When considering the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Biblical flood account, one often wonders which of the authors originally came up with the idea. Did Moses receive divine inspiration when writing his account, or did he simply copy from the previous Mesopotamian accounts? Some would say that obviously Moses just copied from the Mesopotamian accounts and told others he received divine inspiration. Others believe that although the Mesopotamians recorded the event first, Moses did receive divine inspiration while writing and thus his account is the true one. Considering the differences in the elements as presented in the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh, it becomes apparent that Moses would have no reason to change the particular details that he did
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First, in the Biblical account of the flood, Noah’s God tells him to make the ark in very particular dimensions: “the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits” (Gen 6:15, Recovery Version). However, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, his god simply tells him to make it in a square: “these are the measurements of the barque as you shall build her: let her beam equal her length” (108). Second, as soon as Noah finishes the boat God brings the animals to Noah and guides them into the ark. Utnapishtim’s god, on the other hand, simply tells him to gather the animals and then leaves him on his own to try his best to make sure he gets them all. Lastly, in the Bible the flood lasts for forty days and nights, with water coming from both the sky and the ground. Yet, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the flood lasts only for seven days and nights and water comes only from the …show more content…
Moses likely had no experience on boats on the open sea and would likely have had no idea what kind of shape does the best on the open sea. Thus he would probably have simply copied the square boat description in the Epic of Gilgamesh rather than adding such peculiar dimensions to his account. In the Genesis account Noah’s God cares greatly about their safety, “Jehovah shut the door behind him” (Gen. 7:16). When Moses wrote his account, why would he make his God so caring and thoughtful, when the gods in the other accounts simply did not care? Had he truly just copied from the Epic of Gilgamesh he would have imagined the same type of careless god. Finally, in Egypt it very rarely rains, and even more rare is rain that pours hard enough to flood; Moses probably had no experience with how much rain it would take to flood the earth and after having heard the previous accounts of the flood lasting seven days and nights would not have thought twice about this particular duration. It makes no sense then that he would lengthen the duration to forty days and nights as well as say that water was gushing up from the ground. This all seems to point that Moses did indeed receive divine
First, in the Biblical account of the flood, Noah’s God tells him to make the ark in very particular dimensions: “the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits” (Gen 6:15, Recovery Version). However, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, his god simply tells him to make it in a square: “these are the measurements of the barque as you shall build her: let her beam equal her length” (108). Second, as soon as Noah finishes the boat God brings the animals to Noah and guides them into the ark. Utnapishtim’s god, on the other hand, simply tells him to gather the animals and then leaves him on his own to try his best to make sure he gets them all. Lastly, in the Bible the flood lasts for forty days and nights, with water coming from both the sky and the ground. Yet, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the flood lasts only for seven days and nights and water comes only from the …show more content…
Moses likely had no experience on boats on the open sea and would likely have had no idea what kind of shape does the best on the open sea. Thus he would probably have simply copied the square boat description in the Epic of Gilgamesh rather than adding such peculiar dimensions to his account. In the Genesis account Noah’s God cares greatly about their safety, “Jehovah shut the door behind him” (Gen. 7:16). When Moses wrote his account, why would he make his God so caring and thoughtful, when the gods in the other accounts simply did not care? Had he truly just copied from the Epic of Gilgamesh he would have imagined the same type of careless god. Finally, in Egypt it very rarely rains, and even more rare is rain that pours hard enough to flood; Moses probably had no experience with how much rain it would take to flood the earth and after having heard the previous accounts of the flood lasting seven days and nights would not have thought twice about this particular duration. It makes no sense then that he would lengthen the duration to forty days and nights as well as say that water was gushing up from the ground. This all seems to point that Moses did indeed receive divine