Great Flood

The Flood, by Michaelangelo, detail from the Sistine Chapel, 1509.

The Great Flood, or Deluge, is the event recorded in Genesis, chapters 6 through 9; this event, as indicated by the stories which have survived in many cultures and traditions, was the last great event shared by mankind.

Biblical flood story

Genesis describes the condition of mankind in the years following the expulstion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden:

• 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. (Gen. 6:5)

God had repented of His creation, and decided to destroy it; only Noah was righteous before Him, and God decided Noah and his family was to be spared the destruction of the world by a flood. Noah was told to build an ark, place onboard pairs of animals, and ride out the waters.

Babylonian flood story

Excavations in the ancient city of Ninevah in 1853 unearthed 12 clay tablets detailing the story of a mythical king of Uruk named Gilgamesh, and written between 2750-2500 B.C. [1] Tablet 11 of this Epic of Gilgamesh had the hero learn the secret of immortality by going to the island of Utnapishtim, where he discovers that Utnapishtim is also the builder of the ark which carried man and animals on the seas of the flood.

Six days and seven nights came the wind and flood,the storm flattening the land.When the seventh day arrived, the storm was pounding,the flood was a war--struggling with itself like a woman writhing (in labor).The sea calmed, fell still, the whirlwind (and) flood stopped up.I looked around all day long--quiet had set in and all the human beings had turned to clay! [2]

The tablet has remarkable similarites to the Biblical account, such as the collection of animals; the violence of the Flood; the landing on a mountain (Mt Nimush); and the sending forth of a dove. However, differences abound: the ark is cube-shaped; such a vessel actually being built would have been tossed and spun around severely in the waves. Utnapishtim refers to the gods being frightened by the Flood, and retreated, ascending to the heaven of Anu. The gods were cowering like dogs, crouching by the outer wall; a sacrifice by Utnapishtim after he left the ark collected the gods like flies over a (sheep) sacrifice [3].

References

• Holy Bible, King James Version, as published by Kirkbride Bible Co. Indianapolis, IN (1982)
• Unger, Merril F. Unger's Bible Dictionary, Moody Press, Chicago, IL (1966)

External Links

• http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab11.htm Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet 11 (Flood Story)