This paper examines the striking parallels between the flood narrative in the Biblical Book of Genesis and its Mesopotamian counterpart in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The author argues that the Genesis account, attributed to approximately 1400–1200 B.C.E., may derive from the earlier Gilgamesh epic, composed around 2000 B.C.E. Key similarities analyzed include the gods' displeasure with humanity, divine commands to build a vessel and preserve living creatures, specific instructions regarding the vessels' dimensions, the release of birds to test receding floodwaters, and the final blessing of each story's survivor — Noah and Utnapishtim respectively. Together, these parallels suggest a shared ancient tradition underlying both texts.
The paper demonstrates effective parallel-text comparison: rather than summarizing one work and then the other, the author pairs corresponding passages side by side. This technique makes similarities visible at the sentence level and gives the argument cumulative force as each new parallel reinforces the central claim of derivation.
The paper opens with a thesis linking the two texts chronologically, then develops five parallel points — divine motivation, the command to build, the instructions for dimensions, the release of birds, and the divine blessing — each supported by direct quotation. A brief works-cited list closes the paper. The structure is tightly focused and linear, suited to a short comparative essay at the undergraduate introductory level.
The Biblical story of the Flood as found in the Book of Genesis contains many similarities to the Mesopotamian myth known as the Epic of Gilgamesh. In fact, it appears that the Biblical account, as related by Noah around 1400–1200 B.C.E., may have been derived entirely from the Epic of Gilgamesh, written some six hundred years earlier around 2000 B.C.E., when the so-called Flood Myths had their origins.
Among the similarities between the two ancient accounts is that the gods were deeply displeased with how their creation — humankind — was behaving on Earth, and this displeasure served as the primary impetus for destroying every living thing that breathed, swam, or walked. In Genesis, chapter 6, verses 5–7, we find: "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," which induces Him to "destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth" (Holy Bible, King James Version, 12) by a great flood.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim — "the Sumerian Noah who had discovered the secret of life" (Clough, Internet) — relates to Gilgamesh the story of the Great Flood, which was brought about to destroy the city of Shurippak: "ancient, as were the gods within it, when their hearts led the great gods to produce the flood" (Kovacs, 45).
Both Utnapishtim and the Biblical Noah were spared from the great deluge, for each was ordered by the gods to build a vessel in order to survive the flood. In Genesis, chapter 6, verse 14, God tells Noah to "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shall pitch it within and without" (Holy Bible, 12). In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim is told by his gods to "Tear down (his) house, build a ship; give up possessions, seek thou life. . . aboard the ship take thou the seed of all living things" (Magill, 1081).
The demand to Utnapishtim to save "all living things" closely parallels the account in Genesis (chapter 7, verses 2–3), when Noah is ordered by God to take "every clean beast . . . the male and his female . . . (the) fowls of the air . . . to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth" (Holy Bible, 12) into the ark. The parallel between Noah's ark and Utnapishtim's vessel is one of the most discussed correspondences in comparative mythology.
Noah is instructed by God as to the precise design and manufacture of the ark: "the ark shall be three hundred cubits (in length), the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits" (Holy Bible, 12). Similarly, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim is told that his vessel must be "ten dozen cubits the height of each of her walls, ten dozen cubits each edge of the square deck" (Magill, 1082). The inclusion of specific measurements in both narratives reinforces the structural and literary kinship between the two accounts. Scholars of ancient Near Eastern literature have long noted these overlapping details as evidence of a shared oral or written tradition.
Toward the conclusion of both Flood Myths, the gods instruct their respective survivors to release a bird from their vessel in order to determine whether the land is dry and safe for habitation once the floodwaters have subsided. In the Genesis account (chapter 8, verses 7–8), Noah "sent forth a raven, which went to and fro, until the waters were abated," and then sent out "a dove . . . to see if the waters were abated" (Holy Bible, 13).
Likewise, Utnapishtim "sent forth . . . a dove (which) went forth, but came back" and then released a raven that ". . . went forth and seeing that the waters had diminished . . . (turned) not around" (Magill, 1082). The near-identical sequence of events — first a dove, then a raven, with the raven's failure to return signaling dry land — is among the most striking verbal parallels between the two texts. Utnapishtim's flood narrative is preserved in Tablet XI of the standard Babylonian version of the epic.
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