The Assyrian Gilgamesh Epic Part III

The Flood

by Idel Suarez, Jr., Ph.D.

“And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation…. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.” Genesis 7:1,4,

A Waiting Time: Seven days

The Giglamesh Epic’s eleventh tablet records each of the significant events as occuring within a period of seven days. It took seven days to build the ark. The deluge ravaged the earth for seven days. The ark found a resting place on Mount Nisir and anchored there for seven days. “[On the sevjenth [day] the ship was completed… Six days and [six] nights blows the flood wind, “as the south-storm sweeps the land. When the seventh day arrived, the fiood(-carrying) south-storm subsided in the battle, which it had fought like an army…. On Mount Nisir the ship came to a halt… When the seventh day arrived, I sent forth and set free a dove….” (1). .

This recurrent seven day week cycle in the Gilgamesh Epic serves as a witness to two very important spiritual and historical matters:
First, the seven day week cycle had its origin during the week of creation and stands as its enduring memorial. Although every other major time measurement has an astronomical basis, the weekly cycle does not. The year is a product of the earth’s rotation around the sun. The four seasons are the product of the earth’s position around the sun at the equinoxes and soltices. The month is a product of the moon’s rotation around the earth. The day is the product of the earth’s rotation on its own axis in space. Yet the seven day week is the product and memorial of creation.

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Genesis 2:1-3.

Secondly, the seven day emphasis in the Gilgamesh Epic serves as another proof of its similarity with the Genesis record. Although Genesis does not give the same time elapsed between events, the chronology of those events are identical. The ship is built first. The floods do not come until the ship is finished. The ship is swayed to and fro in the midst of the deluge and storm wind. It is not until the storm subsides that the ship is anchored on a mountain top. Thereafter, two species of birds (dove and raven) are sent out from the ship to inspect the earth’s surface.

Genesis does record several seven day week events like the Gilgamesh Epic.
Genesis twice states that Noah had a seven day waiting time in the ark between the time elapsed in its completion and the first rain drops upon the earth. For seven days, Noah, his family, and the animals waited inside the ark for the coming deluge. Their faith was tried. Their spirits were tested in the midst of mockery and insults from the surrounding skeptics and mobs which feasted aloud around the ark on dry land. They claimed it was all a big circus and hoax. Noah or his family could have opted to abandon ship during that week, but they decided to endure and take advantage of the tarrying time.
Noah must have kept the Sabbath inside the ark during that week. It also gave him and his family the opportunity to test their skills in feeding and nurturing the animals in the ark before the tempest arrived.

“For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.” Genesis 7:4.

“And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.” Genesis 7:10.
Thrice, Genesis later states how Noah waited three seven-day periods before leaving the ark after the flood waters subsided. Thrice, He sent out birds to fly over the land and see if it was dry. First it was a raven and then a dove. During each of those weeks, Noah must have also kept the Sabbath for the last three times inside the ark with his traveling zoo. Upon reading the text, please notice how scripture mentions “other seven days” implying that these were the second and third weeks of waiting to leave the ark. Time was kept by counting holy Sabbath days, or seventh days.

“And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven… And he stayed yet other seven days and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark… And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove ; which returned not again unto him any more.” Genesis 8:6,7,10,12.

After stating that His coming would be like in the days of Noah, Jesus told a parable of a Jewish wedding feast and “ten virgins” who like Noah had to endure and make wise use of a waiting time. Do we not have a tarrying time today? The Jewish wedding feast usually lasted seven days. The virgins were the bridesmaids who waited outside the home of the bride until the bridegroom came to the feast. The “bridegroom tarried” in his arrival. The virgins “all slumbered and slept” waiting for him. Only some had kept enough extra oil for a possible tarrying time, and these were the ones who could
light their lamps at midnight when “the bridegroom came.” Only these who “were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.” The others who lacked the oil, the light, and had gone to buy oil, arrived too late to be allowed into the seven-day marriage feast. Matthew 25:1-12.

Take heart in your tarrying time. Use it as a preparation time to draw nigh to God and His word. Our bridegroom, Jesus Christ, seems to be tarrying for our own benefit and self-preparation. The coming deluge appears to be held back by the angels of God till we finally get ready. As the prophet Habakkuk writes in his introductory chapter to the return of the Messiah in glory, “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Habakkuk 2:3.

The Deluge

Both the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis use the terms “flood,” “wind,” and “rain,” in describing the deluge in Ut-Napishtim and Noah’s time. Both described an unusual calamity of weather which struck and injured our planet. Both attest that the deluge was supernatural. Both declare that “all mankind” died, except those on the ship or ark. The Gilgamesh Epic adds that the flood was accompanied by “dark clouds,” “thunders,” “storm,” “shower,” “moans,” and “tempest.” It gives a moving narrative as told by Ut-Napishtim to Gilgamesh of how the monsoon came about.

Clay tablet XI of the Gilgamesh Epic states: “That stated time had arrived: ‘He who orders unease at night, showers down a rain of blight.’ I watched the appearance of the weather. The weather was awesome to behold…. With the first glow of dawn, A black cloud rose up from the horizon. Inside it Adad thunders… Forth comes Ninurta and causes the dikes to follow… [Everything] is turned to blackness all that had been light.

[The wide] land was shattered like [a pot]! For one day the south-storm [blew], Gathering speed as it blew, [submerging the mountains], Overtaking the [people] like a battle…-. The gods were frightened by the deluge… Ishtar cried out like a woman in travail, The sweetvoiced mistress of the [gods] moans aloud… Six days and [six] nights blows the flood wind, as the south-storm sweeps the land. When the seventh day arrived, The flood(- carrying) south-storm subsided in the battle, Which it had fought like an army. The sea grew quiet, the tempest was still, the flood ceased. I looked at the weather: stillness had set in, And all of mankind had returned to clay” (1).

The fear of the “gods” mentioned in Ut-Napishtim’s narration of the flood is also mentioned by E.G. White. The Gilgamesh Epic states that the “gods were frightened” and they even “moaned” in despair. In Patriarchs and Prophets, Mrs. White writes that Satan “feared for his own existence” during the flood. “The terror of man and beast was beyond description. Above the roar of the tempest was heard the wailing of a people… Satan himself, who was compelled to remain in the midst of the warring elements, feared for his own existence” (2).

Like in many other extrabiblical ancient writings, the Gilgamesh Epic implies that humanity was made from the clay of the earth. After the flood subsided, the epic stated that “mankind returned to clay.” Such language is similar to the statement which appears in Genesis as God speaks to Adam. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto the dust shalt thou return.” Genesis 1:19. Or as Job clearly states, “I also am formed out of the clay.” Job 33:6.

The flood event from which Ut-Napishtim survived in a ship destroyed “all mankind.” The Gilgamesh Epic leaves no doubt that it was a worldwide event and none survived besides Ut-Napishtim and his crew. Hence, it corroborates the testimony of scripture on the global effects of the deluge.

Genesis uses slightly different phrases to describe the catastrophic worldwide event like “waters of the flood,” “fountains of the great deep broken up,” and the “windows of heaven… opened.” Yet its effects are similar to the ones described in the Gilgamesh Epic.

“And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth…. the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights….

And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters…. and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.” Genesis 7:10,11,18-20.

Jewish commentators state that the flood was “a seismic upheaval; the earth was swept by a gigantic tidal wave, and simultaneously there was a torrential downpour of rain…. The vast reservoirs of water thought of as stored above the sky were coming down through special openings, and constantly and in resistless strength” (3).

“There followed the muttering of thunder and the flash of lightning. Soon large drops of rain began to fall… Darker and darker grew the heavens, and faster came the galling rain. The beasts were roaming about in the wildest terror, and their discordant cries seemed to moan out their own destiny and the fate of man. Then ‘the fountains of the great deep’ were ‘broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.’ Water appeared to come from the clouds in mighty cataracts. Rivers broke away from their boundaries, and overflowed the valleys. Jets of water burst from the earth with indescribable force, throwing massive rocks hundreds of feet into the air, and these, in falling, buried themselves deep in the ground” (2).

It was not just a deluge. It was a total upheaval of the ancient world. The flood gates of heaven’s ancient canopy and the underground water ways of earth were loosed, massive earthquakes occured, volcanos errupted, hurricanes ripped through the earth, gigantic tidal waves greedily tore away all constructions, tornadoes added their dizzy chaos, meteorites showered from the skies, and huge hail stones fell from above which all poured upon the face of the earth so that it eventually formed one large mountainless sea.

The works of men’s hands were destroyed. Their idols, their splendid buildings, beautiful gardens, groves, and altars were torn down. The ancient hills were broken down. Entire forests were uprooted. Landmasses were moved and shifted from their original place.

According to Genesis, the deluge was a worldwide flood, because the waters covered all the high hills and mountains under the the whole heaven. There are no high hills nor mountains on our planet which are not under the heavens or sky above.

Archeology has unearthed fish bones and sea shells on high mountains, far away from the sea and ocean.
Perhaps two striking examples of a past worldwide flood are:
(a). The presence of inland lakes of high elevations and located at large distances from the sea;
(b). The presence of ancient ocean floors, such as limestone and coral formations, above sea level.
In America, we have a huge salty lake known as Great Salt Lake in Utah. It is 1,600 square miles in area with a depth of 15 feet, or 5 meters. Mountain lakes are usually sweet water, yet this one is one of the most saline inland bodies of water in the Americas (4).

The highest mountains were broken down at the time of the flood due to mud slides, monsoon floods, volcano eruptions, and earthquakes, so that all high lands were at least 15 cubits under the level of the flood waters. By our earlier conversion scale, 15 cubits would be nearly 24 feet high. The highest land level was submerged 24 feet below the level of the flood waters. This is by no means impossible, given the amount of water on earth today, and the lower levels of mountain ranges before the flood.

John C. Whitcomb, from the Institute of Creation Research, states that “if the earth’s surface were made completely even, it would everywhere be covered by approximately 12,000 feet of water. Thus, when we read that ‘the fountains of the great deep” were broken up in the early phase of the Flood year (Genesis 7:11) in such a way that the ocean basins pushed their waters over the highest mountains of the continents within sk weeks, we have a clear indication that the mountains before the Flood were much lower that those of our present world” (5).

Back in the 1980’s, I toured the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico which separates the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea. It covers over 75,000 square miles or 194,000 square kilometers (6). I learned that it is an ancient ocean floor which was raised above to its present above-sea level. The Yucatan “peninsula is a low, rolling tableland of coral and limestone covered by a thick layer of soil” (6). Coral and limestone are geological formations found in the ocean floor. Both can be formed from the shells and bones of aquatic animals. Limestone is primarily composed of calcium carbonate and it is formed from water evaporation. As the flood waters evaporated, many limestone deposits formed on earth’s surface above the new sea level. Thus, the Yucatan peninsula serves as a clear example of how land masses were shifted up and down with the global flood.

Gone with the Wind

The ancient world was not pardoned because they did not seek forgiveness while the door of the ark was opened, which served as a prototype of the door of grace. The ancient world was not willing to confess their sins and abandon their vices, so they perished with their sins and vices. Only Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with his family and representatives of the animal kingdom were saved in the ark. There was no salvation outside the ark, only inside the,ark.

The apostle Peter lists the ancient antediluvian generation in his hall of doom together with the great fall of the heavenly angels who rebelled with Lucifer, with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Balaam who loved the wages of unrighteousness.

Like the Gilgamesh Epic, Peter attributes the fail of the antediluvian world to a supernatural act of God upon the ungodly. Only the eight who sought righteousness, believed God’s word, and prepared an ark were saved.

Peter writes, “For if God… spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly…” n Peter 2:4. Peter is trying to say, if God forgave not the old world who repented not, do you think God will make an exception with you or me if we do not repent and seek righteousness and become preachers of righteousness?

After the flood, God sent a powerful whirlwind which buried the dead bodies of the ancient unrighteous world in the midst of the earth. “And God made a wind to pass over the earth…” Genesis 8:1. Buried were the idolatrous works of their hands, their adulterous mates, their companions in violence, and their hopes of conversion. That ancient way of life was to be no more and to serve as an example to subsequent generations that if any pursue such habits and lifestyles, they will face a similar and sure doom.

You see, the apostle Paul writes a list of the “hall of righteousness by faith” and Peter wrote a list of “the hall of doom.” Neither list was completed nor finished. New names are still being added to both. Those who believe and work the works of righteousness are added to the book of life and will eventually receive eternal life. Yet those who disbelieve and work the works of unrighteousness are inscribed in the book of death and will eventually receive eternal doom. The choice like in Noah’s day is up the individual. We have the right to choose and make a reservation on either list, in either
book. Which will you choose?

References

1. James B. Pritchard. (1958). The Epic of Gilgamesh. The Ancient Near East, volume
1. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, pages 65-75,
2. Ellen G. White. (1958). The Flood. Patriarchs and Prophets. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, page 96.
3. Rabbi J. H. Hertz. (1950). The Pentateuch and Haftorahs. London: Soncino Press, page 28.
4. Encyclopedia Britannica. (1979). Micropedia, 15th edition, volume IV. Chicago; Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., page 702
5. John Whitcomb (1988). The World that Perished, revised edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, page 56.
6. The World Book Encyclopedia, volume 21 (1994). Yucatan Peninsula Chicago: World Book, Inc. The page 577.