Utanapishtim spoke to Gilgamesh, saying:
“I will reveal to you, Gilgamesh, a thing that is hidden,
a secret of the gods I will tell you!
Shuruppak, a city that you surely know,
situated on the banks of the Euphrates,
that city was very old, and there were gods inside it.
The hearts of the Great Gods moved them to inflict the Flood.
O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu:
Tear down the house and build a boat!
Abandon wealth and seek living beings!
Spurn possessions and keep alive living beings!
Make all living beings go up into the boat.
The boat which you are to build,
its dimensions must measure equal to each other:
its length must correspond to its width.
Roof it over like the Apsu.
I understood and spoke to my lord, Ea:
‘My lord, thus is the command which you have uttered
I will heed and will do it.
But what shall I answer the city, the populace, and the
Elders!’
Ea spoke, commanding me, his servant:
‘You, well then, this is what you must say to them:
“It appears that Enlil is rejecting me
so I cannot reside in your city (?),
nor set foot on Enlil’s earth.
I will go down to the Apsu to live with my lord, Ea,
and upon you he will rain down abundance,
a profusion of fowl, myriad(!) fishes.
He will bring to you a harvest of wealth,
in the morning he will let loaves of bread shower down,
and in the evening a rain of wheat!”‘
Just as dawn began to glow
the land assembled around me-
the carpenter carried his hatchet,
the reed worker carried his (flattening) stone,
… the men …
The child carried the pitch,
the weak brought whatever else was needed.
On the fifth day I laid out her exterior.
It was a field in area,
its walls were each 10 times 12 cubits in height,
the sides of its top were of equal length, 10 times It cubits each.
I laid out its (interior) structure and drew a picture of it (?).
I provided it with six decks,
thus dividing it into seven (levels).
The inside of it I divided into nine (compartments).
I drove plugs (to keep out) water in its middle part.
I saw to the punting poles and laid in what was necessary.
Three times 3,600 (units) of raw bitumen I poured into the
bitumen kiln,
three times 3,600 (units of) pitch …into it,
there were three times 3,600 porters of casks who carried (vege-
table) oil,
apart from the 3,600 (units of) oil which they consumed (!)
and two times 3,600 (units of) oil which the boatman stored
away.
I butchered oxen for the meat(!),
and day upon day I slaughtered sheep.
I gave the workmen(?) ale, beer, oil, and wine, as if it were
river water,
so they could make a party like the New Year’s Festival.
… and I set my hand to the oiling(!).
The boat was finished by sunset.
The launching was very difficult.
They had to keep carrying a runway of poles front to back,
until two-thirds of it had gone into the water(?).
Whatever I had I loaded on it:
whatever silver I had I loaded on it,
whatever gold I had I loaded on it.
All the living beings that I had I loaded on it,
I had all my kith and kin go up into the boat,
all the beasts and animals of the field and the craftsmen I
had go up.
Shamash had set a stated time:
‘In the morning I will let loaves of bread shower down,
and in the evening a rain of wheat!
Go inside the boat, seal the entry!’
That stated time had arrived.
In the morning he let loaves of bread shower down,
and in the evening a rain of wheat.
I watched the appearance of the weather–
the weather was frightful to behold!
I went into the boat and sealed the entry.
—excerpted from Tablet 11 or The Epic of Gilgamesh (www.ancienttexts.org)
At least 9 different ancient cultures had a version of this story, most familiar to us from the Hebrew Scriptures as “Noah’s Flood.” Apart from being an exciting story of adventure from several ancient sources, the importance of this story to interpreting the world in which we live cannot be overstated. The debate over whether the world was once covered with a catastrophic worldwide flood has bearing on the following questions that cover many fields of study:
- Is there a God and if there is, does He control all things? Sending such a flood would indicate not only that He exists but that he can do all things.
- What explanations can be found for the geologic fossil record? A worldwide sudden flood would lay down a record that would be much different from a gradual accruing of sediments over millions of years.
- What is the history of the human genome? A catastrophic flood in which all but a very few humans were suddenly killed would greatly alter our mapping of such a genome.
- What authority does “myth” or stories have in the shaping of our understanding of history?
- What historical reliability do we attribute to texts such as the Bible which relate such stories? What weight do we give to multiple diverse and yet closely agreeing stories, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Hebrew Scriptures?
You should note that many of the questions above address areas of historical authority. They help us determine a reliable means of pursuing truth in the present from evidence provided by the past. If all these old stories are just make believe and not trustworthy, then all we have left is the present. We cannot choose just some of the past to be authoritative based on our own predilections of what we want to believe. So that brings us to this debate: “Was There a Global Catastrophic Flood?” In this course experience the Institute for Creation Research will provide some arguments in support of such a flood and other resources will provide counter-arguments. Think about it, and form your own view on this important question.
Enjoy the trailer to the movie based on this story, starring Russell Crowe.
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