Shaping Cultures In The Epic Of Gilgamesh And The Hebrew Bible

Shaping Cultures
The oldest test known to man dates to somewhere around 2600 B.C.E. and shaped the many more texts that would come after it. Throughout the three ancient texts, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Hebrew Bible and the Popol Vuh, they show the stories of ancient times. From a heroic story to the creation of the world, the three texts were used to inspire the ancient world. These three stories can be seen as very different from one another, but are also the same in many ways. The Epic of Gilgamesh was simply a heroic story about a man on a quest while the Hebrew Bible showed the creation of the world and the human race. Then the outlier of the three, the Popol Vuh, had a mix of the two with the creation of mankind and some heroic stories.

If they choose to interact with the people or not is a choice made by the gods. Within the Hebrew Bible God holds all the power over the people and all the power over the Earth. In other words he controls everything on Earth by himself. One example of this is when God specifically tells Noah that he is about to bring a flood to cover the Earth to get rid of creations except for Noah’s family and two of every animal (Alter 85). This situation shows pretty clearly how God controls all that goes on with his creations and if he wants something to change he will change it without opinions from others. This is completely different from the god within the Epic and Gilgamesh where when deciding whether to send the Bull of Heaven to kill Gilgamesh was a decision made between multiple gods arguing back and forth (Foster 49). This instance is different from the Hebrew Bible in how God was only one to make decisions as where the gods in the Epic of Gilgamesh have to argue and agree on an idea before taking action on it. They are still similar in how the decisions are eventually made, it is just how they get to the decisions that is different. The same ideas that can be seen in the Epic of Gilgamesh can also be seen in the Popol Vuh with multiple gods making the decisions. When creating mankind, “Corn was used, along with the water she rinsed her hands with, for the creation of grease; it became human fat when it

First off, the Epic of Gilgamesh is a story that shows little about how the world was created but gives a very good insight on how the gods he worshipped function in a group to make decisions. This is a lot like the Popol Vuh in terms of the gods making decisions as a group and working together. As for the Hebrew Bible God makes all the decisions without influence from any other gods. Next the creation of the world was very different between the Hebrew Bible and the Popol Vuh. In the Hebrew Bible God made mankind and the Earth in his own vision. As for the first woman, she was created by God from parts of the man. The Popol Vuh on the other hand does not show the creation of Earth but does explain how man and woman were created at the same time from resources on Earth unlike the Hebrew Bible. All three texts are very similar and different in their own ways in establishing parts of their cultures. Writing was first invented around 2600 B.C.E. and has only shaped the cultures of the world