Gilgamesh
There are multiple similarities and differences in the stories The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by N.K. Sandars, and the Book of Genesis from The Bible. The way one responds to a difficult situation provides an insight into that person's beliefs. Noah, from Genesis 6-9, and Utnapishtim, from The Epic of Gilgamesh, encounter similar challenges, but do not respond exactly in the same manner. The first similarity is Noah and Utnapishtim must deal with the powerlessness of life's eventual demise. Noah faces death of all mankind except his family and a pair of every creature on earth, which accompany him into the ark. God instructs Noah to build an ark, and he does this unquestioningly and obediently. "Noah did everything just as God commanded him"(NIV Genesis 6:22). Even when God tells Noah that He "will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature" he has made, "... Noah did all that the Lord commanded him"(NIV Genesis 7:5). As for Utnapishtim, he was summoned by one of the gods, Ea, the god of water and of wisdom, to create an ark to survive the wrath of the gods. Utnapishtim obeyed, "When I understood I said to my lord, 'Behold what you have commanded I will honour and perform..." (Gilgamesh 41). Both characters de
Utnapishtim sends first a dove, then a swallow, and then a raven, which ". "And God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth" (NIV Genesis 9:12-13). Following the end of the rain, both Noah and Utnapishtim send out birds as a test of the recession of the waters so that they can safely exit onto the land. This can account for the similarities in both "stories. Both Noah and Utnapishtim, immediately upon leaving their boats, make a sacrifice. While it is true that both Utnapishtim and Noah built their arks in preparation of the promised rain and flooding, each built it for different reasons. Noah, on the other hand, builds his ark out of obedience to God, realizing that He is all-powerful. When God tells Noah to come out of the ark, "Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it" (NIV Genesis 8:20). Utnapishtim, responding to a warning from a dream that Ea shared with him, followed Ea's secret whisperings, "Tear down your house and build a boat, abandon possessions and look for life, despise worldly goods and save your soul alive. back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth" (NIV Genesis 8:7). He then sends a dove that returns to the ark having found no resting place. Both the Bible and The Epic of Gilgamesh were oral traditions before they were written, some of the "authors" may have crossed paths.
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Acceptance Essays
