Gilgamesh Vs. Genesis

Gilgamesh VS. Genesis

When I had first started to read the short story of Gilgamesh the flood, the context and some of the main ideas resembled the story of Noah's ark, which is a story from The Old Testament of Genesis. Not many people know about the poem Gilgamesh until they are told about it by someone or read it in school. Both Gilgamesh and Genesis had a major a plot in their stories, and which they both had dealt with worldwide floods. After comparing and contrasting the stories together, they both had a few differences but more similarities towards one other. For example the time difference in which the stories were written was a good time apart from one another. Gilgamesh was written in 2000 B.C. while Genesis was written in 400 B.C. The stories Gilgamesh and Genesis both come from different backgrounds, such as; Genesis comes almost straight from the bible while Gilgamesh has deep roots in Greek mythology. Though they both do have many similarities the differences that are told throughout the story and you can see the difference of time, being told in the bible and as in mythology text. I see it as when they had founded the story Gilgamesh they had revised it in order to fit the story in more of today's time when it was told again in Genesis.

In the epic poem of Gilgamesh he was described as a hero with great knowledge and wisdom. Gilgamesh was a ruler in which he had control of everyone which had caused many conflicts between all of his people in his city. The gods had sent him a friend in need who was called Enkidu, Enkidu was depicted as half-man/half-animal, "Enkidu, who also appears godlike, is a blend of human and wild animal" (Gilgamesh, pg.11). They both had taken plenty of adventurous together and had become the best of friends but Enkidu was eventually killed. In this time period is when the gods had decided to destroy mankind because they were making too much noise and being obnoxious to others. In the Greek mythology they did not have just one god to make a decision it was a couple of gods as together as to who made these types of decisions. It is then when he meets Ut-Napishtim, which is the righteous man who is similar to Noah in The Book of Genesis. In the story Gilgamesh, the father of the gods Enlil sends the flood to destroy the earth which was his plan by Ea. It is then when Ut-Napishtim was told from a dream by Ea about the flood and how he must help them all survive, "It was not I that revealed the secret of the gods; the wise man learned it in a dream" (Gilgamesh, pg.38). This is one of the first major differences between the stories Gilgamesh and Genesis, as you can start to see.

As for The Book of Genesis, God had chosen a different reason to destroy mankind. Humans were evil and wicked with their actions, "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" (Genesis, pg. 60). This was more of an acceptable reason to punish everyone as far as Gilgamesh's reasons. After God had made the decision a sender names Yahweh was sent to tell Noah that it was time for them to stop being evil to one another. God had chosen Noah because he had found grace in the lord and he was a source of salvation for the man in the future in hope of re-creation after the flood. At the time Noah was chosen he was six hundred years old when it was all taking place, "And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth" (Genesis, pg. 61). But because of their actions of evil Genesis and Gilgamesh would both have to suffer the consequences. This as you can see is one of the major similarities between Gilgamesh and Genesis.

Another one of the major differences between the Gilgamesh and Genesis was that the flood was almost intended to all of the same people but instead in the poem of Gilgamesh it was only intended for one city and all of mankind. The flood in The Old Testament of Genesis was sent for all of mankind worldwide because God was punishing everyone, not just a city. God sends the flood to Noah stating "And, behold, I even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall come into the ark" (Genesis, pg.60). God plans on destroying the entire earth where the gods of Gilgamesh only planned to destroy a city. Noah and Ut- Napishtim were both called upon to build either a boat or an ark that woman, men, children, babies, infants and all type animals were able to survive and live in for when the floods were to come. But a difference Gilgamesh's boat was is was to be squared shaped with six stories "the ground space was one acre, each side of the deck measured one hundred and twenty cubits, making a square" (Gilgamesh, pg. 36).