The Assyrian Gilgamesh Epic Part II

Noah’s Ark

by Idel Suarez, Jr., Ph.D.

“Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.” Genesis 6:14.

The eleventh clay tablet is the most renown of the eleven clay tablets of the Gilgamesh Epic. It deals with a character named Ut-Napishtim who gathers his belongings, family, and animals and escapes the great deluge which the gods send to earth. It parallels the account of Noah, his family, the ark, and the great flood of Genesis.

Gilgamesh, who is seeking the secret of immortality, meets Ut-Napishtim and hears from him the story of the deluge. It is the Assyrian version of the Great Flood cited in the Holy Scriptures.

A Supernatural Event

Ut-Napishtim, the Biblical Noah, tells Gilgamesh that the great flood was a supernatural event sent as calamity from the “great gods.” Five gods take part in the judgment on Shurippak, the ancient city built on the Euphrates banks which perished in the flood.

Clay tablet XI of the Gilgamesh Epic states: “Ut-Napishtim, said to him, to Gilgamesh: ‘I will reveal to thee, Gilgamesh, a hidden matter and a secret of the gods will I tell thee: Shurippak~a city which thou knowest. (And) which on the Euphrates’ [banks] is situated – that city was ancient, (as were) the gods within it, when their heart led the great gods to produce the flood” (1).

Genesis also speaks of at least one city like the Shurippak of the Gilgamesh Epic which perished in the flood. It was built in the land of “Nod” by Cain and was called “Enoch.” “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.” Genesis 4:16,17.

Ironically, Enoch means “discipline.” It was a value which Cain’s lineage perverted, rather choosing to become disciplined in the vices of immorality and violence.

It is highly probable that the antediluvians later built many other cities like the city of “Enoch.” Perhaps some of the names of the cities built after the flood bore the same names of the cities which perished with the flood. This seems to be the case regarding the names of the rivers which flowed through Eden, and the rivers on whose banks the great cities of the postdiluvian world flourished. For example, the four rivers of Eden have been identified as the Ganges, the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Nile.

“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads. The name of the first is Pison [Ganges]… and the name of the second river is Gihon [Nile]: the same that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel [Tigris]: that is which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.” Genesis 2:10-14.

The LXX version of Genesis mentions “Tigris” instead of “Hiddekel” (2). Flavius Josephus says that the “Pison” was the “Ganges” river of India, and that the “Gihon” was the “Nile” of Egypt which also crosses Ethiopia (3). The Indian civilization was built on the banks of the Ganges, the Egyptian empires on the Nile, the Assyrian empire on the Tigris, and the Babylonian empire on the Euphrates.

Similarly, when the European colonists came to the New World, they named the new areas conquered and cities built after those of the Old World. Mexico was first called New Spain. The entire Northeast U.S.A. is still called “New England.” Other U.S.A. states still bear the names of “New” indicating that they were baptized with the names of areas in Great Britain, such as New Hampshire, New York, and New Jersey.

Genesis states that the great flood was sent by the triune God of the Bible. Although the Bible does not mention five great gods like the Gilgamesh Epic, it does identify the Holy Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ordered and brought the flood upon the self-destructing antediluvian race. “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Genesis
6:13.

hi Hebrew, the word for God is plural. It is “Elohim” and it literally means “gods.” This is further attested by other scriptures which speaks of god in a plural sense. When God created man, Genesis says, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” Genesis 1:26.

A Plan of Escape: A Ship

One of the gods, named Lord Ea, warns Ut-Napishtim of the coming catastrophe and instructs him to build a ship specifying its dimensions. The ship’s length was to be equal with her width and it was to have a ceiling. Ut-Napishtim is also advised to take with him into the ship species of all living things – plants and land animals.

Clay tablet XI of the Gilgamesh Epic says: “Tear down (this) house, build a ship! Give up possessions, seek thou life. Forswear (worldly) goods and keep the soul alive! Aboard the ship take thou the seed of all living things. The ship that thou shalt build, her dimensions shall be to measure. Equal shall be her width and her length. Like Apsu thou shalt ceil her1” (1).

“The little ones [carrjied bitumen, while the grown ones brought [all else] that was needful. On the fifth day I laid her framework. One (whole) acre was her floor space, ten dozen cubits the height of each of her walls, ten dozen cubits each edge of the square deck. I laid out the contours (and) joined her together. I provided her with six decks, dividing her (thus) into seven parts. Her floor plan I divided into nine parts. I hammered water-plugs into her. I saw to the puntingpoles and laid in supplies. Six ‘sar’ (measures) [or 48,000 gallons] of bitumen I poured into the furnace, three sar [or 24,000 gallons] of asphalt [I also] poured inside…. [On the sev]enth [day] the ship was completed. [The launching] was very difficult, So that they had to shift the floor planks above and below, [until] two-thirds of [the structure] [had g]one [into the water]” (1).

Like the Gilgamesh Epic, Genesis states that God told Noah of the coming flood and warned him to prepare himself and his family for the catastrophe. As in the Gilgamesh Epic, the ark or ship was made of wood, consisted of several floors or decks, had rooms or parts, had a window, and was covered with bitumen or pitch.

Yet each flood account also adds relevant particulars not included hi the other account. For example, the Genesis version adds that the ark had a convertible ceiling roof which could be removed. Likewise, the Gilgamesh Epic mentions that children and hired workmen, besides Ut-Napishtim’s family, also participated in building the ship.

There are a few significant differences between the Genesis account of Noah’s ark and Ut-Napishtim’s ship of the Gilgamesh Epic. The dimensions of Noah’s ark are not of equal length and width. Its length is 300 cubits, its width 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. Its shape was thus rectangular and smaller than the larger cubic dimensions of Ut- Napishtim’s ship which was “ten dozen cubits” in the Gilgamesh Epic. Noah’s ark would also contain three decks instead of the “six decks” of Ut-Napishtim’s ship. Noah took 120 years to build the ark, whereas Ut-Napishtim built his ship in “seven” days. All the “craftsmen” and “kin” went aboard Ut-Napishtim’s ship, whereas only Noah and his immediate family went aboard the ark. Before the deluge came, Noah’s ark remained on dry land, whereas Ut-Napishtim’s ship was thrown into a nearby body of water.

With the passage of tune the oral tradition maintained by the Assyrians was perverted and exposed to more crosscontamination and confounding variables than the inspired account recorded by Moses in Genesis. Nevertheless, the parallelism is so close that it suggests a common origin although not the same narrative. This becomes advantageous to the believer because it rules out the possibility of plagiarism on the part of the Hebrew authors in transcribing the Holy Bible.

The Genesis account reads: “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breath of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and hi a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set hi the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.” Genesis 6:14-16.

Both the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis mention that the ship’s dimensions is cubits. The cubit was the common linear measurement used both by the Hebrews and the inhabitants of Mesopotamia. Furthermore, the cubic structure hi the epic’s ship is humanly unequaled in known history, whereas the rectangular format of the ark has been mirrored in ships used by Europeans, Africans, and Americans.

Nevertheless, how long is a cubit? Originally, the Hebrew measurement of a cubit was the average distance from the elbow to the finger tips. For example, my cubit would be 19 inches – the length from my elbow to my finger tips. Thus, the length of the ark was about 475 feet long. Its width was 79 feet wide and its height 47 1/2 feet tall. Since the ark consisted of three floors, each floor had a 16 foot high ceiling. Its total volumetric capacity would approximately be 1,782,000 cubic feet which would be equal to 665 standard livestock cars used by modern trains in the U.S.A. In terms of its capacity, a standard livestock car can transport 240 sheep (4). Thus, 665 standard livestock cars could transport 159,600 sheep or animals. The ark was technically large enough to house all the samples of land animals and bird species which would later multiply and fill the earth after the flood.

Engineering professor Henry M. Morris, Ph.D., commented on the dimensions and structure of Noah’s ark.
“According to God’s instructions, the Ark was to be designed for capacity and floating stability rather than for speed of navigability” (4). “It can be shown hydrodynamically that a gigantic box of such dimensions would be exceedingly stable, almost impossible to capsize [overturn]. Even in a sea of gigantic waves, the ark could be titled through any angle up to just short of 90 degrees and would immediately thereafter right itself again. Furthermore, it would tend to align itself parallel with the direction of major wave advance and thus be subject to minimum pitching most of the tune” (4).

The ark’s ratii > of length to width was 6 to 1. Such dimensions fit a slow moving water vessel used primarily for transport. Modern slow-moving oil tankers are quite similar to the ark with a ratio of 7 to 1. The Queen Elizabeth, designed for speed and comfort, is the largest passenger liner ever built. It spans 1,018 feet hi length, nearly double the length of the ark, and boasts a ratio of 8.6 to 1. Today, it is a museum in Long Beach, California (5).

The marginal reading of the KJV says that the original Hebrew text states that the ark had “nests,” which was translated as “rooms.” It must have had hundreds of “nests,” or rooms, for both the land animals and birds. The Gilgamesh Epic emphasizes that Ut-Napishtim would need to leave his home behind, as well as many goods which he would not be able to take along into the ship. He is admonished to “seek life” and to “keep the soul alive.” Such
is the message of the gospel. In saving the soul, we are admonished to leave many worldly customs, goods, and items behind. Why? Because such words, habits, clothes, foods, or labors are not compatible with the Christian faith. Yet in terms of eternal value, all things we might be called upon to forsake are like dust or dung in comparison with the exceeding great glory of eternal salvation. Jesus said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26.

Ut-Napishtim did not think twice about immediately fulfilling the heavenly advise from Lord Ea. He forsook all he needed to forsake and made it his life mission to build the ark and serve as chief botanist, zoologist, and ethnologist of the expedition. He would preserve the seed of plants, the progenitors of the postdiluvian land creatures, and the forefathers of the human race in the postdiluvian era.

All Aboard

Once the ship was built, Ut-Napishtim was ready to go aboard. Clay tablet XI of the Gilgamesh Epic states: “[Whatever I had] I laded upon her: whatever I had of silver I laded upon her; whatever I [had] of gold I laded upon her; whatever I had of all the living beings I [laded] upon her. All my family and kin I made go aboard the ship. The beasts of the field, the wild creatures of the field, all the craftsmen I made go aboard.” (1).

Like in the Gilgamesh Epic, Noah’s ark was laid with supplies and the seed of living things, beasts of the field, and wild creatures. Like in the Gilgamesh Epic, Noah brought his family aboard the ark.

However, there are clear distinctions between the two accounts of the flood. Genesis says that seven pairs of clean animals and two pairs of unclean animals were in the ark. It also gives the exact number of Noah’s family which survived the flood inside the ark: eight souls. The Gilgamesh Epic makes no distinction between clean or unclean animals, nor does it state how many entered the Ut-Napishtim’s ship. In the Gilgamesh Epic, Ut-Napishtim brought aboard the ship his own domesticated animals or what he had of “living beings.” Genesis makes no distinct mention of Noah’s personal cattle or
livestock. These differences between the two accounts serve to corroborate each other as true witnesses of a worldwide flood.

“And thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.” “And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.” Genesis 6:18,21.

“Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of the beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.” Genesis 7:2,3.

The Gilgamesh Epic states that Lord Ea advised Ut-Napishtim to preserve “the seed of all living things.” He made “the beasts of the field, the wild creatures of the field” to come aboard with him in the ship. Although neither the Gilgamesh Epic nor Genesis state the number of animals which entered the ark, Genesis does say that both birds and land animals were housed in the ark. Unlike most children’s story books, which state that only one pair of each species accompanied Noah into the ark, Genesis makes it clear that 7 pairs of clean animals and two pairs of unclean animals entered the ark, thus explicitly dividing the clean from the unclean. For the Bible student this is another proof that the ritual or ceremonial law which distinguishes between clean and unclean animals did not originate with the giving of the law in Sinai, but in Eden with the entrance of sin and the “lamb slain from the foundation of the world”. Revelation 13:8.

As a dietitian, I find it noteworthy that Noah was instructed to gather enough food and water for him, his family, his domesticated animals, and for all the living creatures in the ark. It was to be enough food to last him over a year. It requires a gifted mind to plan the menu for so many, who are so different in their eating habits, for so long. It takes a remarkable amount of stored food and water. Given the limited resources of space and food, Noah and his family as well as the herbivores and possibly most, if not all, of the carnivores in the ark were fed a vegetarian diet. Both by weight and volume, it has been mathematically shown that a vegetarian, or herbivore, diet feeds more persons and animals than an omnivorous, or carnivorous, diet.

Some have suggested that since the ark had three decks, Noah, his family, his personal belongings, and domesticated animals lived on the third deck. All the wild animals were kept on the second deck and the necessary water and food could have been stored in the first deck closest to the ground or water level. Furthermore, the only window in the ark must have been so positioned, and the ark so constructed, that enough light and air could reach every corner of the two top decks.

The enormous amount of waste and garbage produced by such a big company of creatures must have been thrown over board. Noah and his family were subsequently very busy feeding, cleaning, and maintaining the animals aboard their floating zoo as well as discarding and recycling waste products as needed.

It is highly probable that many of the animals underwent a hibernation period, lowering their metabolic rates which would have limited their need of water and food. For example, bears in North America are notorious for hibernating through the winter; and their metabolic rate is nearly halved.

A God-fearing Ship-Builder

According to the Gilgamesh Epic, Ut-Napishtim was a godly man. He conversed with God and on a daily basis offered sacrificial offerings as part of worship. The examples of the beasts slaughtered were clean animals-bullocks and sheep. He seems also to have offered drink offerings of wine and oil like the Hebrews would five centuries later in the sanctuary. Throughout the narrative, Ut-Napishtim appears as a faithful and obedient follower of God.

The eleventh clay tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic records: “Bullocks I slaughtered… And I killed sheep every day….” (1).

Genesis also presents Noah as a godly and obedient man, very much, like Ut-Napishtim. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord…. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.” Genesis 6:8,9,22.

Noah appears in the New Testament’s hall of faith as a living example of a believer who was justified by faith and showed evidence of his faith by his works. “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” Hebrews 11:7.

Like Ut-Napishtim, Noah offered sacrificial rituals both before and after the flood according to the ceremonial law. He would build altars and by faith slaughter lambs which prefigured the coming Messiah. “And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” Genesis 8:20.

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. Sir Lancelot C.L. Breton. (1851; reprinted 1995). The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers.
3. Flavius Josephus. (c. 93 A.D.) The Antiquity of the Jews, book 1, chapter I, paragraph 3. IN: William Whiston (Translator) (Reprinted 1987). The Works of Josephus. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, pages 25, 26.
4. Henry M. Morris. (1976). The Genesis Record. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, page 181.
5. Dave Balsiger and Charles E. Seller, Jr. (1976). A thorough analysis of Noah’s ark. In Search of Noah’s Ark. Los Angeles, California: Sun Classic Books, pages 114-116.
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