There are at least three older versions of this flood myth42 each with its own slight variations but nonetheless follow the general plot scientifically speaking a world wide flood is difficult to prove. Traces of a great flood however have been found in 2014 by Mohammed El Bastaway to occur in anywhere between 13,000
41 The Sumerian King List Livius.org, accessed July 20, 2021 https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/266-the-sumerian-king-list/
42 Rachel Storm, Myths and Legends of India, Egypt, China and Japan, 30.
53 and 8,500years ago. A sudden flood filled the Persian gulf and areas of what would be Sumer and parts of Arabia. The geographical evidence also supports this as the formations of several wadi canyon would have been the result of a sudden deluge as opposed to more common phenomena such as gradual sea rise this large affected area though not nearly the age ending calamity as the literary genre would suggest. To the early people however who did not know of the other people across the globe, well their whole ‘world’ was swallowed up, to them as far as they were concerned the world did just end.
There is an excerpt from Mohammed El Bastaway’s research.
“The formation of several Wadi canyons and funnel cuts along the entire extent of Tuwaiq clearly suggests that the breaching of this conspicuous escarpment was sudden and rapid, as the northern outlet of this mega-lake was insufficient to discharge the water. The overflow arms have developed extensive alluvial fans on the Arabian coast; the fan of Wadi Al Batin covered approximately 60,000 km in south Iraq, Kuwait and the northern parts of Saudi Arabia with tens of metres in depth. 43”
To the first inhabitants a massive flood would have been worth retelling and maybe letter embellished upon. In this motif there are three older versions, The Bible’s Genesis account has Noah become the protagonist. The oldest version is the Eridu Genesis dated to the 3rd millennium BC has the hero a man called Ziusudra. The epic of Atrahasis stars Atra-hasis. It is written in Assyrian and babylonian. In the Epic of Gilgamesh there appears an important character called Ut-Napistima survivor of the great flood who during the epic has a central role and tells Gilgamesh his tale. I will now list the variations and compare them directly with the below Bible passages.
40 El Bastawesy, M. The geomorphological and hydrogeological evidences for a Holocene deluge in Arabia. Arab J Geosci 8, 2577–2586 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-014-1396-9
54
“5 Yahweh saw that human wickedness was great on earth and that human hearts contrived nothing but wicked schemes all day long. 6 Yahweh regretted having made human beings on earth and was grieved at heart. 7 And Yahweh said, ‘I shall rid the surface of the earth of the human beings whom I created – human and animal, the creeping things and the birds of heaven – for I regret having made them’” (Gen.6:5-7).
The Eridu Genesis, Atrahasis, and Gilgames make the cause of the flood due to the god Enlil. Some of them are not in accord however during the flood.
For example the goddess Ishtar weeps and screams as humans and creation drown.
The biblical account has a much better reason as the world is wicked. The Mesopotamian despot deities are more fickle. They first created mankind to do their hard labor such as creating canals and other grunt work. However they were alarmed when they began to multiply beyond control. Their sheer number caused unrest. The gods were unable to sleep. Some gods intervene on behalf of humanity warning them of Enlil’s wroth and they become quiet, pacified Enlil does nothing for a while. The humans again create a clamor. They are told to lower their voices and this repeats. In the end however Enlil for disturbing the gods rest decides much to the horror of the other deities to cause a great flood.
From the text of Eridu Genesis, there is parallel tale.
That day, Nintur wept over her creatures and holy Inanna was fill of grief over her people; but Enki took counsel with his own heart. An, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursaga had the gods of heaven and earth swear by the names of An and Enlil. And as Ziusudra stood there beside it, he went on hearing: ‘Step up to the wall to my left and listen! Let me speak a word to you at the wall and may you grasp what I say, may you heed my advice! By our hand a flood will sweep over the cities of the half-bushel baskets, and the country;
55 the decision, that mankind is to be destroyed, has been made. A verdict, a command of the assembly, can not be revoked44.
“8 But Noah won Yahweh's favour. 9 This is the story of Noah: Noah was a good man, an upright man among his contemporaries, and he walked with God. 10 Noah fathered three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. 11 God saw that the earth was corrupt and full of lawlessness. 12 God looked at the earth: it was corrupt, for corrupt were the ways of all living things on earth. 13 God said to Noah, 'I have decided that the end has come for all living things, for the earth is full of lawlessness because of human beings. So I am now about to destroy them and the earth” (Gen.6:8-13).
Noah is told what is to happen but not so in the other myths. The protagonist is told via a vision, a dream or an indirect order. This is because the protagonist is favored by Enki but since the lesser god can not directly challenge Enlil they warn of the impending doom clandestine.
“14 Make yourself an ark out of resinous wood. Make it of reeds and caulk it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how to make it: the length of the ark is to be three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 Make a roof to the ark, building it up to a cubit higher. Put the entrance in the side of the ark, which is to be made with lower, second and third decks. 17 ‘For my part I am going to send the flood, the waters, on earth, to destroy all living things having the breath of life under heaven;
everything on earth is to perish. 18 But with you I shall establish my covenant and you will go aboard the ark, yourself, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives along with you. 19 From all living creatures, from all living things, you must take two of each kind aboard the ark, to save their lives with yours; they must be a male and a female. 20 Of every species of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that creeps along the ground, two must go with you so that their lives may be saved. 21 For your part, provide yourself with eatables of all kinds, and lay in a store of them, to serve as food for yourself and them.’ 22 Noah did this; exactly as God commanded him, he did” (Gen.6:14-22).
In the Eridu Genesis it is the seed of mankind, in Atrahasis we have a more localized form ‘the creatures of the steppe, he brought on board’. While then in
44 “The Great Flood: Comparison,”Livius, accessed July1, 2021, https://www.livius.org/articles/misc/great-flood/flood6-parallels/#1
56 Gilgames we revert s to a more grandiose scale. Tear down the house, spurn possessions and keep alive living beings, make the seed of all living beings go up into the boat.
“1 Yahweh said to Noah, ‘Go aboard the ark, you and all your household, for you alone of your contemporaries do I see before me as an upright man.
2 Of every clean animal you must take seven pairs, a male and its female; of the unclean animals you must take one pair, a male and its female 3 (and of the birds of heaven, seven pairs, a male and its female), to preserve their species throughout the earth. 4 For in seven days' time I shall make it rain on earth for forty days and forty nights, and I shall wipe every creature I have made off the face of the earth.’ 5 Noah did exactly as Yahweh commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came, the waters over the earth. 7 Noah with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives boarded the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 (Of the clean animals and the animals that are not clean, of the birds and all that creeps along the ground, 9 One pair boarded the ark with Noah, one male and one female, as God had commanded Noah.) 10 Seven days later the waters of the flood appeared on earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, and on the seventeenth day of the month, that very day all the springs of the great deep burst through, and the sluices of heaven opened. 12 And heavy rain fell on earth for forty days and forty nights. In all but the bible acount the flood is caused by a storm lasting seven days, perhaps to assert this was a global disaster by bringing every animal and so prolongled the duration of the rain to account for this fact. 13 That very day Noah and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth boarded the ark, with Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons, 14 and with them every species of wild animal, every species of cattle, every species of creeping things that creep along the ground, every species of bird, everything that flies, everything with wings. 15 One pair of all that was alive and had the breath of life boarded the ark with Noah, 16 and those that went aboard were a male and female of all that was alive, as God had commanded him. Then Yahweh shut him in 17 the flood lasted forty days on earth. The waters swelled, lifting the ark until it floated off the ground. 18 The waters rose, swelling higher above the ground, and the ark drifted away over the waters. 19 The waters rose higher and higher above the ground until all the highest mountains under the whole of heaven were submerged. 20 The waters reached their peak fifteen cubits above the submerged mountains. 21 And all living things that stirred on earth perished;
birds, cattle, wild animals, all the creatures swarming over the earth, and all human beings. 22 Everything with the least breath of life in its nostrils, everything on dry land, died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out, people, animals, creeping things and birds; they were wiped off the earth and only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark”
(Gen.7:1-23).
57 But God had Noah in mind, and all the wild animals and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. God sent a wind across the earth and the waters began to subside.
“2 The springs of the deep and the sluices of heaven were stopped up and the heavy rain from heaven was held back. 3 Little by little, the waters ebbed from the earth. After a hundred and fifty days the waters fell, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat). One may justifiable say the reason the mountains of Ararat was chosen was because due to the fact either the writers were copying from preexisting stories of the flood or recounting an actual event, for why the mountains fo Ararat? Why not Mount Sinai or Karmel or any other spiritually significant mountain. In another version it is another mountain: On Mount Nimuš the boat lodged firm 5 The waters gradually fell until the tenth month when, on the first day of the tenth month, the mountain tops appeared. 6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark 7 and released a raven, which flew back and forth as it waited for the waters to dry up on earth. 8 He then released a dove, to see whether the waters were receding from the surface of the earth. 9 But the dove, finding nowhere to perch, returned to him in the ark, for there was water over the whole surface of the earth; putting out his hand he took hold of it and brought it back into the ark with him. 10 After waiting seven more days, he again released the dove from the ark. 11 In the evening, the dove came back to him and there in its beak was a freshly-picked olive leaf! So Noah realised that the waters were receding from the earth. 12 After waiting seven more days, he released the dove, and now it returned to him no more”
(Gen.8:2-12).
This was done presumambly because of how these two birds behaviours could be informative for Noah. The raven is a carnivore and may also eat carrion if anything should survive the flood. They would seek higher ground if it were so then there would be plenty to eat for the raven. If the raven did not come back Noah may assume it found food and resting elsewhere. However it did return unable to find sustenance except for in the ark. The dove however bought back an olive branch and although olives may be able to survive in heights. It is usually
58 found areas under 50 feet, and when it was released and did not return it was able to build a nest and therefore the place was at least habitable.
This parallels with Utnaphistims account.
I sent forth a raven and released it. The raven went off, and saw the waters slither back. It eats, it scratches, it bobs, but does not circle back to me.45
“13 It was in the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the first month and on the first of the month, that the waters began drying out on earth.
Noah lifted back the hatch of the ark and looked out. The surface of the ground was dry! 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 ‘Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out all the animals with you, all living things, the birds, the cattle and all the creeping things that creep along the ground, for them to swarm on earth, for them to breed and multiply on earth.’ 18 So Noah came out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. 19 And all the wild animals, all the cattle, all the birds and all the creeping things that creep along the ground, came out of the ark, one species after another. 20 Then Noah built an altar to Yahweh and, choosing from all the clean animals and all the clean birds he presented burnt offerings on the altar. 21 Yahweh smelt the pleasing smell and said to himself, ‘Never again will I curse the earth because of human beings, because their heart contrives evil from their infancy. Never again will I strike down every living thing as I have done. 22 As long as earth endures:
seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease’” (Gen.8:13-22).
“1 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Breed, multiply and fill the earth. 2 Be the terror and the dread of all the animals on land and all the birds of heaven, of everything that moves on land and all the fish of the sea;
they are placed in your hands. 3 Every living thing that moves will be yours to eat, no less than the foliage of the plants. I give you everything, 4 with this exception: you must not eat flesh with life, that is to say blood, in it. 5 And I shall demand account of your life-blood, too. I shall demand it of every animal, and of man. Of man as regards his fellow-man, I shall demand account for human life. 6 He who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God was man created. 7 Be fruitful then and multiply, teem over the earth and subdue it!’ 8 God spoke as follows to Noah and his sons, 9 ‘I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come, 10 and with every living creature that was with
45 “The Great Flood: Comparison,”Livius, accessed July 1, 2021, https://www.livius.org/articles/misc/great-flood/flood6-parallels/#1
59 you: birds, cattle and every wild animal with you; everything that came out of the ark, every living thing on earth. 11 And I shall maintain my covenant with you: that never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to devastate the earth.’ 12
‘And this’, God said, ‘is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: 13 I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, 15 I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things. 16 When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth, that is, all living things.’ 17 ‘That’, God told Noah, ‘is the sign of the covenant I have established between myself and all living things on earth.’ 18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth-Ham being the father of Canaan” (Gen.9:1-18).
The other versions aside from the bible end in mostly the same manner.
After wiping all of mankind the gods begin to worry for the farmers and herdsmen were no more and they began to hunger. They are schocked to find an offering burning and even angry as to who would oppose this direct order. However the protagonist obeys the gods and they are pleased they creatively fix the tale by saying no human can survive. So just like the gods in all three Atrahasis, Ziusruda, and Utnaphistim is made immortal, like the gods as well as their family.
The epic of Gilgamesh gives us the most vivid acount.
I sacrificed: I offered a libation to the four corners of the world. I burned incense in front of the rising mountain. Seven and seven cult vessels I put in place, and; into the bowls I poured [the oil of] reeds, cedar, and myrtle. The gods smelled the savor. The gods smelled the sweet savor, and collected like flies over a sacrifice. Just then the Mistress of the Gods arrived. She lifted up the large fly-shaped beads which Anu had made for their engagement:
‘You gods, as surely as I shall not forget this lapis lazuli around my neck, may I be mindful of these days, and never forget them! The gods may come to the incense offering, but Enlil may not come to the incense offering,