Stories and Historical Accuracy // Moriah Nelson
I
think one of my favorite parts of The
Epic of Gilgamesh is the story of Utnapishtim’s flood. I always love to see
history align with the Bible. I don’t intend to preach to the choir, but I
can’t help but see where The Epic of Gilgamesh
fits into the biblical timeline. Of course, we can’t know for certain if this
flood is the same as the biblical flood, but I attempted to compare the
timeline of Genesis alongside The Epic of
Gilgamesh. Based on Gilgamesh’s reign of one hundred and twenty-six years,
we can assume he reigned sometime during the lives of Jacob and his sons. This
would separate Gilgamesh from the flood by about twelve generations. In that
time, Noah’s sons’ families grew, and the construction of the Tower of Babel resulted
in God confusing the languages of all humanity.
We
see several similarities in Utnapishtim’s story and the biblical account of the
flood, one of which being the story that only one family survived the flood.
Another is the releasing of birds from the boat, or ark, until a bird didn’t
return, having found dry land. It begs us to believe the story of Utnapishtim’s
flood was a variation of the biblical flood passed down by generations of
Noah’s descendants. After the people groups scattered from Babel, their shared
history became distorted and eroded over time. I find it an incredible example
of oral tradition and stories being shared in families. Stories have always
impacted our worldviews and beliefs, and we must pay attention to how the descendants
of Noah can have stories different from the Bible and be so far removed from
the truth.
It
is a believer’s responsibility to share the Gospel, and this reminds me of the
importance of ensuring we share an accurate depiction of God’s Word and stay
true to the Bible. Humanity has a history of forgetting God, and stories’
details in general, and we must strive for historical accuracy and truth based
on the only absolute truth we have: God’s Word.
P.S.
I commented on AnnaKate and Zane’s blog posts.
The story of the flood intrigued me as well, at least how it is presented in Gilgamesh. While the story does not perfectly line up with the story presented in Genesis, it does present an account that is similar in many ways. The idea of historical accuracy of the flood's accounts is one that raises many questions, because while of course the one presented in Genesis is the true account, many versions of the flood story appear in religions around the world, even the Choctaw people and the Indian poem "Mahabharata" have accounts of a flood with similarities to the Christian flood account that can't be dismissed out of hand, possibly suggesting what you're presenting, that the Tower of Babel is what caused some confusion over the events that happened, and it wasn't until God revealed the story through Genesis that we can now finally know what happened.
ReplyDeleteHumanity as well as forgetting God and his stories also have a tendency to warp his stories for their own good. Which is why as well as having a responsibility to tell stories exactly how they come from the Bible, it is also our responsibility to check what everyone says against the Bible.
ReplyDelete