The Biblical and Babylonian Flood Stories
By Israel Drazin - July 13, 2009

There are three different ancient Babylonian tales of a world-wide flood that have endured until today. One is a Sumerian version that survived only in fragments. Another is the rather famous Gilgamesh epic in which Utrapishtim tells his descendant Gilgamesh his adventures before, during and after the flood and how he was granted eternal life. The third is the history of Atrahasis. A study of the similarities and differences between Atrahasis and the biblical Genesis flood story help us see how the biblical and Babylonian approaches to life are radically unalike and gives us new insights into the Genesis version.

1. When was Atrahasis composed?
2. What is the story that Atrahasis tells?
3. What are the similarities between the flood stories of Atrahasis and Genesis?
4. What are the differences between the two flood versions?

The story of the flood as told in Atrahasis

Scholars date the written version of the Babylonian myth Atrahasis to about 1650 B.C.E. and suppose that it existed earlier in an oral form. It predates the biblical account by at least several centuries. The poem describes a cause for the world-wide flood and the destruction of humanity that is distinctly different than the reason that the Bible offers for the flood.

The story opens when only gods existed in the world, those of the upper and privileged class and those of a lower and subservient grade. The gods need to eat, so they dig canals, the Tigris and Euphrates, to irrigate the land for the production of food - a task that appears in other Babylonian documents as well. This work, as could be expected, is assigned by the seven higher gods to those of the lower group.

All goes well for some 3600 years, when the toiling lower gods find that the "work was heavy (and the) distress was great." They rebel, go on strike, burn their tools and surround the home of the chief god. He looks out of his window, sees the rebellion and bursts out in tears.

The privileged gods are now facing a problem: who will do the digging to produce their food? The gods gather together in a democratic counsel and work out a solution. They will relieve the lower class gods from their slave-like labor by creating humans to perform the torturous tasks.

The discussion continues and the group determines the ingredients to make humans. The mixture is clay, and the flesh and blood of the god who instituted the strike, a god who was killed by the strikers. He was a god "who has sense." His blood gives the newly formed humans rationality. As a final ingredient, one of the gods spits into the mixture.

The gods create seven males and seven females who are told to copulate and produce other humans. This instruction creates a disaster.

The humans labor without complaint for over 1200 years. However, they proliferate too much and make so a lot of noise – "the earth was roaring like a bull" - that they disturb the gods – who live a retired life - who are "deprived of sleep." The gods stumble through several attempts to solve their problem without success, and only succeed on the last try.

The first attempt to reduce the human population is by destroying many people by means of a plague. This works until Atrahasis, the king of Shuruppad, begs his god to help his people.

The name Atrahasis means "extra wise." It is similar to the name of the Greek hero Prometheus who helps mankind in their battles against the gods. The latter name means "fore thinker." Thus, despite the contemptible way that the Babylonians and Greeks conceived of humans and their relationship to the gods, they show, by using these names, that humans can succeed by using of their reasoning ability.

Atrahasis’ prayer is answered by the god Enki who suggests that the humans offer sacrifices to bribe and corrupt the god of plagues to induce him to desist. It works, the god devours the bribe and the humans resume increasing.

Another 1200 years pass, the people continue to increase, and the noise problem is as bad as before. Human speech roars again like a bull. This time the gods afflict people with a draught. Despite the passing of more than a millennium, Atrahasis is curiously still alive. He prays to Enki again and the sympathetic deity saves the people a second time by again suggesting sacrifices to the appropriate god. This is done and the draught stops.

Centuries pass and the problem resurfaces. The gods try famine next with the same result.

Then, as a final solution, the gods decide to flood the entire earth to rid themselves of the nuisance they had created. The chief god insists that all the gods swear that they would not talk to any human about the impending flood. But Enki was no dummy; he was a god after all. He keeps his oath but warns Atrahasis, who was still alive, by speaking to Atrahasis’ hut wall while the king was listening, and advises the king to build an ark.

Curiously, King Atrahasis does not share this information with anyone, but leaves town with a flimsy excuse, builds an ark in secret, loads it with his family and with every type of animal, and they are thereby saved. Atrahasis exits the ark after the flood subsides and offers a sacrifice. The hungry gods descend "like flies over the offering" to eat it.

The earth is now quite, but the gods regret their decision to destroy humanity. They remember that they had created people to feed them through sacrifices. This single sacrifice is insufficient. They miss the abundance of foods and especially the beer.

The gods then decide not to kill humans anymore. They develop a new three-pronged plan to overcome the problems of over-population and noise pollution, each prong is designed to reduce the number of children: women will be created who will be unable to bear children; demons will kill children soon after they are born; and a class of women will be created who will consider it taboo to have an offspring.

1. In both texts, humans are created from the earth and both state that humans have an additional divine element. Atrahasis mentions explicitly that this is rationality. In Genesis it is the "breath of life" and "the image of God," which Jewish tradition also understands as being a rational element. This is significant because both cultures recognized the need for humans to use their intelligence.
2. In Genesis 2:16 and Atrahasis the humans are required to work, but, as we will see, the purpose of the work is entirely different.
3. In both stories, the flood comes as a result of a problem with humans, but the problems are different.
4. In the two tales, the hero brings his family and every type of animal on board an ark to save them.
5. The two stories have the hero bring a sacrifice after the flood, but Atrahasis does so to satisfy the god’s hunger, while Noah offers a thanksgiving offering.
6. The number three occurs in both tales after the flood to address the problems of creation, but since both documents see the problem in different ways the solutions are dissimilar.

1. The bible does not portray multiple gods, nor does it picture one group of gods forcing the other to work.
2. The story of Atrahasis, as polytheism in general, is a portrayal of a passive humanity drugging along like cattle, victims to the whims of the gods and of fate, without any effective power to overcome the whims of the deities. Humans are seen as being unable to do anything on their own. They are given intelligence, but except for Atrahasis, they do not use it. The gods not humans create all the elements of civilization. There is, for the most part, a different god to do each different task that monotheistic Judaism encourages men and women to do.
3. The Bible continually describes God in favorable terms, but the portrait of the pagan gods is disparaging. They know nothing about ethics and do not teach people about its value. It is ironic that the multitude of gods who are constantly bickering and who are scheming and fighting against each other are complaining about over-population and noise. The poem seems to imply that it is acceptable if the gods fight, but not when humans do so. In Judaism, the Jew is encouraged to copy the ethical behavior of God.
4. The world according to the Bible was created perfectly – after each day of creation, the Bible emphasizes that "it was good" - and there is no need for God to work after the six days of creation, especially not digging ditches.
5. The Babylonian poem offers a reason for the creation of mankind – to do the drudgery work that the lower gods rejected. The Bible offers no theological, philosophical or practical reason for the creation of humanity. In his Guide of the Perplexed, Maimonides states that we do not know why God created the world. Interestingly, he adds that people make a mistake when they think that they are the center of the universe and the reason for creation. Humans are told to work in Genesis 2:16, but there is no suggestion that the labor is for God’s benefit.
6. Genesis states that the first humans were placed in the idyllic Garden of Eden where no work is required and their needs are attended, while Atrahasis has them placed at the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates to perform menial work.
7. Genesis states that vegetation is created on the third day, three days before humans. Thus, contrary to Atrahasis, humans are not made to supply food. Vegetation existed before them and is fertile and self sustaining. The Bible states that humans are placed in the Garden to guard it, not to make it grow. Humans, according to the Bible cause the land to become infertile, contaminated and polluted, as in the story of Cain in Genesis 4, where the land is cursed because he kills his brother. By Genesis 9, humans have so corrupted the awesomeness of nature that God floods the land.
8. The view of humanity in Atrahasis is dismal. Although built with a rational element, people are created to do menial work that the gods despise. In contrast, Genesis 9:6 speaks of the elevated nature of humanity "for man is created in God’s image."
9. The incident of the god spitting into the mixture that produced humanity shows an underlying contempt for the human race.
10. While Genesis speaks of the creation of a single pair of humans, Atrahasis contends there were seven pairs. The rabbis explained that God created a single pair to highlight the lesson that all humans are related; no one can say "I am descended from a more exalted race." Interestingly, the seven pairs parallels the number of clean animals that Noah brought into the ark.
11. The Babylonian version of the flood states that it is overpopulation and noise that prompts the gods to flood the earth. The Bible does not consider overpopulation a problem. In fact it takes the opposite approach. At the beginning of creation, in Genesis 1:28, God orders the first humans to "be fruitful and multiply." Also, the first command issued by God after the flood, in Genesis 9:1, which is repeated in 9:7, is "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."
12. The Bible, in Genesis 6:5, contends that the flood is brought because of the wickedness of the people, not overpopulation and noise. The focus is on human morality, not the comfort of the divinity.
13. God does not continually fail in his attempts to solve His problems with humanity as the gods in the myth.
14. In the Bible God consciously decides to save Noah, while in the myth the chief god tries to kill all humans and one family is saved only because of the treachery of another god.
15. Genesis reports that Noah is warned 120 years before the flood, and he is ordered to spend this century in building an ark in front of the people to warn them of the impending flood, even though they are evil doers, and to give them the opportunity to repent. In Atrahasis the hero, a king who is responsible for his people, slinks out of town and, for some undisclosed reason, fails to warn others of the flood even though in the poem they did no wrong other than to speak too loud.
16. Most Jews understand that sacrifices were not brought to bribe God from what He considered to be appropriate as the humans do in the Babylonian tale.
17. The portrayal in the poem of the gods flying "like flies over the offering" is degrading and certainly does not encourage a relationship between humans and the divine.
18. The post-flood response of the gods to resolve the problem that precipitated the flood differs radically from the behavior of God. The gods in the poem address the problem of overpopulation and noise, while the God of Genesis focuses on the evils committed by mankind.
19. Each of the three resolutions of the pagan gods are contrary to the Jewish view of the sanctity of life discussed in Genesis 9, which concludes "for man is created in God’s image." Jews are bothered by bareness, they are encouraged not to believe in the superstitious notion of evil demos destroying their children, and they do not join groups that shun pregnancy and birth.
20. The Jewish response to improper behavior is laws. In Genesis 9, three laws are mentioned. The first "be fruitful and multiply" is a strong negation of the pagan solution. The second, allowing people to eat meat, but forbidding the eating of live animals, is a basic principle of respect for all of God’s creatures. The third, capital punishment for murder, emphasizes again the importance of life. The rabbis, in the Talmuds and Midrashim, expand upon this list of three laws to a list of seven. They called them the Noahide Laws and consider them the basic principles of society. They are: the prohibition of idol worship, blasphemy, murder, sexual misconduct, theft and eating from a living animal, as well as the command to establish a legal system.

The flood stories of Genesis and Atrahasis have superficial similarities. Both tell how God/the gods are dissatisfied with humanity and decide to destroy people with a flood. Both recount how a single person is told to save himself, his family and all the animals on an ark. Other details, beside the ark and the animals are similar, such as the offering of a sacrifice after the flood. Significantly, both stress that people were created with the ability to reason – but whereas the Bible portrays people using their reason, with Abraham, for example, arguing the ethical issue of the destruction of Sodom with God, the pagan myth depicts them acting passively without thought whenever they face the will of the gods or fate.

Yet there are significant differences, such as the portrayal of the divine, the poem’s attitude toward humans, why people were created, the relationship between humans and the divine, how humans should behave, the use of sacrifices, and the reason for the flood. Probably the most significant difference is in the attitude of God/the gods toward humanity and the final solution offered by each: the gods sought to keep people at a minimum number and as quiet as possible, while God attempted to help people develop through a legal system.

• The Biblical and Greek Flood Stories, by Israel Drazin.
  A comparison of the similarities and differences between the Bibilical and Greek flood stories.
  
  
• The Biblical Flood and the Gilgamesh Myth, by Israel Drazin.
  A comparison of the similarities and differences between the Bibilical account of the Flood, and the Gilgamesh Myth.
  
  
• The Biblical and Egyptian Creation Stories, by Israel Drazin.
  A comparison of the similarities and differences between the Bibilical account of Creation and Egyption creation stories, and how an understanding of the two can improve your understanding of Judaism.
  
  
• The Biblical and Greek Creation Stories, by Israel Drazin.
  A comparison of the similarities and differences between the Bibilical account of Creation and Greek creation stories, and how an understanding of the two can improve your understanding of Judaism.