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Noah’s Ark and the Flood

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Points of similarity between the
Babylonian and Noachian flood stories

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Comparing the stories

The Chaldean Flood Tablets from the city of Ur in what is now Southern Iraq contain a story that describes how the Babylonian god Enlil had been bothered by the incessant noise generated by humans. He convinced the other gods to completely exterminate every person on Earth as well as land animals and birds with a great flood. One of the gods, Ea, went against the decision of the rest of the gods, and told a human, Ut-Napishtim, to build an ark to save a few humans, and some animals.

Excerpt from the Epic of Gilgamesh as translated by N. K. Sandars:

“You know the city Shurrupak, it stands on the banks of the Euphrates. That city grew old and the gods that were in it were old. There was Anu, lord of the firmament {earth}, their father, and warrior Enlil their counselor, Ninurta the helper, and Ennugi, watcher over canals; and with them also was Ea. In those days the world teemed, the people multiplied, the world bellowed like a wild bull, and the great god was aroused by the clamor. Enlil heard the clamor and he said to the gods in council, ‘The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel {everyone talking at once}.’ So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind. Enlil did this, but Ea warned me in a dream. He whispered their words to my house of reeds, “Reed-house, reed-house! Wall, O wall, hearken reed-house, wall reflect; O man of Shurrupak, son of Ubara-Tutu; tear down your house and build a boat, abandon possessions and look for life, despise worldly goods and save your soul alive. Tear down your house, I say, and build a boat. These are the measurements of the barque {boat} as you shall build her: let her beam equal her length, let her deck be roofed like the vault that covers the abyss; then take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures.” 1

The flood story from “The Epic of Gilgamesh” 1,8 and the Hebrew story in Genesis are very similar with almost 20 major points in common. Their texts are obviously linked in some way. Either:

bullet Genesis was copied from an earlier Babylonian story, or
bullet The Gilgamesh myth was copied from an earlier Hebrew story in Genesis, or
bullet Both were copied from a common source that predates them both.

In both the Genesis and Gilgamesh stories:

bullet The Genesis story describes how mankind had become obnoxious to God; they were hopelessly sinful and wicked. In the Babylonian story, they were too numerous and noisy.
bullet The gods (or God)  decided to send a worldwide flood. This would have drowned all men, women, children, babies and infants, as well as eliminate all of the land animals and birds.
bullet God (or one of the gods) knew of one righteous man, Ut-Napishtim or Noah.
bullet One of the gods (or God) ordered the hero to build a multi-story wooden ark (called a chest or box in the original Hebrew).
bullet The ark would be sealed with pitch.
bullet The ark would have many internal compartments
bullet It would have a single door
bullet It would have at least one window.
bullet The ark was built and loaded with the hero, a few other humans, and samples from all species of other land animals.
bullet A great rain covered the land with water.
bullet The mountains were submerged under water.
bullet The ark landed on a mountain in the Middle East.
bullet The hero sent out birds at regular intervals to find if any dry land was in the vicinity.
bullet The first two birds returned to the ark. The third bird apparently found dry land because it did not return.
bullet The hero and his family left the ark, ritually killed an animal, offered it as a sacrifice.
bullet God (or the gods in the Epic of Gilgamesh) smelled the roasted meat of the sacrifice.
bullet The hero was blessed.
bullet The Babylonian gods seemed genuinely sorry for the genocide that they had created. The God of Noah appears to have regretted his actions as well, because he promised never to do it again.

The were a number of details in which the two stories differed:

bullet Noah received his instructions directly from Yahweh; Ut-Napishtim received them indirectly during a dream.
bullet Noah’s ark was 3 stories high and rectangular in shape. Two estimated dimensions are 547 x 91 ft. and 450 x 75 ft. The Babylonian ark was 6 stories high and square.
bullet Ut-Napishtim invited additional people on board: a pilot and some skilled workmen.
bullet Noah’s ark landed on Mt. Ararat; Ut-Napishtim’s at on Mt. Nisir; these locations are both in the Middle East, and are located few hundred miles apart.
bullet In the Bible, some of the water emerged from beneath the oceans. The rains from above lasted for 40 days and nights. A 40 day interval often symbolized a period of judgment in the Hebrew Scriptures. 2 In the Babylonian account, the water came only in the form of rain, and lasted only 6 days.
bullet Noah released a raven once and a dove twice; Ut-Napishtim released three birds: a dove, swallow and raven.

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The Babylonian tablets which contain the full story of the flood have been dated circa 650 BCE. However, portions of the story have been found on tablets from about 2000 BCE. A study of the language used in the tablets indicates that the story originated much earlier than 2000 BCE. 3Variations of the original story have been found translated into other ancient languages. 4Which Came First Noah or Ut-Napishtim?

Liberal theologians, noting the different names used to refer to God, and the different writing styles throughout the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Hebrew Scriptures), believe that Genesis was assembled over a 4 century interval, circa 950 to 540 BCE by authors from a variety of Hebrew traditions. 6 

J and P seem to have based their stories on two original stories from Mesopotamian sources, perhaps based on a massive series of floods in Ur and surrounding areas circa 2800 BCE which would be perceived by the local population as being very extensive; perhaps world wide. Alternatively, it may have been based on the catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea.

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Related essays on this web site

bullet Who wrote the 5 books of Moses?

 
bullet Who wrote the book of Genesis?

 
bullet A possible source for the flood stories

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References

  1. Susan M. Pojer, “The great flood — two different versions,” HistoryTeacher.net, at: http://www.historyteacher.net/ This is a PDF file.
  2. Numbers 14:34
  3. Alexander Heidel, “The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels”. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago IL (1949)
  4. Werner Keller, “The Bible as History”, W. Morrow, New York, NY, (1956)
  5. Schofield Reference Bible. Genesis, chapters 6 to 9
  6. C.M. Laymon, ed., “The Interpreter’s One Volume Commentary on the Bible”, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN (1991)
  7. Frank Lorey, Impact #285: The Flood of Noah and the Flood of Gilgamesh”, Institute for Creation Research, El Cajon, CA (1997) Online at: http://www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-285.htm
  8. “Myths of the flood: The flood narrative from the Gilgamesh epic,” at: http://www-relg-studies.scu.edu/netcours/rs011/restrict/
  9. Image of book cover N. K. Sandars, translator, “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” Penguin. Various editions are available from Amazon.com at prices ranging from $6.33 plus shipping to $499 for the 1972 edition! Read reviews or order the year 1960 version of this book safely from Amazon.com online book store

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