The Not-So Unique Flood (Gen. 6-9)

While the flood/Noah’s Ark figure prominently in Jewish and Christian tradition, no modern scholars today believe that the story was original to the ancient Hebrews. In fact, most everyone recognizes that in fact the story of the flood originates from Mesopotamia.

There are many different version of this flood story, but one in particular should raise eyebrows: from The Epic of Gilgamesh comes the story of Utnapishtim. The god Ea, like YHWH, instructed Utnapishtim to build a huge vessel to save himself, his family, his friends and (yes) the animals of the world, because Ea was going to send a huge flood to cover the earth. The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the earliest known pieces of literature in the world, with its stories significantly pre-dates any copy of the Pentateuch–some parts even stretch back to 2000 years before Christ.

This entry was posted in HB Short and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.