Flood Stories; Two Stories with Numerous Differences
Passed down from generation to generation, stories often retain some of the same information, but they often evolve as sharing continues. This process often results in two stories with varying degrees of similarities and differences. The story of Noah’s Ark, from the Bible’s Genesis includes a popular flood story. “The Story of the Flood” from the Epic of Gilgamesh tells a similar story based on a fictional account created by Sumerians living in Mesopotamia during ancient times. Despite some similarities between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible’s flood stories, the differences prove that neither work influenced the other.
The main difference that can be picked out is the spiritual deities involved in each story. For example, the Bible is the text of some monotheistic religions; only one God exists. In the Bible, the only God is Yahweh who decides to punish the world for its evil with a flood. God was not a deity which means that he is uninterested in the fate of mankind (“The Story of the Flood” 46). God then chooses Noah to be the one who builds an ark to save the animals and his family so they can procreate and renew the earth with humans. On the other hand, the Epic of Gilgamesh is based on the polytheism of the Sumerians; numerous gods contribute to the plot of the story. The one god who orders the flood is Enlil, a chief deity. Enlil shows that he is self-centered when he orders a flood to vanquish the human race due to their noise. The other gods agreed with his plans, however, their perspectives changed when Enlil flooded the earth. Throughout history one of main differences in religions is the polytheism and monotheism, but this one thing contributes to how the flood stories are not based off one another.
Even though these two flood stories are nearly identical, they distinctly differ. In the Bible, God chooses to save Noah due to his grace and obedience. In Genesis 6-9 it states, “Make thee an ark of gopher wood” (47). God went to Noah and told him to build and ark using specific details of what to make it out of and what the size was supposed to be in order to survive the great flood. While in the Epic of Gilgamesh, nobody was initially chosen to be saved. The god Ea chose Utnapishtim to survive the flood out of great luck because of an oath she had made. Utnapishtim chose to build a boat because of Ea telling him to in a dream. In the dream Ea spoke to Utnapishtim telling him what the boat should somewhat come out to be. These may be small details but sometimes even the smallest details show no relation.
Although both were great floods, the durations of the floods show a huge difference in the stories. In Genesis God states