Gilgamesh was written thousands of years ago, but those who have read Gilgamesh notice something extraordinarily striking about the story of Utnapishtim’s immortality: there is a nearly identical flood story written in the Bible. Many things about the flood story in the Bible seem identical to the flood in Gilgamesh, but there are still many differences. The differences are seen before, during, and after the flood, making the two stories similar, but not quite identical. The floods described in Gilgamesh and in the Bible have an obvious relationship, but each is extremely different in some ways and exactly the same in others.…
The Epic of Gilgamesh Flood Story and the Noah’s Ark story from the Bible are similar in many ways. They are similar in the sense that they both got rid of their houses and all of their belongings. Noah received his message from God to start building the boat while Gilgamesh received his message in a dream. But in the story of Noah’s Ark, Noah was to build the boat to exact measurements which were 300 cubits for its length, 50 cubits for its width, and 30 cubits for its height. Where in the Epic of the Gilgamesh it was to be built “shall have her dimensions in proportion, Her width and length in harmony.” The story never tells how big the boat was for all living seeds. So as a reader we can picture Noah’s massive boat where we cannot do the same for Gilgamesh’s boat They were both were to build enormous boats that would be able to hold all forms of life. In the Epic of Gilgamesh Flood Story, Gilgamesh fills his boat with all forms of life along with silver and gold. Whereas Noah built the boat only to fit all animals and his family. The Epic of Gilgamesh fought through only six days and seven nights where Noah fought through forty days and forty nights. But we do know the Bible uses the number 40 as a way of saying a long period of time. Both Gilgamesh and Noah released a Raven and a Dove but Noah released 3 doves while Gilgamesh only released a swallow after the release of other two birds. The Gilgamesh Epic has close parallels with the account of Noah’s Flood. Its close similarities are due to its closeness to the real event. However, there are major differences as well. Everything in the Epic, from the polytheism to the absurd cubical ark, as well as the worldwide flood legends, show me that the Genesis account is the original, while the Gilgamesh Epic is a distortion.…
Gilgamesh is told to be the oldest existing story in the history of humankind, imminently, the story has many similarities to the bible. Bible is a text oof belief based lessons and the base of the religion of Christianity which has many similarities to Gilgamesh as in they both include the tales of worldly destruction with the reasons, destroyer and the saving. All similarities aside, the two texts can be contrasted as the bible is the root of world’s biggest universalizing religion and the Gilgamesh was not extracted as a manuscript and if man made errors are factored in, it may not have been comprehended as it was supposed to be. Gilgamesh and the bible can be compared and contrasted based on the stories, lessons and the effects on the evolution…
The Book of Genesis and The Epic of Gilgamesh have many clear similarities. One major, noticeable similarity is that in both stories, there are flood legends. There is the legend of Noah and the Ark in The Book of Genesis and the story of Utnapishtim in The Epic of Gilgamesh. In both stories, a higher power wants to wipe out the human race and decides to save one person who is then assigned to build an ark to hold himself, his family, and one of each animal. There are also many specifics about this flood that the two stories have in common, not just the basis of the tale. For example, both stories tell of a long storm. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, it says: "Six days and seven nights the wind and storm" (Gilg. Tabl. XI, 127). In The Book of Genesis, it says: “rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights" (Gen. 7:12). In both cases, the story is specific about the number of days the storm lasted. Noah and Utnapishtim make sacrifices to their respective higher power-- Noah to God and Utnapishtim to Enlil. In the story of Noah and the Ark, it says that he “"offered burnt offerings on the altar" (Gen. 8:20) which is a sacrifice to God. In the story of Utnapishtim, it says that he "offered a sacrifice" (Gilg. Tabl. XI, 155) by pouring a libation to Ea, which is a form of spiritual sacrifice.…
The Book of Genesis and The Epic of Gilgamesh has many similarities and differences. The stories are so similar that some people believe they are the same but just changed over time. There are speculations that the epic of Gilgamesh was written down first but we cannot be for certain. The Jewish, Muslim, and Christian religions all use this story in their holy books. The book of genesis could have very well have been written first or it was passed orally till someone wrote it down. So one story could have branched off and changed from one another or there could have been two floods. There are multiple possibilities to the origin of the stories. When people pass down stories orally things get changed from the original over a long period of time one could have changed the whole story. You can see the similarities of the stories that would make you think they were the same. Then when you break down the differences it makes it harder to believe that.…
In a country with a strong Christian culture it is no surprise that a large number of people know the famous story of the Genesis flood but unknown to many is the striking resemblance it holds to an earlier flood story from the epic of Gilgamesh. Dissecting both stories the reader is revealed similarities but also numerous differences.…
The Odyssey is both the second story in a two-book trilogy written by Homer some time in 700B.C. and an incredible story of an epic journey filled with sorrow, temptation, and a hero journeying home. Similarly to Homer’s Odyssey, The Epic of Gilgamesh(which was written by an unknown author) is also a story involving gods, goddesses, temptation, and a journey to and from Gilgamesh’s home. These two day old stories share many similarities, such as the strings of temptation being strung in the hero’s hearts which exists in addition to their strive to be powerful, as well as their genre, they of course share several differences as well.…
Being a man of religious background, specifically Roman Catholic, I began read the tablets of Gilgamesh skeptically. However I did notice a significant difference between the Genesis chapters 6 through 9 and the Epic of Gilgamesh. The story of Noah as written in the Holy Bible, under Genesis was written as I believe within a society that carried very strong morals. A belief in something bigger than themselves; and their belief in that one thing was called God. A God that was merciful and compassionate, yet vengeful, in regards to his creation known as mankind. In regards to Noah’s story, God was to banish the word of all creatures including man for the violence state that they had become. In the essence of gender relations, it’s stated in Genesis that God saw how beautiful women were created as the daughters of men. It also mentions how God saved the life of one man and his family from a flood that was to be the end of one Generation, the original generation that got out of control in God’s eyes and the beginning of a fresh start. I also feel that the society, in which the accounts of the bible were written, was one of insecurity and redemption. Maybe the bible was like a code of conduct, with examples in which one at the time could refer too. That there were consequences, to ones actions, however through the act of redemption one could be saved, and forgiven by a merciful God. I don’t see vast examples of gender relations in this story for it speaks between man and God directly.…
In Gilgamesh and the Hebrew bible there are a lot of similar and differenced between the two stories. Within this essay, the discussion about the floods will be compared and contrasted between the two stories within the relationship between humans, Gods and the overall purpose of both floods. Within Gilgamesh and Hebrew bible water was used to destroy humankind. Utriapishtuim in Gilgamesh heard about the flood from the God Ea instead of the God who created the flood Ealil ().Unlike…
The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient piece of literature written around 1900 B.C.E in ancient Mesopotamian. It is considered to be one of the oldest written pieces of literature on earth. The Old Testament was written around 1000 B.C.E and is the foundation for two of the world’s largest religions; Christianity and Islam. Although written many years apart The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Old Testament share similarities.…
When God made human beings he did so because he was lonely, but not so long after the creation of mankind God regretted what he had made. We were terrible neighbors. So God sent a flood as a punishment for all mankind. In both Gilgamesh and Genesis God announces the flood to one ‘savior’ of mankind, but in each story he does it in a different way. In Gilgamesh God comes in a dream while in Genesis God just tells Noah face to face. Despite the channel of communication both saviors take head to God’s warning and build a boat. They each take all different types of animals with them to repopulate the earth, but when it comes to the humans they chose to take Utnapishtim and Noah chose differently. Utnapishtim chooses to take his family along with a pilot for the boat and some craftsman, people that are necessary to rebuild a civilization. On the other hand you have Noah who only takes his family. The duration that each hero would embark on is also very different. Utnapishtim’s flood lasts for six days. While Noah’s flood lasts an astounding forty days. Another thing that makes these two stories extremely different is the final destination of the boats. While they both end up in the same region, the Middle East to be exact, Mt. Ararat and Mt. Nisir were maybe 500 miles away from each other. You can’t end up in two different places in one story. Lastly, the final blessings received from God at the end of each of the two journeys were also very different. Utnapishtim was granted eternal life for his good deeds while Noah was…
The stories of the Flood from Genesis and Gilgamesh are more different than alike. First of all, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the actual flood was caused by the furious gods when they, especially Enlil, desired to exterminate all of mankind for making too much noise and causing a ruckus which prevented the gods from sleeping, even though the people were in fact blooming in success. To the contrary, God started the flood in Genesis because he believed the only way to cleanse mankind’s evil hearts and minds would be by destroying his all of his creations: “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence” (24), consequently, God only saw the wrongdoing in men. Secondly, even though both stories involve a mortal building…
In the sacred text “In The Beginning: Genesis” Moses writes about Adam, Eve, God, and the serpent. The serpent tempts Adam and Eve to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge that God told them not to eat from. In the epic poem “The Odyssey” Homer writes about Odysseus going to fight in the Trojan War and his twenty year journey to make it back home.When the characters got tempted, what they wanted looked good at the time, but when they pursued it, they turned out to have consequences.…
In both The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Genesis, a flood is sent down in order to wipe out the human population. In both, the flood has survivors who replenish the human race, but their goals are different. Although a major flood is present in Gilgamesh and The Genesis, it differs in the reasons behind it and why.…
Education at Doctor Blimber's is a very serious affair. His austere academic approach is shown quite vibrantly during Paul's first dinner in the house, when Doctor Blimber attempts to lecture the boys after they have finished eating and punishes a boy that coughs and interrupts his lecture several times with a verbal exam he schedules for the next day. Paul is assigned so many books that "although [he] put one hand under the bottom book and his other hand and his chin on the top book, and hugged them all closely, the middle book slipped out before he reached the door, and then they all tumbled down to the floor" (172). The boys spend hours upon hours studying, to such an extent that Paul imagines that "it was a wonder that the great clock in…