Utnapsihtim vs Noah

Utnapsihtim vs Noah

English Lit.
Utnapsihtim vs Noah
In Judeo-Christian mythology, one of the best recognized stories from the Old Testament is the story of Noah and the Ark, and how they survived God’s great flood. This story is a common one throughout many mid-east cultures, both past and present. The most notable of these is in the ancient Mesopotamian mythology, with the story of Utnapishtim and his story of survival of the god’s wrath. Though both are telling what is assumed to be a tale of the same event, there are many similarities as well as differences in certain details of the story. Although some of these differing aspects are for the most part, fairly trivial, some of them are quite drastic from one version to the other.

Noah versus Gilgamesh with the discovery of texts from ancient civilizations, many people has come to believe that various texts are common to one another. Examples of these texts are the creation stories from the Hebrews found in the Bible, The Hymn of Ra from the Egyptians, and the Enuma Elish stories from the Babylonians. In addition to these stories are the flood stories. These stories have caused many discussions among scholars involved with ancient civilizations. The two main stories largely discussed are the Genesis and Gilgamesh flood stories. Although different in regards to the details, the main plot is similar between the two stories from two different civilizations. Because of this similarity, many people believe that either “Genesis was copied from an earlier Babylonian story, or the Gilgamesh myth was copied from an earlier Hebrew story, or both were copied from a common source that predates them both (Robinson).

There are many similarities between the Noah flood story and the Gilgamesh flood story. In both stories, the divine are annoyed with humanity. In Genesis, God notices that man has become sinful and wicked in their actions and their thoughts. In Gilgamesh, the divine assembly find that humankind are too numerous and noisy....

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