The Biblical Flood and the Gilgamesh Myth
By Israel Drazin - July 13, 2009

There are remarkable similarities between the biblical story of the flood and the more ancient version of Gilgamesh.

The Babylonian epic Gilgamesh was written on twelve tablets around 2000 B.C.E. and has survived in several versions. It predates the scriptural story. A tradition dates the revelation of the Bible to 2448 after creation, or about 1312 B.C.E. Scholars offer a date of around 1200 B.C.E. The Gilgamesh epic was discovered in 1839 among the ruins of a buried library in the excavated ancient city Nineveh. Amazingly, the author’s name is written in one of the tablets, Shin-eqi-unninni. He is the oldest known human author.

1. What is the story that Gilgamesh tells about the flood?
2. How does this Babylonian tale differ from the biblical account of the flood?
3. What are the similarities between the two versions?
4. Are they describing the same event?
5. What can we learn about the scriptural report by comparing it to Gilgamesh?

The hedonistic self-centered world-view of the Gilgamesh myth is summed up in the advice given to Gilgamesh: "Fill your belly with good things day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace, for this too is the lot of man."

The author Shin-eqi-unninni reports the adventures of the warrior king Gilgamesh of Urik, Babylon. We know that a man called Gilgamesh actually lived around 2700 B.C.E. He is said to have been the fifth king of Uruk after the founding of the city. He is described in the myth as being partly a god from his mother’s side and partly human from his father. He is a human with "all knowledge." He is considered to be the greatest king on earth and superhuman, but he is a vicious king. He forces his subjects to build a wall around his capital city. He also insists that he can enjoy sexual intercourse with all brides on their wedding nights.

The pagan gods are concerned that Gilgamesh is so powerful that they need to control his behavior, so they send him a friend Enkidu to moderate his desires and control his actions. Like Joseph in Genesis 37, Gilgamesh has two dreams that foretell the arrival of Enkidu.

Enkidu is like a wild brutish animal when he is created, but he soon looses his strength and wild behavior when he has sexual intercourse with a woman. The newly moral Enkidu hears how Gilgamesh is having sexual intercourse with all brides, thinks it is disgusting and challenges Gilgamesh to a fight. Gilgamesh wins the battle, but the two, as in many modern adventure stories, become close friends.

Although Enkidu was sent to Gilgamesh to curb his ferocious nature, Gilgamesh persuades Enkidu to accompany him in a battle against a demon. The two assault the demon by surprising him after a journey of seven days. The demon usually wears seven layers of armor, but he is only clothed with one layer when the pair sneak in to kill him, and Gilgamesh is able to kill him.

The goddess Ishtar sees Gilgamesh success and offers to become his lover. Gilgamesh, who sleeps with all newlywed women, rebuffs her because she had many human lovers before him. Ishtar is outraged and vows vengeance. The other gods join with her and decide to punish Gilgamesh by killing his friend Enkidu.

Enkidu suffers for twelve days and dies. Gilgamesh falls apart. He stops bathing and caring for himself. He becomes obsessed with the fear of his own death. He decides that his best solution is to seek help from his ancestor Utnapishtim, who had also been a king, who was the survivor of the world-wide flood and who was granted eternal life by the gods. Gilgamesh travels twelve leagues until he enters a brilliant garden of gems, where every tree bears precious stones.

It is only in the eleventh of the twelve tablets that Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh about the flood. (The twelfth tablet narrates Gilgamesh’s rule of the "nether world" after his death.)

Utnapishtim tells his descendant that the gods created humans but soon felt they had made a mistake. Humans become so numerous that the gods are unable to stand the noise. They meet in counsel and decide to rid the world of the clattering humans by washing them away with a flood. The chief god insists that the other gods swear that they will not reveal the holocaust to humans. Ea, one of the gods who was previously involved in creating the humans, warns Utnapishtim, a king, by not talking to him directly, as required by his oath, but by talking to Utnapishtim’s wall while Utnapishtim was in the room. He advises him to build a great square boat and bring all living things into it. Utnapishtim loads the boat with gold and silver, his wife, and all animals.

The flood lasts for seven days and seven nights until the boat comes to rest on a mountain top, where it remains for another seven days. Utnapishtim releases a dove to discover whether the water waned, but the dove returns, indicating that the land is still flooded. He then sends a swallow with the same result. Finally, he dispatches a raven, which does not return. Thus, the raven shows that the water receded.

As soon as Utnapishtim exits the boat, he offers a sheep as a sacrifice to the gods and a libation (meat and wine). The gods like the sacrifices so much that they feel sorry that they killed the humans. As an act of contrition, they give Utnapishtim and his wife a gift of immortal life.

Utnapishtim tells his descendant that he could achieve eternal life if he would stay awake for seven nights. Gilgamesh tries to do it but falls asleep on the first night. Utnapishtim’s wife feels sorry for him and persuades her husband to tell him about a plant that, while not giving eternal life, can make a person who eats it young again. Gilgamesh obtains the plant but, when he leaves it unguarded, a serpent eats it. This is why snakes shed their skin and become young again.

1. Gilgamesh is described as being partly divine and Scripture portrays humans as having the tzelem Elohim, the "image of God."
2. Both stories picture humans as knowledgeable beings.
3. The number seven occurs frequently in the Gilgamesh story and in the Bible (seven days is the Sabbath, seven weeks is Shavuot, seven months is Rosh Hashanah, etc.)
4. The number twelve occurs frequently in both the myth and the Bible where many biblical figures have twelve sons.
5. A splendid garden appears in both stories. The gardens contain something that could grant eternal life.
6. In both tales, the protagonists are unable to obtain eternal life.
7. Both heroes are saved from the flood in a boat/ark.
8. Both the ark and the boat finally came to rest on a mountain top.
9. Both tales relate that the boat occupant sends out birds on three occasions to discover whether the land is still flooded.
10. Noah and Utnapishtim offer a sacrifice when they descend from their ark/boat, although Noah "took from every clean cattle and every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar (that he built)," while Utnapishtim offers a sheep and a libation.

1. As in most pagan myths, the gods behave in unethical ways and leave humans no real freedom to act: the humans are subject to the will and whims of the gods. In the Bible, people are given the power to make decisions and are encouraged to use that power properly.
2. Gilgamesh is the leader of his people and a warrior. Noah was neither.
3. While Gilgamesh is so barbaric that he needs to be controlled by the gods, the Bible states that Noah is righteous.
4. Gilgamesh is continually fighting even after the arrival of Enkidu, who was created to moderate his behavior. This reflects the Babylonian martial thinking. Noah, in contrast, is appalled when he is mistreated by his son after the flood.
5. One of Gilgamesh’s battles is against a demon. There is no mention of demons in the Bible.
6. Gilgamesh falls apart when Enkidu dies and stops caring for himself. When Aaron’s sons die, he is silent.
7. The philosophy of life recounted in the myth is the pursuit of pleasure, while proper ethical conduct is the way of life in the Bible.
8. When the gods decide to punish Gilgamesh, they do so by killing his innocent friend Enkidu. This concept of punishing a person for another’s misdeed is alien to Judaism.
9. Gilgamesh is fearful of dying, but Noah expresses no fear.
10. The principle theme of the Gilgamesh epic is the hero’s attempt to find eternal life. Proper behavior is the core of the biblical story of the flood.
11. Both the Bible and the Babylonian tale tell about a plant/tree that gives life and a serpent that interferes with the future life of humanity, but the biblical account is not connected with the flood but with the account of the Garden of Eden.
12. The trees in the Gilgamesh garden bear precious gems, while the biblical trees yield food.
13. The principle theme of the garden in Gilgamesh is eternal life. While the Garden of Eden contains a tree of life, it plays no central role in its plot.
14. Adam and Eve are stopped by God from eating of the tree of life. They are expelled from the Garden before they can eat from it. Gilgamesh is given the opportunity to have eternal life but is unable to perform the act that would bring him success.
15. In the Bible, God decides to destroy people and He saves Noah and his family. In Gilgamesh, the gods decide to destroy people and a single god goes against the decree and saves humanity.
16. In Scripture, Noah and his family are saved because they act justly. In the myth, the gods decide to wipe out humanity because of the noise they produce. The first focuses on proper behavior; the second on the gods’ pleasure.
17. Noah does not try to save gold and silver on his ark.
18. Noah’s ark is not square.
19. Noah takes his entire family with him, while Utnapishtim only brings his wife.
20. The flood in Gilgamesh lasted seven days and seven nights. Noah’s flood lasts forty days and forty nights.
21. Noah sends a raven first, then a dove twice. The dove later became a symbol of peace. Utnapishtim releases a dove, which found no place to land, then a swallow with the same result, then a raven which did not return showing that it had a place to land and food to eat. The raven is a symbol of violence.
22. Noah does not offer wine as a sacrifice, but drinks it himself.

There are many similarities between the Gilgamesh myth and the Bible. The stories of the flood in both accounts are very close. This leads one to think that the idea of a flood and many of its details were well-known in ancient times. When one realizes that the Gilgamesh account is only one of many non-biblical reports of the flood and they all have similar details, this conclusion is fortified.

The account of the flood is only in one of the twelve tablets of Gilgamesh that contain this story. There are many other similarities in the other tablets to other details in other parts of the Bible.

Yet there are many differences. These differences are the result of the different world view of the Gilgamesh author and the Bible. The two have a totally dissimilar idea of how God/gods function, how the divine feels about people and deals with them. The two also have a different view of humanity, how people should behave and how they should relate to the divine.

• The Biblical and Babylonian Flood Stories, by Israel Drazin.
  A comparison of the similarities and differences between the Bibilical and Babylonian flood stories.
  
  
• 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 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.