Comparing The Epic Of Gilgamesh And Genesis

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The Epic of Gilgamesh is said to be the oldest written story known to man. The earliest account of Gilgamesh appears to be dated circa 2100 B.C.E. because of the great similarities of the flood accounts in The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis many people believe that the flood account in Genesis is the myth itself rewritten. Christians may find interest in the flood account in Gilgamesh because of the significant parallels to that of Genesis however not the rest of the epic. The main reason being that most of The Epic of Gilgamesh is focused on the polytheistic myths associated with the pagan people of the time. These are not the only flood stories found in history. Flood stories are numerous and have been found scattered across the globe. Parallels have been found between Phoenician, Babylonian, and Hebrew accounts but are recognized as nothing more than shared mythology.…show more content…
The Babylonian account of the flood in Gilgamesh has been identified to be the oldest and almost intact with only around seven lines of the 205 lines missing. This was also among the first, which discussed the early flood accounts. The Epic of Gilgamesh consists of twelve large tablets that were identified in original findings these tablets have been identified and translated into many different languages (Sanders). Many of the linguists believe that the story was composed much before 2000 BC and was compiled from material, which was older than this date. The Sumerian cuneiform on the other hand has been dated to as far as 3,300 BC

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