The Lord stated to Noah, there’s going to be a floody, floody; then to get these children out of the muddy, muddy; then to construct him an arky, arky. This a lot we heard whereas toasting marshmallows across the campfireplace, at the least if we grew up in a certain modern Protestant tradition. As adults, we might or might not imagine that there ever lived a person referred to as Noah who constructed an ark to save lots of all of the world’s innocent animal species from a sin-cleansing flood. However except we’ve taken a deep dive into historic history, we probably don’t know that this especially well-known Bible story wasn’t the primary of its particular substyle. As defined in the Hochelaga video above, there are even outdateder global-deluge tales to be reckoned with.
The truth is, one such delusion seems within the outdatedest identified work of literature in human history, the Epic of Gilgamesh. “In it, the god Ea learns of this divine flood, and secretly warns the people about this coming disaster,” says Hochelaga creator Tommie Trelawny. Thus knowledgeable, the king Utnapishtim builds a large coracle, a type of circular boat “used to navigate the rivers of Mesopotamia for centuries.”
Like Noah, Utnapishtim brings his family and a bunch of animals aboard, and after riding out the worst of the storm, finds that his craft has come to relaxation on a mountainhigh. Additionally like Noah, he then sends birds out to search out dry land. However ultimately, “the story takes a wierd flip: as a substitute of being happy, the gods are indignant,” although Ea does step in to take responsibility and make it possible for Utnapishtim is rewarded.
There are other versions with other gods, floods, and ark-builders as effectively. In the Religion for Breakfast video just above, religious studies scholar Andrew Mark Henry compares the Biblical story of Noah and the Utnapishtim episode of the Epic of Gilgamesh with the “Sumerian flood story” from the second millennium BC and the two-centuries-older “Atrahasis epic.” All of those versions have an excellent deal in common, not least the executive decision by an exasperated excessiveer being (or beings) to wipe out nearly totally the humanity they themselves created. Ironically, we moderns are likely to have first encountered this story of godly wrath and subsequent mass destruction in gentlecoronary hearted, even cheerful presentations. Whether or not historic Sumerians additionally sang about it in youth teams, no clay pill has but revealed.
Related content:
A Map of All the Countries Mentioned in the Bible: What The Countries Were Called Then, and Now
Did the Tower of Babel Actually Exist?: A Look at the Archaeological Evidence
The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Oldest-Known Work of Literature in World History
Based mostly in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His initiatives embody the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the e book The Statemuch less Metropolis: a Stroll by way of Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on the social internetwork formerly often called Twitter at @colinmarshall.