At all times, people needed something to believe in. Every civilization has its own culture, traditions, customs and manners. The morals are always conditioned by something; mostly it is a religion. Religions and beliefs spread all over the world, nowadays all have their history. It is not surprising that there are some thesis and statements, which are similar in different practices.

After having studied the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis, one thing can be noticed – that is the flood story that they have in common. For a long time, numerous scientists and scholars, historians and archeologists were studying this particular fragment of the history of both religions and cultures. However, there is still no unique opinion on it. Due to the fact that the Sumerian civilization had existed long ago before the Bible was written, the scholars assume that the flood story was initially Sumerian idea and was adopted by the Christian religious tradition. It should be noted though that the Epic of Gilgamesh –and the flood story in it - is considered as mythological while The Book of Genesis is viewed as a historical work. Anyway, both similarities and differences of this particular fragment in both cultures are worth to be analyzed.

It is reasonable to start with the nature of the flood; in both cases it was global: “…and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” (Holy Bible, New International Version, Genesis 7). However, the causes of the deluge were a bit different: in the Epic of Gilgamesh it was man’s sins, as the narrative says “On the sinner let his sin rest, On the wrongdoer rest his misdeed.”; in The Bible the reason was man’s wickedness. The proof is in the Genesis 6: “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time”. Both main characters – Noah and Utnapishtim- were ordered to build an ark, though it had different shapes: Noah built a rectangular one and in the Sumerian version it was square.

The idea of reincarnation of life was translated in the same way; in both cases it was ordered to take all creatures in pairs. In the Genesis 7 God says to Noah: “Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.”

One of the most significant differences of the stories of the flood is its duration. In the Epic of Gilgamesh it lasted “six days and seven nights”, whereas Noah suffered from it for forty days and forty nights: “And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights”.

The scientists still discuss the question of the genuineness of the flood in the period of Sumerian civilization because of its geographical position; there are people who think that theoretically it was possible. The research is not still finished.

The article was written by professional writer Eshley Durst, you can find her papers at https://cheap-papers.com/memo-writing-service.php