Gilgamesh and Genesis
Though created approximately 650 years apart, The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis actually have some similarities and differences. The Old Babylon Epic of Gilgamesh was written around 1200 B.C.E where Genesis was written in 950 B.C.E. These two particular stories are vital to literature and I am glad we compared them.
The first difference between the two stories is that Gilgamesh builds the country of Uruk himself, where in Genesis Adam and Eve’s surroundings in the very beginning are already provided. Gilgamesh’s gods granted him the knowledge to do this. “He carved on a stone stela all of his toils, and built the wall of Uruk-Haven, the wall of the sacred Eanna Temple, the holy sanctuary.” (A91) In Genesis, God creates life for Adam and Eve. This difference also leads to the amount of knowledge the deities in each story allow. In Genesis, God puts a limit on how much knowledge the people can have. God tells Noah he can only bring his family to join the Ark so that God can provide. In Gilgamesh, Utanapishtim brings his family, but also the craftsmen to create a new foundation. Also, Genesis says, “And the Lord said, As one people with one language for all, if this is what they have begun to do, nothing they plot will elude them.” (A60) This shows that God wanted to remind the people that He is Creator and He has the power.
Although having different meanings, in each flood story a plant portrays a small, but important part. “Urshanabi, this plant is a plant against decay by which a man can attain his survival.” (A129) In Genesis, “And the dove came back to him at eventide and, look, a plucked olive leaf was in his bill, and Noah knew that the waters had abated from the earth.” (A58)
Another similarity is that both gods’ were angry with their people and created floods that wiped out the world besides the particular people chosen to survive. Genesis says, “And God saw the earth, and look, it was corrupt, for all flesh has corrupted its ways on the earth. And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with outrage by them, and I am now about to destroy them, with the earth.” (A56) Both Noah and his family and Utanapishtim and his family, were left with a new world to create and start all over.
