Compare and Contrast the Flood in Gilgamesh and Genesis

Compare and Contrast the Flood in Gilgamesh and Genesis

The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Book of Genesis in the Bible both contain a story of a great flood, which was intentionally caused to destroy most of mankind, and living things. The flood in both stories symbolizes rebirth, and a new beginning. Not only a rebirth of mankind but of God, and gods. The flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh is much like the flood in The Book of Genesis. Though both stories are very similar, they also have many differences among each other.

The flood in both stories was caused from mankind becoming too violent. Genesis states, "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (KJV Genesis 6.5). In Gilgamesh the god Enlil announced to the gods in council, "The uproar is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel" (Gilgamesh part 5). The gods in both stories became furious with mankind and wanted to destroy it, but in both stories there were characters that were granted the assignment to build a large floating vessel capable of holding many living things. Noah, from Genesis, was told to build an arc out of gopher wood with size specifications of three hundred cubits in length, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and height 30 cubits. Utnapishtim, from Gilgamesh, was told by the god Ea in a dream, to build a boat. The specifications of the boat were: one hundred twenty cubits on each side of the deck, making it a square with six decks below, and seven in all. In both stories rain was the cause of the flood. When it finished raining both Noah's Ark and Utnapishtin's boat lied amongst the tops of mountains, where they watched the water recede. Noah and Utnapishtin released birds to tell if the land was dry enough for them to leave the vessel. They both released a dove and raven to tell if the land was dry. The people of both stories honored the gods by setting up a sort of respectful ritual and offering.

Though the flood in both stories is nearly identical, they differ in small details, such as the monotheistic way of the Bible versus the Polytheism of The Epic of Gilgamesh. In Genesis God states that it will rain forty days and forty nights, opposed to the six days and nights of rain in The Epic of Gilgamesh. The flood of Gilgamesh was written before 2000 B.C, while the Genesis story was written in 400 BC which was much later then the Gilgamesh flood. The Arc in Genesis landed on the mountain of Aracat, where Noah later released a raven to see if the land was dry enough, but the raven returned. Noah soon released a dove a few days later and it returned. He waited a few more days and released a dove which later brought back an olive leaf, so Noah waited another seven days to release a dove again. That Evening the dove didn't return. It says in Genesis, "And