Noahs Ark and Gilgamesh
Opinion Essay #1 The Epic of Gilgamesh Flood Story and the Noah’s Ark story from the Bible are similar in many ways. They are similar in the sense that they both got rid of their houses and all of their belongings. Noah received his message from God to start building the boat while Gilgamesh received his message in a dream. But in the story of Noah’s Ark, Noah was to build the boat to exact measurements which were 300 cubits for its length, 50 cubits for its width, and 30 cubits for its height. Where in the Epic of the Gilgamesh it was to be built “shall have her dimensions in proportion, Her width and length in harmony.” The story never tells how big the boat was for all living seeds. So as a reader we can picture Noah’s massive boat where we cannot do the same for Gilgamesh’s boat They were both were to build enormous boats that would be able to hold all forms of life. In the Epic of Gilgamesh Flood Story, Gilgamesh fills his boat with all forms of life along with silver and gold. Whereas Noah built the boat only to fit all animals and his family. The Epic of Gilgamesh fought through only six days and seven nights where Noah fought through forty days and forty nights. But we do know the Bible uses the number 40 as a way of saying a long period of time. Both Gilgamesh and Noah released a Raven and a Dove but Noah released 3 doves while Gilgamesh only released a swallow after the release of other two birds. The Gilgamesh Epic has close parallels with the account of Noah’s Flood. Its close similarities are due to its closeness to the real event. However, there are major differences as well. Everything in the Epic, from the polytheism to the absurd cubical ark, as well as the worldwide flood legends, show me that the Genesis account is the original, while the Gilgamesh Epic is a distortion.