Mesopotamian Flood story (1)

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Similarities between the Flood story in Atrahasis and the Flood story in Genesis are close, and both link creation to the Flood. Some details can be supplied from the better-preserved version of the Flood story which is told by Utnapištim (alias Atrahasis) in the standard version of the Gilgameš Epic. In this version the gods decide to destroy humans with a flood. Their reason for doing so is not stated, in contrast to the Atrahasis Epic where they wish to silence noisy people, and the biblical story where God punishes mankind for being wicked or lawless. Utnapištim, a devotee of Ea (Enki in the Atrahasis Epic), is forewarned by his mentor and given detailed intructions for building a boat with which to save his life and the lives of his family and of all kinds of animals. The Flood starts after seven days, and lasts for seven days before the boat runs aground on Mount Nimush/Niṣir. Utnapištim sends out a dove which returns, followed by a swallow which also returns, and finally a raven which does not return. Having seen that the Flood has now abated, he offers a sacrifice on Mount Nimush, and the gods - who were starving because in destroying humans they had destroyed their own food supply - gather like flies around the sacrifice. Enlil is initially angry that Utnapištim has escaped, but he is rebuked by Ea, who complains that to destroy the innocent with the guilty is unjust (compare Abraham’s intercession with Yahweh in Genesis 18), and suggests a policy of sending minor calamities instead of universal floods. Utnapištim and his wife are blessed and given immortality.

This story and the Flood story (or stories) in Genesis are so similar that a connection is certain. There are minor differences which include chronological details (the biblical Flood lasts for forty days according to J source, or a year and ten days according to P), the exact measurements of the boat or ark, and the animals led into the boat, but all the main elements of the Babylonian account are present in the biblical Flood story. The word for ‘pitch’ kopher which is used in the biblical account of the ark’s construction (Genesis 6:14) does not occur elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, but its Akkadian cognate kupru is found in the Babylonian stories, and pitch occurs naturally in Mesopotamia, not in Palestine. Widespread and destructive floods were a common occurrence in the flat river plains of Mesopotamia, but not in the hills of Palestine. Following the Flood episode in the Gilgameš Epic, a snake plays a key role in depriving the hero of rejuvenation, a motif which has been compared with Genesis 3 (J source) in which a snake deprives Adam of immortality before the Flood.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Genesis 3
Genesus 6:14
Genesis 18
Gilgameš Epic (SBV) 11

Bibliography

Stephanie Dalley

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