Did Noah's Ark Steal From Gilgamesh?

Just about everyone knows the story of Noah's Ark, but did you know this story shares some surprising similarities to several different ancient flood stories from Mesopotamia? So much so that many people accuse Noah's Ark of being a rip off, plagiarised from these older accounts. In this video I'm going to show you these other ancient flood stories, and then go through the similarities between these stories and Noah's Ark. Then I will show you how the Israelites became familiar with these stories and adapted them. Finally we'll get to the question of whether this is really plagiarism. In 1872 an important discovery was made at the British Museum in London. A man named George Smith worked as a classifier at the museum. One evening, while working late, he discovered a stone fragment and became so excited that he took his clothes off and ran around naked. What he had discovered was a flood story that predated the bible, tablet 11 of the Epic of Gilgamesh. A few years later, tablets containing an even older flood story called the Epic of Atrahasis were discovered. Both of these flood stories share striking similarities to Noah's Ark from the bible, and they predate the writing of Genesis by centuries. These stories were written in cuneiform, the ancient language of the Babylonians. Since then we have discovered even more flood stories, and even more tablets. One of the oldest complete flood stories is called the Sumerian Flood Story. The tablet dates to somewhere between 1900 and 1600 BCE, but the tradition is older. The tablet tells the story of the gods flooding the world for 7 days and 7 nights. The hero, King Ziusudra, was warned in a dream to build a boat in order to preserve human and animal life. When the flood receded, he made sacrifices to the gods. This basic plot is also found in the Akkadian Atrahasis flood tablets, which date to the 17th century, as well as the Nippur tablet from the same period. Another fragmentary tablet, called the Ark tablet, contains a series of instructions from Enki to Atrahasis on how to build the Ark. The Epic of Gilgamesh tablet 11 has many of the same similarities, and can be dated to the 7th century BCE. A shorter fragmentary version of the Gilgamesh flood story is found in the Sumerian poem called the Death of Gilgamesh, which can be dated all the way back to between 2050 and 1750 BCE. There are other fragmentary flood stories and tablets, but in this video I'm going to focus on the similarities between Noah's Ark, Atrahasis, and Gilgamesh. You will be surprised at just how similar some of these stories are. Atrahasis follows the same basic plot as the Sumerian flood story. In Gilgamesh, however, the flood story is a sub-plot in a bigger story. During his quest for eternal life, the hero Gilgamesh comes upon Utnapishtim, who is immortal. Utnapishtim recounts to Gilgamesh how he survived a great flood, after which the gods granted him immortality. So let's compare the three flood stories. The reason for the flood story is only provided in Atrahasis and Genesis. In Atrahasis, the humans become too populous, and the chief god Enlil is frustrated that he cannot sleep over all the noise. So he sends a drought, and then a famine, to keep the population down. When those methods fail, he decides to flood the world. In Genesis, humans have become so evil that god regretted making them, and set out to wipe them out with a flood. As for why the hero was preserved, we are not told why Atrahasis or Utnapishtim in Gilgamesh were chosen to be saved. Although in the older Sumerian version, it was because the hero Ziusudra was a king. Genesis, however, reports that Noah found favour in the eyes of the lord. All three stories record how a deity warns the hero about the impending flood. In Atrahasis and Gilgamesh, it is the god Ea who has gone behind Enlil's back, and warned the hero in something like a dream sequence, described as talking through the reeds. In Genesis, god simply tells Noah. All the stories report how instructions were given by the deity regarding the size and shape of the ark. In the primary Atrahasis tablets, this section is lost. However, in the speeches from the ark tablet, the ark shape is a round coracle, measuring 14,400 cubits squared. In Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim's ark was a cube, that also worked out to be 14,400 cubits squared. Finally, the Genesis ark was a rectangular oblong, that, not to be outdone, measured 15,000 cubits squared. Even though the shape differs, the vessels are described as approximately the same size. All the stories recount how animals were taken on board. Atrahasis records livestock, birds, domesticated and wild animals being taken on board. Gilgamesh records domestic and wild animals. The Genesis account is here a little confusing. There appears to be two contradictory instructions regarding animals. Genesis 6.18-20 says bring two of every living creature, including birds and creeping things. But Genesis 7.1-4 says to take seven pairs of clean animals, one pair of unclean animals and seven pairs of birds. The Genesis account presents as a single story, but actually appears to be woven together from multiple sources, each drawing from a slightly different version of the flood story. Now here's a really interesting similarity. In Genesis, the animals enter two by two. It's the most well-known part of the story that has captured the imagination of artists for centuries. Recent translations of the Ark tablet have revealed that in this version of Atrahasis, the animals also entered two by two. All three stories describe the length of the flood. In Atrahasis, it lasted seven days. In Gilgamesh, it lasted six days and seven nights. In Genesis, we are again confronted with multiple versions of the length of the flood. In 7.4, we are told it will rain for 40 days and nights. But in 7.24, we are told that the waters rose for 150 days. Again, this is most likely the result of multiple sources behind the Genesis story. In both Gilgamesh and Genesis, the Ark lands on a mountain. In Gilgamesh, the Ark lands on Mount Nazir. In Genesis, it lands somewhere in the mountains of Ararat. Gilgamesh and Genesis also both record test flying birds to see if they will return. This is a particularly striking parallel. In Gilgamesh, Ut-Nepishtim sends a dove, a swallow, and then a raven. In Genesis, Noah sends a raven and then a dove three times. In both versions, when the birds do not return, that was a sign that the waters had receded. In all three stories, the hero then presents a burnt sacrifice to the gods. In one version of the Atrahasis story, the gods are pleased by the sacrifice because it ended their hunger. They resolve to curse a third of the world with infant mortality and infertility to keep the population down. A late Babylonian version of Atrahasis though contains a very interesting couple of lines. From this day, no deluge shall take place, and the human race shall endure forever. This is very similar to Genesis where God establishes his covenant and promises to never flood the whole earth again. So while there are differences among the three stories, there are indisputable literary similarities. All the stories contain the same basic plot points and structure. And there's also elements that point to shared literary traditions. Animals entering two by two, the ark landing on a mountain, the sending out of birds, offering sacrifices and a promise not to flood the world. This points to the authors of Genesis having some familiarity with versions of these stories that were written in Babylonian cuneiform. They were not drawing on a historical memory of a flood, but reworking a familiar literary tradition. In this next section, I'm going to explain how it was possible for Hebrew authors to have become familiar with the Babylonian stories. In the year 587, the Babylonians captured Jerusalem. Many Judeans were deported, including the most literate classes of people. It is likely that during this period, at least some of these literate Judeans learned Babylonian cuneiform. In fact, the Bible even has a story in which this happens. The Book of Daniel. Although Daniel was written much later than Genesis, in the 2nd century BCE, it was set back in the 6th century BCE. Daniel portrays Judean scribes in exile as having learned the language of the Babylonians. So we have a situation in history in which Judean scribes could plausibly have learned Babylonian flood stories in cuneiform. This combined with the literary similarities between the accounts leads many scholars to believe that the sources behind the Genesis flood story were reworkings of familiar Mesopotamian flood myths. Now, I have received a lot of comments about how this is nothing more than plagiarism, the authors were unoriginal hacks. Is Noah's Ark a stolen story? I'm going to say no from a scholarly perspective. Here's why. First of all, when it comes to this period of ancient history, plagiarism is an anachronism that assumes modern ideals of intellectual property ownership. No one had single ownership of the flood tradition. We have seen that all the flood stories appear to rework common plot points. Gilgamesh, Atrahasis and the Sumerian flood story all share common similarities, yet they've also been infused with new qualities each time the story is told. The same is true of Genesis. While there are a lot of similarities, there's also important differences. Noah's Ark is a very Judean story that presents a Judean worldview, not the Babylonian worldview. Dr Irving Finkel sums it up well. The process of literary adoption by the Judeans imbued already striking narratives with a fresh and independent moral quality. So did they borrow elements from cuneiform stories? Almost certainly. Was that stealing in the ancient world? No. So there you have it. Noah's Ark almost certainly borrowed the literary structure and plot points from other ancient flood stories, but it has uniquely Judean elements as well, probably written to help tell Israel's national story after the Babylonian exile. Anyway, thanks for watching. As always, sources will be in the description. If you've enjoyed this video, please consider supporting the channel. My name's Lachlan, you've been watching Bible Unboxed.