Comparison of Gilgamesh flood with Noah flood

All throughout history in every culture on the planet there seems to be an ancient story that describes a flood. Some of them go into detail about how big the flood was, others go into detail about how long it lasted or how the flood was brought on by the gods. The two most prominent stories concerning floods are from the book of Genesis, in the Bible, and the flood from the Epic of Gilgamesh. These two stories share many similarities, but they also have a few contradictory ideas.
            One of the first noticeable similarities about each flood is they both were brought on from a deity from each culture. The Genesis story has YHWH, the unpronounceable name of the ancient Hebrew God, gave the message to Noah that he intends to wipe out mankind due to all flesh being corrupted. Noah had found favor in the eyes of YHWH because he was still pure in his generation. YHWH gives him 120 years to build his ark and collect every kind of animal on the planet.  

            The Epic of Gilgamesh has the god Enlil send a flood to wipe out all mankind due to the constant noise of the humans. Enlil claimed sleep was no longer possible, and the gods all agreed to exterminate mankind. The god Ea warned Utnapishtim in a dream about the flood. It took Utnapishtim seven days to build his boat and collect all the beasts of the field wild and tame. He also brought other men aboard including craftsmen and living things, family, kin, and all the gold that he had.

            Both Genesis and Gilgamesh stories contained specific measurements required for their respective boats. Noah’s ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet tall. His ark had three levels with the door on the side and an 18 inch gap below the roof all the way around the ark. Utnapishtim’s boat was to have the beam equal the length, roofed like the vault that covers the abyss. He was to use the wood from his home to construct his boat. This boat would have been much smaller that the ark built by Noah. Utnapishtim’s boat only took six days to build, whereas Noah’s ark took 120 years.

            Another connection between the two stories deals with the tree of life and plant that grows under the water that restores the lost youth to a man. Both of these stories could be referring to the same tree. At the end of the Garden of Eden story, YHWH says no man will ever set foot in this garden again, and it is guarded by an angel. Gilgamesh is able to get to it by swimming to it. This could make sense that it was the same considering there was a major flood in both stories that are both near the same geographic area. The Epic states the city of Shurrupak stands of the banks of the Euphrates. Genesis says the Garden of Eden has a river that flows through it, with the fourth branch of this river named the Euphrates. Due to the general area and the magnitude of the flood, the tree of life could be submerged under water, and that is why Gilgamesh had to dive to find the plant that grants life.

Both stories speak of what could be considered “gods.” The Genesis account claims “there were giants in the world in those days”. These giants were the offspring of the “Sons of God” mating with human women. These “Sons of God” would have been viewed as gods, based on the rest of the biblical accounts of angels being worshiped by people. The book of Revelations chapter 22 verse nine speaks about an angel talking to man that has bowed down to worship him. The angel says. ““No, don’t worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brother’s the prophets, as well as all who obey what is written in this book.” There are several other instances in the Bible that depict man worshiping an angel and the angel rebuking him for it.

The Epic of Gilgamesh has many gods, and all but one become saddened that they destroyed all mankind. Enlil is the only one of the gods that does not seem troubled. The story claims that even the gods fled the planet due to fear of the wrath being brought on by the flood. They fled to the highest heaven, which was the firmament of Anu. Biblically speaking, the highest heaven is the heaven that houses YHWH and his throne. Anu is called the father of the gods in the epic.  That being said, the gods went back to the home of the father god. After the flood, Enlil was not allowed to be present during the burning of the sacrifice to the gods because he was the main god that wanted to kill all human kind. Utnapishtim was granted immortality because he was chosen by Ea to keep mankind alive.

            Noah’s story, however, does not have a regretful god. YHWH did not want to keep man alive due to their sin and corruption (I believe it is a genetic corruption). Based on the meanings of the ancient Hebrew language and the word usage on the oldest known documents, the word Tamin, is used for perfect in his generation. This word can also be translated as without defect. Because there were the “Sons of God” in the land in those days that were interbreeding with humans, this could be a reason that “all flesh” had become corrupt. YHWH found Noah and kept him alive in order to preserve the bloodline of Adam. Genesis does not speak about any gods leaving the planet out of fear. Once this flood is over YHWH does not grant Noah immortality. Noah goes on to live 300 more years before he dies.  

With all the similarities between both these stories, it is hard to dispute that they are not one and the same. Because both come from different cultures it is only reasonable that there would be some differences due to the nature of orally passing the story down from generation to generation. With these two stories both possibly referring to the same flood, how many other ancient culture flood stories could be also referring to this flood?