Published: 03.31.2021.
The Gilgamesh epic is a 12-tablet literary story, written around 2100-1200 B.C. about the adventures of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk. Part of this story is an account of a flood, in which the man Utnapishtim builds a boat to escape a flood with his family and with animals, which the gods bring upon the earth to punish humans for being too noisy and interfering with god Enlil’s sleep.
There are some similarities between this and the Bible account. Utnapishtim builds a boat, embarks with his family and animals; survives the flood; sends out three birds after the flood; and offers a sacrifice to the gods after the flood is over. However, there are many significant differences between this story and the Genesis Flood. In the Gilgamesh story, Utnapishtim builds the boat in seven days, instead of the 120-year-warning period in the Old Testament. The flood also lasts seven days, instead of the over a year long period in the Bible. The epic gives the dimensions of Utnapishtim’s ship, which is cube-shaped. On the other hand, the dimensions of Noah’s ship make it very seaworthy and stable, according to a 1993 Korean study.
One of the biggest differences is that the Gilgamesh epic is a polytheistic myth with a council of gods, while the Bible is clearly monotheistic. The gods in the epic are evil and act on a whim. Enlil, the main god, wants to wipe out humans because they are too noisy. God, on the other hand, makes a moral judgment in the Genesis account that the people on the planet are sinful and wants to judge their sins justly while preserving humanity through the family of Noah. The gods in the Gilgamesh story are also cowards, because the flood scares them so much that they flee from a lower to a higher region of heaven.
Also, the Bible presents Noah’s shortcomings in the episode about his drunkenness, in contrast to myths which portray their heroes as superhuman.
Even though the Gilgamesh story was written first, this does not mean that Bible account is based on this epic. While there are some similarities, the two stories are fundamentally different. While the Bible is God’s Word, the epic is a myth that, just like the dozens or hundreds of flood legends around the globe, is built upon the same old human collective memory of a global flood catastrophe long past.
Sources
Gilgamesh epic English Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh
Noah’s Ark safety study: Safety Investigation of Noah’s Ark in a Seaway, https://answersingenesis.org/noahs-ark/safety-investigation-of-noahs-ark-in-a-seaway/
Flood legends: https://answersingenesis.org/answers/magazine/v11-n4/bible-culture/worldwide-flood-legends/
Gilgamesh epic full text in English: http://uruk-warka.dk/Gilgamish/eog.pdf