The Israelites are far from being the sole creators in telling the flood that covered the entire earth. Every culture has a version of the great flood. There are many parallels between the different stories. Each culture influenced its flood story. This paper will do a comparison of three of these stories. This paper will parallel the Gilgamesh epic, the Greek tale of the Deucalion Flood, and the Torah flood stories. First, the flood in the Torah will be used as a reference in comparing other flood stories. The basic story of the Torah flood story is Yahweh chose Noah to build a vessel to survive the flood. The flood is the plan of Yahweh to get rid of all people on earth. After the flood Noah, take part in a covenant with Yahweh that …show more content…
Yahweh discovered on the earth the evil of humans was spread throughout the world. “6And the Elohim was sorry that He had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. (The New Oxford Annotated Bible , 2010)” “4because in seven more days I’ll rain on the earth, forty days and forty nights, and I’ll wipe out all the substance that I’ve made from on the face of the earth. (Friedman, 2003) ” One will remember that according to the J source that Yahweh made it rain on the earth, the P source made it a result from a downfall of creation. “11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the foundations of the great deep were split open, and the opening of the skies was opened. (Friedman, …show more content…
The men are different in character Gilgamesh is a leader and warrior and Noah just an ordinary man. While Gilgamesh is so fierce that, the gods need to maintain control of him, whereas the Torah states that Noah is an honorable man. There is a fighting instance between Gilgamesh and a demon. In the Torah story , there are no demons. Gilgamesh has a terrible fear of being killed like many warriors, but Noah is fearless and trustworthy of Yahweh. The Gilgamesh epic main character seeks the main idea of eternal life. The central idea of the Torah story of the flood is human behavior in way that wanted by Yahweh. In the Torah, Yahweh decides to destroy people because of their improper behavior and He saves the Noah and his family for their moral behavior. In Gilgamesh, the gods condemned the people and a single God saves humanity. The two reasons to get rid of the humans are very different. In The Torah emphases on appropriate behavior and in the Gilgamesh flood centers on the noise caused by the humans. The numbers of people on the vessels are different, in the Gilgamesh there are only two people, Gilgamesh and his wife. In the Torah, Noah’s whole family is aboard the ark (a total of eight persons). The flood in Gilgamesh lasted seven days and seven nights. Noah’s flood lasts forty days and forty nights or hundred fifty days . “Noah sends a raven first, then a dove twice. The dove later became a symbol