof-top; I opened a hatch and the light fell on my face” (Gilgamesh 38).
Utnapishtim said he then looked for land and for fourteen leagues distance there appeared to be a mountain, and there the boat grounded. After staying there for seven days, Utnapishtim sent a dove loose, but it returned when she found no resting place. He did the same with a raven who saw that the waters retreated and did not come back. He “heaped up wood and cane and cedar and myrtle” as an offering to the gods. Ishtar came and told the gods to gather around the sacrifice, except Enlil. (Gilgamesh 38)
When Enlil arrived he was angry to see the boat and wanted to know if any mortals survived. Ea wanted to know how Enlil could “so senselessly bring down the flood”. She told him, “It was not I that revealed the secret of the gods; the wise man learned it in a dream. Now take your counsel what shall be done with him”. (Gilgamesh 39)
Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh that Enlil entered the boat and had Utnapishtim and his wife kneel before him, touched them on their foreheads and blessed them. “Thus,” Utnapishtim said, “it was that the gods took me and placed me here to live in the distance, at the mouth of the river.” (Gilgamesh 39)
Such is the flood story of the Old Babylonians. Although tablets containing the story were found at sights throughout the Middle East and in all languages written in cuneiform characters, it banished from memory. Some portions of the story survived in subsequent traditions, but only as scattered and anonymous fragments. (Mack 10)
Fragments of the tablets were found in 1872. The flood story was on the eleventh and last tablet. The tablets created a sensation because the story was very similar to the story of Noah’s flood. (“Old Testament Discoveries”)
But there were differences between Gilgamesh and Noah’s flood. In Gilgamesh the gods created the flood because of the noise the mortals were making; in the story of Noah, known simply as The Flood, God created the flood because He could no longer tolerate humanity’s behavior, which had become hopelessly evil. The story says that God saw that the wickedness of man was great and that He was sorry He had made man on the earth. So He said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” (“Daily Bible Study”)
But there was one exception: (“Daily Bible Study”)
“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord…Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God” (“Daily Bible Study”)
Like Utnapishtim, Noah was to build a great boat, an ark, which could hold enough contents to begin life on Earth again. Because no one but Noah and his family were on the ark, it’s likely no one believed his explanations for building it and that he was subjected to ridicule from the people who saw him building it. If anyone had believed him, God would have put them on the ark as well. But only Noah is recorded as believing. (“Daily Bible Study”)
The contents of the ark included Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives. There were also seven pairs of clean creatures and two pairs of unclean creatures. “‘Clean’ and ‘unclean’ were determined according to God’s dietary laws that observant Jews and some Christian groups still observe today.” (“Daily Bible Study”)
The Lord ordered Noah to enter the ark with his family and the animals on the tenth day of the second month of the Hebrew calendar (April/May). There was heavy rain and flooding during the third month and the waters covered the earth during the fourth, fifth and sixth months. (“Daily Bible Study”)
The waters began to go down in the seventh month and on the seventeenth day the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat. The waters continued to recede during the eighth and ninth months and finally in the tenth month the mountains became visible. The waters continued to recede into the eleventh month during which time Noah sent out a dove and a raven. The raven flew back-and-forth. The dove returned after the first time Noah sent it out. The second time it returned with an olive leaf. But the third and last time Noah sent it out, it did not return. (“Daily Bible Study”)
In the twelfth month the waters continued to recede. Then on the first day of the first month the waters went down and Noah removed the ark’s cover. In the second month the earth was dry and all were out of the ark. When Noah exited the ark the Lord said to him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendents, and with every living creature that is with you.” (“Daily Bible Study”)
This is the story of Noah’s flood. There are many similarities to the flood story in Gilgamesh. Both Noah and Utnapishtim were warned that the flood would come and were told to build an ark, survived the flood by living in the ark with their families, sent out a raven and a dove to see if there was any dry land after the rains stopped, and were blessed by a god upon exiting the ark.
But whereas only the story of Gilgamesh was found, Noah’s ark has reportedly been seen. There have been two major sightings in recent history: in 1883 by the Turkish military and in 1917 by an expedition sent out by the Czar of Russia. (“The Final Countdown?”)
While investigating damage caused from a massive earthquake, the Turkish military found and entered the ark and brought back pieces of wood from it. But the find was ignored by most of the western world because of the acceptance of Darwin’s theory of Evolution. (“The Final Countdown?”)
The expedition sent out by the Russian Czar was to find and document the location of the ark. Although it was found and photographed the documentation was either destroyed or hidden when the Czar’s government was overthrown by the communists. Years later the Czar’s daughter spoke of the expedition and had a cross made from the wood of the ark. Since then, numerous sightings have been reported. (“The Final Countdown?”)
Recent attempts to locate the ark have been restricted by ethnic fighting and terrorist camps in the area. The territory is currently under control of Kurdish terrorists. (“The Final Countdown?”) Perhaps one day it will open to other explorers and the story of the flood, thought Noah’s ark, can be proved to be true to the entire world.
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Works Cited
“Amorites: 1800-1530 BC Old Babylonian Period.”
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/AMORITES.HTM (28 Feb. 2002).
“Creation/Flood Myths of the World from the Book of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes etc. of
Mythology.” http://www.cybercomm.net/~grandpa/cretion3.html (28 Feb. 2002).
“Daily Bible Study – The Flood.” http://www.execulink.com/~wblank/flood.htm
(28 Feb. 2002).
Gilgamesh. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. ed. Maynard Mack, exp. ed.
New York: Norton, 1997. 37-39
“Gilgamesh Summary.” http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/GILG.HTM (28 Feb. 2002).
Mack, Maynard, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. exp. ed.
New York: Norton, 1997
“Old Testament Discoveries.” http://bibleandscience.com/ot.htm (28 Feb. 2002).
Plaut, W. Gunther. The Torah (A Modern Commentary). New York: Union of American
Hebrew Congregation, 1987.
“The Final Countdown? The Great Flood.” http://www.ghgcorp.com/hollaway/flood.html
(28 Feb. 2002).
