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1. Many flood stories, like Atra-hasis (1635 BC), record how men seeking relief of their burdened of hard labour before the flood because the gods had "cursed the ground". This agrees with Genesis and the meaning of Noah's name: "Now he called his name Noah, saying, "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed."" (Genesis 5:29) In Chinese, the name Noah means: "man through whom the weed curse is removed".
2. Noah and two his counterparts in Gilgamesh (Ut-napištim) and the Sumerian Eridu (Zi-ud-sura, king and the Gudug priest) were all in close spiritual union with their God. Noah was seen as the righteous one who walked with God and Utnapishtim is seen as equally pious in obedience to his gods. The oldest version in the world (Sumerian) has Zi-ud-sura as, "king and the Gudug priest. All three were rewarded by after they sacrificed upon leaving the ark.
3. Both Noah and Atra-Hasis were given explicit dimensions of the ark. The Sumerian tablet is damaged.
4. God gave mankind a 120 year period of grace through the preaching of Noah whereas such grace was completely absent from the Gilgamesh account where the impending destruction was a secret the gods wanted to keep even from Utnapishtim. However in the Atrahasis story, the god Enlil sent many plagues hoping to quiet the human noise that kept him awake. However Enlil's grace may have been more direct actions to reduce the population and therefore the noise, rather than a genuine period of grace like Noah and Moses offered in an effort to get moral repentance.
5. Both boats were coated inside and out with bitumen.
6. Only 8 persons were aboard Noah's ark Likewise in Gilgamesh, a small number of Ut-napištim's friends and family were saved.
7. Noah took 7 pairs of clean animals and 1 pair of all the rest, including birds, reptiles etc. with herbivores. In Atra-hasis and Gilgamesh loaded animals into the boat but there is no differentiation between clean and unclean animals.
8. Noah didn't have to go looking for the animals that went into the ark. God brought the animals to Noah, but we are not told how. In Atra-Hasis "Enki", the god of water (later Greek: Neptune) attracted the animals to the ark with rain.
9. All four flood stories speak of a global flood that rose above the mountains and that killed everything on earth. The oldest story, (Sumerian Eridu) is damaged but the indication is clear there was a global flood. The Bible says that the waters rose 15 cubits (22 feet) above the highest mountain.
10. Noah released four birds, seven days apart. First a raven that did not return, then two dove's that returned followed by a dove that did not return. In Gilgamesh also released three birds a dove, sparrow and raven. In the Berossus, Xisuthros releases several birds each time. In Gilgamesh, Ut-napištim releases a dove, then swallow, then a raven. Interesting that the biblical account of the order of the birds being released is scientifically correct in that a Raven, being a meat eater, is far more able to survive than a dove that is a delicate herbivore. Noah sent the stronger bird first and the weaker bird second whereas Utnapishtim did it in the opposite order.
11. All the flood accounts feature sacrifices upon leaving the ark. Noah offered one of every clean animal and bird which was a soothing aroma to God. In the oldest flood Sumerian Eridu flood story, Zi-ud-sura "the king sacrificed oxen and offered innumerable sheep." So both Genesis and the oldest Sumerian story agree that a large number of animals were sacrificed. InGilgamesh, Utnapishtim offers a bloodless sacrifice of sugar cane, cedar and myrtle of sweet smelling incense. In the Berossus, Xisuthros offers a sacrifice with no specific details.
12. God was appeased and moved to never destroy man again when he smelled Noah's sweet sacrifice whereas when the gods smelled the sweet sacrifice of Utnapishtim, they "gathered like flies" in a most base, undignified and animalistic manner as though they hadn't eaten in weeks. Even worse, when primary deity Enlil, arrived, he was prevented by the other gods from approaching the sacrifice because he had so rashly destroyed all of man. In the Bible, God is sorry for creating man and then sends the flood. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enlil is sorry for sending the flood then rebuked by other gods for doing so. In the Bible man is the sinner, in Gilgamesh god (Enlil) is the sinner. Remarkably, however, both stories arrive at that same conclusion that the earth would never be destroyed again in completely opposite manners.
13. All stories have God offering a blessing after they left the ark. God blessed Noah to have many children, and to start eating meat, but not blood. All of Noah's counterparts in the other flood stories were blessed with eternal life. Zi-ud-sura in Sumerian Eridu, Atra-Hasis in Atra-hasis, Utnapishtim in Gilgamesh all were blessed with eternal life.
14. God gave the rainbow as a reminder to Noah of the flood. Similarly in Gilgamesh, the god of the womb (Belet-Ili) arrives and presents Ut-anapishtim with a bead necklace as a reminder of the flood.
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