Gilgamesh Flood Vs Genesis Flood

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Gilgamesh Flood vs. Genesis Flood Flood stories are spread all throughout history between hundreds of cultures and religions. Two of the most popular flood stories come from the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of Genesis in the Holy Bible. Each flood story has similarities and differences between them, but the main three are between the righteous men chosen to lead their people, the ships they were instructed to build, and the divinities they worshipped. Unique to each flood was a specific man chosen by a divine being to survive the flood. In Genesis, Yahweh chose a man known as Noah. Noah was a righteous man chosen for his strong faith. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Ea chose a man by the name of Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim was chosen by Ea because of an oath to secretly survive the flood. Ea went behind the assembly of gods’ decision to exterminate all of mankind and warned Utnapishtim in a dream. Both men were instructed to build a large ship to survive the oncoming flood. Noah and Utnapishtim both did exactly as they were told without hesitation. The assembly of gods gave the people in Gilgamesh a sign of the oncoming flood by an extremely bright light sent by the Annanuki’s torches. Yahweh gave no sign of the flood to the people of Genesis. The duration of each flood differs greatly. The flood of Genesis started with rain for 40 days and nights, while the flood of Gilgamesh only rained for seven days and nights. The land remained covered in water during the Genesis flood for a year, but the Gilgamesh flood only lasted for three weeks. Each flood story had a man chosen by a great divinity to construct a ship large enough to survive the coming flood. Both ships vary in size as well as shape. Even though the ships differ in size and shape they are both designed to carry the same type of cargo. Noah’s ship was designed by Yahweh to be the perfect ship with three decks.
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