Gilgamesh And Genesis Similarities

1325 Words6 Pages
The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible have many similar stories, which leads to the readers’ suspicion of which text originated first. There’s a scene in Gilgamesh where the main character, Gilgamesh, wrestles with another essential character, Enkidu. In the book of Genesis in the Bible, Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, wrestles with God. Both scenes have distinct similarities and differences within the series of events, and characters. Esther Hamori, author of article Echoes of Gilgamesh in the Jacob Story, recognizes the parallels in each story as well when she states: “The two stories in question share several elements that are each highly unusual and that bear no inherent relation to one another. Moreover, these features occur in the same…show more content…
Esau does not take the birthright seriously though—he despised his birthright (New International Version, Genesis 25:34). So, in chapter 27, Jacob steals Esau’s birthright with the help of their mother, Rebekah. Esau later finds out Jacob has been blessed with his rightful blessings, and Esau plans to kill Jacob. Jacob leaves town to get out of Esau’s reach. Later on, in chapter 32, Jacob comes back to visit with Esau; uneasy of how Esau would react, he sends his servants with gifts to bribe Esau. But, Esau’s mind is made up—he’s going to see Jacob, but with 400 men at his side. Jacob prays a prayer of deliverance, and decides to camp out where he currently is. The scripture notes that Jacob is all alone, and a man came to wrestle with him (New International Version, Genesis 32:24). The time of night is not specified, but the two men wrestled until dawn broke. “When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket,” (New International Version, Genesis 32:25). The man demanded Jacob to let him go because day was breaking and his face would be revealed, resulting to Jacob’s death, due to the fact that this man was God. But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” At this point, Jacob would have died rather than to not be blessed by God. God changed Jacob’s name to “Israel” meaning “he fights with God.”…show more content…
Religion is reasoning for specific traits each character possess, and essentially why the story plays out the way it does. Though religion is prevalent in both stories, resulting to a similarity, the religions are completely different. In Gilgamesh, there’s a polytheistic religion (not really a specified name for the religion) and the gods and mortals converse daily, and have an up and down relationship. In the Bible, there’s a monotheistic religion called Judaism. The Almighty One—God or “Abba,” as the Jews call him—is the one and only God in this book. Only some mortals have a good relationship with God, e.g. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all had good relationships with
Show More
Related

  • Comparing The Flood In Genesis And The Epic Of Gilgamesh

    554 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although both the flood in Genesis and the Epic of Gilgamesh from Tablet XI are from different time eras, one is able to infer about the similarities about both stories and how they are altered to their own respected culture. These similarities and difference of both of these stories provide the reader with an understanding of how through analyzing both of these texts, one is able to see that the flood story gives one an understanding of not only during the respected society during this time, but

    Read More

  • Comparing Gilgamesh And Genesis

    1197 Words  | 5 Pages

    The epic of Gilgamesh, written somewhere between 1200 B.C.E and 2100 B.C.E, has many similarities to the bible, particularly Genesis. Genesis six through nine is the story of God’s disappointment with humankind and his fondness of Noah. The main synopsis of the Genesis story is the flood God unleashes on the Earth. At the end of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI, Utanapishtim tells Gilgamesh the heroic story of the flood he survived sent down by the Gods. While the two tales of a flood are strikingly similar

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Epic Of Gilgamesh And The Bible

    1547 Words  | 7 Pages

    Before those early near east religious texts, especially the Epic of Gilgamesh, were discovered, most Christians believed that the Bible is the revelation of God and is absolutely original. However, after the discoveries of earlier religious documents in regions near Israel such as Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece, the originality of Bible has been questioned by more and more people, since there are assignable similarities between Bible and these newly discovered texts. Those texts and the Bible share

    Read More

  • Comparing Gilgamesh And The Noah Flood Story

    680 Words  | 3 Pages

    times. These stories have influenced our understanding and our belief in a God. The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Noah Flood Story (Genesis 69:17) both share the trait of someone being chosen by a God to bring the people and animals to safety by building an ark. Cultures between Mesopotamia and Hebrews are different cultures but share a story of the God(s) and how there is a higher power, they also share a similarity of the God(s) showing compassion towards people. In Mesopotamia, there was more than one

    Read More

  • Comparing The Flood In The Epic Of Gilgamesh And Genesis

    1046 Words  | 5 Pages

    1. Both the Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis include stories about a great flood, with some similarities, however, there are also a few differences. Two ways the stories differ from each other is the boat’s shape and the people that got on the boat. In Utnapishtim’s story, the boat was square with “ten dozen cubits, the height of each of her sides, ten dozen cubits square, her outer dimensions” while Noah’s boat was rectangular (103). Then Utnapishtim let family as well as friends onto the boat while

    Read More

More about Gilgamesh And Genesis Similarities

Open Document