mohammed_beiruti
Active Member
Is the biblical flood story adopted from the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh? I believe that it is and would like to put forward why I think that it is.
1. As we know, Israel in its infancy was a lesser society that those around it. Greater societies influence lesser societies. Why would a Babylonia author copy a lesser societys story?
2. Floods were a common occurrence in Mesopotamia not in Canaan where the Jewish tribes were located.
3. The ark is said to have landed on Mt Ararat which is in the far northern part of Mesopotamia (Modern eastern Turkey near the board of Iran).
4. The Gilgamesh Epic, written in Acadian, was the literary classic of its time and was translated into many different languages. A fragment was found in Megiddo (located near now present Haifa) dated to around 1400BCE (about the time of Abraham).
5. Abraham came from the northern part of Mesopotamia and might have brought the story south with his family.
6. The biblical story follows the Gilgamesh Epic almost word for word,in the details, except in the addition of morality element (why the flood to destroy mankind) and the covenant element with God (rainbow in sky). Definite Jewish theological beliefs.
7. At the end of Chapter 8 when Noah offers a sacrifice to God it tells us that God smelled the sweet savor of the sacrifice. This is the only place in the bible that has reference to God smelling a sacrifice. This is showing God as an anthropomorphic being. This is something found in polytheistic worlds when they write about their gods. This is what we find at the end of the Gilgamesh Epic. This was left in because it really doesnt violate any old Israel theology but just interesting that this is the only place we find it.
I believe It's a real story, it wan't taken from mythology.
Qura'an confirm that there were a great flood in the time of Noah(pbuh).
even excavations discovered the Ark of Noah at the mount of Judi.
It's not a fiction, it's real.