Excavations have uncovered Babylonian school tablets with parts of the Gilgamesh Epic inscribed on them. This tells us that the Gilgamesh Epic (including the flood story) was on the curriculum in schools in Babylon. Is that how Judean exiles became familiar with these stories? Could Judean children have learned these same stories? A detail in the biblical book of Daniel suggests they did. According to the story, Daniel was the son of an exiled Judean noble man. In Babylon, the Bible says, he and his friends were taught to read the literature and the language of the Chaldeans:
“And the king (Nebuchadnezzar) ordered ... the commander of his court officials, to bring some of the youths from the Israelite royal house and noble families, who are prudent in all wisdom and endowed with knowledge, and who understand insight, and who have the ability in them to serve in the palace of the king. And the king ordered him to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans.” [Daniel 1:4-6]
This would have made Babylonian stories easy to absorb. These children suddenly find themselves learning these very narratives which seem to us the essential Babylonian narratives that ended up embedded in Judean Hebrew. It was Judeans in Babylonian captivity who learned cuneiform and adopted a number of stories like the flood story, the Tower of Babylon, etc. These stories were widespread in Babylonian culture and were absorbed into Judean scripture. The Flood Story is easily the best example of this borrowing that took place. The reason for that is the distinct similarity in plot and phrasing.
Let's compare the Biblical Flood Story with two Mesopotamian Flood Stories that predate it. The first of these, we find on tablet XI of the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh (EoG below) and dates from the 7th cent. BCE. The second, we find on tablets 2 & 3 of the Akkadian Epic of Atrahasis (EoA below) and dates from the 18th cent. BCE. The Flood Story in the Gilgamesh Epic derives from the Atrahasis Epic. When it was copied it was taken out of its original context (where it was part of a creation account) and important editorial and theological changes were made to it. In the same way, when this flood story was copied into the biblical account, it was revised and put in a new context. Yet, the close parallels in the use of phrasing makes the borrowing evident. We will look at five themes:
1 Destroy The Clamorous Brutes:
Twelve hundred years had gone by; the land had expanded and the people had multiplied... [EoA T2]
And it happened that, when humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground ... [GEN 6:1]
And the god (Enlil) was disturbed by their uproar. [EoA T2]
And Yahweh saw that the evil of humankind was great upon the earth. [GEN 6:5]
The gods commanded total destruction. [EoA T2]
And Yahweh said, “I will destroy humankind... [GEN 6:7]
2 Except The Progenitors of Life
Now there was one Atrahasis whose ear was open to his god Enki. He would speak with his god and his god would speak with him. [EoA T2]
But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh... Noah walked with God... [GEN 6:8, 18] (cf. Num 33:11, "Yhwh spoke to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend").
Build a boat! Spurn possessions and keep alive** living beings! [EoG XI: 19]
Make for yourself an ark... [GEN 6: 13]
Enter the boat and close the door of the boat. Send up into it your grain, goods and belongings, your wife and family, your kinsfolk... [EoA T3]
And you must go into the ark—you, and your sons, and your wife, and the wives of your sons with you. [GEN 6: 13]
Make the seed of all living beings go up into the boat [EoG XI:19] All the wild creatures that eat grass, I will send to you and they will wait at your door*. [EoA T3]
And of every living thing, from all flesh, you must bring two from every kind into the ark to keep them alive** with you... [GEN 6:18]
He caught and put on board the winged birds of the heavens. [EoA T3]
All the birds according to their kind, every winged creature ... came to Noah to the ark, two of each, from every living thing ... And those that came ... came as God had commanded* him. [GEN 7:14]
3 They Even Do Mooring
He (the god Enki) told him that the coming of the flood would be on the seventh night. [EoA T3]
And it happened that after seven days the waters of the flood came over the earth. [GEN 7:10]
The god Erragal pulled out the mooring poles. [EoG XI:101]
And Yahweh shut the door behind him. [GEN 7:16]
On Mount Nimuš the boat lodged firm ... [EoG XI:141]
And the ark came to rest ... on the mountains of Ararat. [GEN 8:4]
4 Canaries In A Coal Mine
I sent forth a dove and released it... No perch was visible so it circled back to me. [EoG XI:146]
Noah ... he sent out a raven; it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from upon the earth. [GEN 8:6]
I sent forth a swallow ... No perch was visible so it circled back to me. [EoG XI:150]
And he sent out a dove ... But the dove did not find a resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him... [GEN 8:8]
I sent forth a raven... The raven went off, and saw the waters slither back. It eats, it scratches, it bobs, but does not circle back to me. [EoG XI:153]
And again he sent out the dove ... And the dove came to him in the evening... A freshly-picked olive tree leaf was in her mouth. Noah knew that the waters had subsided ... He sent out the dove, but it did not return again to him. [GEN 8:10]
5 Working Up An Appetite
I sacrificed: I offered a libation to the four corners of the world; I burned incense in front of the rising mountain. [EoG XI:156]
And Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and he took from all the clean animals and from all the clean birds, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. [GEN 8:20]
The gods smelled the savor, the gods smelled the sweet savor, and collected like flies over a sacrifice. [EoG XI:160]
And Yahweh smelled the soothing fragrance ... [GEN 8:20-21] (Compare Num 15:11, “Every native Israelite shall offer by fire, a fragrance of appeasement for Yhwh, a pleasing odor to Yhwh.” See Lev 17:6, Ezek 20:28).
