“All the flood
accounts feature sacrifices upon leaving the ark. Noah offered one of every
clean animal and bird which was a soothing aroma to God. In the oldest flood
Sumerian Eridu flood story, Zi-ud-sura "the king sacrificed oxen and
offered innumerable sheep." So both Genesis and the oldest Sumerian story
agree that a large number of animals were sacrificed”.
1. Many flood stories, like
Atra-hasis (1635 BC), record how men seeking relief of their burdened of hard
labour before the flood because the gods had "cursed the ground".
This agrees with Genesis and the meaning of Noah's name: "Now he called
his name Noah, saying, "This one will give us rest from our work and from
the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has
cursed."" (Genesis 5:29) In Chinese, the name Noah means: "man
through whom the weed curse is removed".
2. Noah and two his
counterparts in Gilgamesh (Ut-napištim) and the Sumerian Eridu (Zi-ud-sura,
king and the Gudug priest) were all in close spiritual union with their God.
Noah was seen as the righteous one who walked with God and Utnapishtim is seen
as equally pious in obedience to his gods. The oldest version in the world
(Sumerian) has Zi-ud-sura as, "king and the Gudug priest. All three were
rewarded by after they sacrificed upon leaving the ark.
3. Both Noah and Atra-Hasis
were given explicit dimensions of the ark. The Sumerian tablet is damaged.
4. God gave mankind a 120 year
period of grace through the preaching of Noah whereas such grace was completely
absent from the Gilgamesh account where the impending destruction was a secret
the gods wanted to keep even from Utnapishtim. However in the Atrahasis story,
the god Enlil sent many plagues hoping to quiet the human noise that kept him
awake. However Enlil's grace may have been more direct actions to reduce the
population and therefore the noise, rather than a genuine period of grace like
Noah and Moses offered in an effort to get moral repentance.
5. Both boats were coated
inside and out with bitumen.
6. Only 8 persons were aboard
Noah's ark Likewise in Gilgamesh, a small number of Ut-napištim's friends and
family were saved.
7. Noah took 7 pairs of clean
animals and 1 pair of all the rest, including birds, reptiles etc. with
herbivores. In Atra-hasis and Gilgamesh loaded animals into the boat but there
is no differentiation between clean and unclean animals.
8. Noah didn't have to go
looking for the animals that went into the ark. God brought the animals to
Noah, but we are not told how. In Atra-Hasis "Enki", the god of water
(later Greek: Neptune) attracted the animals to the ark with rain.
9. All four flood stories
speak of a global flood that rose above the mountains and that killed
everything on earth. The oldest story, (Sumerian Eridu) is damaged but the
indication is clear there was a global flood. The Bible says that the waters
rose 15 cubits (22 feet) above the highest mountain.
10. Noah released four birds,
seven days apart. First a raven that did not return, then two dove's that
returned followed by a dove that did not return. In Gilgamesh also released
three birds a dove, sparrow and raven. In the Berossus, Xisuthros releases
several birds each time. In Gilgamesh, Ut-napištim releases a dove, then
swallow, then a raven. Interesting that the biblical account of the order of
the birds being released is scientifically correct in that a Raven, being a
meat eater, is far more able to survive than a dove that is a delicate
herbivore. Noah sent the stronger bird first and the weaker bird second whereas
Utnapishtim did it in the opposite order.
11. All the flood accounts
feature sacrifices upon leaving the ark. Noah offered one of every clean animal
and bird which was a soothing aroma to God. In the oldest flood Sumerian Eridu
flood story, Zi-ud-sura "the king sacrificed oxen and offered innumerable
sheep." So both Genesis and the oldest Sumerian story agree that a large
number of animals were sacrificed. InGilgamesh, Utnapishtim offers a bloodless
sacrifice of sugar cane, cedar and myrtle of sweet smelling incense. In the
Berossus, Xisuthros offers a sacrifice with no specific details.
12. God was appeased and moved
to never destroy man again when he smelled Noah's sweet sacrifice whereas when
the gods smelled the sweet sacrifice of Utnapishtim, they "gathered like
flies" in a most base, undignified and animalistic manner as though they
hadn't eaten in weeks. Even worse, when primary deity Enlil, arrived, he was
prevented by the other gods from approaching the sacrifice because he had so
rashly destroyed all of man. In the Bible, God is sorry for creating man and
then sends the flood. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enlil is sorry for sending the
flood then rebuked by other gods for doing so. In the Bible man is the sinner,
in Gilgamesh god (Enlil) is the sinner. Remarkably, however, both stories
arrive at that same conclusion that the earth would never be destroyed again in
completely opposite manners.
13. All stories have God
offering a blessing after they left the ark. God blessed Noah to have many
children, and to start eating meat, but not blood. All of Noah's counterparts
in the other flood stories were blessed with eternal life. Zi-ud-sura in
Sumerian Eridu, Atra-Hasis in Atra-hasis, Utnapishtim in Gilgamesh all were
blessed with eternal life.
14. God gave the rainbow as a
reminder to Noah of the flood. Similarly in Gilgamesh, the god of the womb
(Belet-Ili) arrives and presents Ut-anapishtim with a bead necklace as a
reminder of the flood. ....
And, again, we read at: https://nwcreation.net/noahlegends.html
Flood Legends From Around the World
- The Ancients Knew of the Global Flood (related article)
- Comparisons of Stories from Several Countries
- Descriptions of Several of Flood Legends
- Links to Flood Legends
- Quotes on Flood Legends
- Noah's Ark Homepage
Native global
flood stories are documented as history or legend in almost every region on
earth. Old world missionaries reported their amazement at finding remote tribes
already possessing legends with tremendous similarities to the Bible's accounts
of the worldwide flood. H.S. Bellamy in Moons, Myths and Men estimates that
altogether there are over 500 Flood legends worldwide. Ancient civilizations
such as (China, Babylonia, Wales, Russia, India, America, Hawaii, Scandinavia,
Sumatra, Peru, and Polynesia) all have their own versions of a giant flood.
These flood tales are frequently linked by common elements that
parallel the Biblical account including the warning of the coming flood, the
construction of a boat in advance, the storage of animals, the inclusion of
family, and the release of birds to determine if the water level had subsided.
The overwhelming consistency among flood legends found in distant parts of the
globe indicates they were derived from the same origin (the Bible's
record),
but oral transcription has changed the details through time.
Perhaps the second most important historical account of a global
flood can be found in a Babylonian flood story in the Epic of Gilgamesh. When
the Biblical and Babylonian accounts are compared, a number of outstanding
similarities are found that leave no doubt these stories are rooted in the same
event or oral tradition.
BABYLONIAN |
BIBLE |
Take the seed of all creatures aboard the ship
|
Gen. 6:19 And of every living thing of all flesh you shall
bring.
|
I boarded the ship and closed the door.
|
Gen. 7:1 Come into the Ark
Gen. 7:16 The Lord shut him in. |
I sent out a dove . . . The dove went, then came back, no
resting-place appeared for it, so it returned.
|
Gen. 8:8 He sent out a dove...But the dove found no
resting-place . . . and she returned.
|
Then I sent out a raven . .it was the waters receding, it ate,
it flew about to and fro, it did not return.
|
Gen. 8:7 He sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro
until the waters had dried up from the Earth.
|
I made a libation on the peak of the mountain.
|
Gen. 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord (on the
mountain) and offered burnt offerings.
|
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