Sumerian Deluge Story
First published by Arno Poebel in 1914. The text is very fragmentary with only the lower third preserved. One of the oldest extrabiblical versions of the Flood story, this early story featured the survivor of the Flood, Ziusudra (called "king"). It was found in the Nippur excavations early in the twentieth century, and dates to the late Akkadian period (ca. 1600 BC). There was also a Semitic version in Akkadian found at Nippur. What remains of the latter is obviously describing the great Flood, but it is so fragmentary nothing new from can be learned from it.
11.3. Gilgamesh Epic-Tablet XI
A well-known tale, found in Sumerian and Babylonian literature. The Assyrians likewise used it, the Hittites also (tablets found at Boghazkoi), and the Hurrians. Even in the Holy Land, a clay tablet (date ca. 1200 BC) was found with this man's name on it. He was the most popular hero in the Ancient Near East. The first tablets naming him were found among the ruins of the temple library of the god Nabu (biblical Nebo) and the palace library of Ashurbanipal in Ninevah.
Using the version from Ashurbanipal's library, in 1872, George Smith published the eleventh tablet of the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic as "The Chaldean Account of the Deluge." Closely paralleling the Genesis account, it created a sensation. The flood story was not in the Old Babylonian account although, according to it, Gilgamesh traveled to see a survivor of the Flood, Utnapishtim in this account, to learn how to gain immortality. Gilgamesh's name appears among the kings in the Sumerian Kinglist (below).
"The date of the composition of the Gilgamesh Epic can therefore be fixed at about 2000 BC. But the material contained on these tablets is undoubtedly much older, as we can infer from the mere fact that the epic consists of numerous originally independent episodes, which, of course, did not spring into existence at the time of the composition of our poem but must have been current long before they were compiled and woven together to form our epic." (Heidel, 1963, 15)
Gilgamesh was of the first dynasty of Uruk (Erech), the earliest period of Mesopotamian history. The Gilgamesh Epic indicates a close link with events immediately following the Flood. Someone who had survived the Flood still lived. Possibly this was Ham. Gilgamesh visited this person seeking to find immortality.
One of Gilgamesh's chief concern was the destruction of the monster, "Huwawa" or "Humbaba," who caused the Flood. It would be most interesting if it could be shown that this awesome individual is actually YHWH (YHVH) and that the names Gilgamesh called Him were derisive terms. We should recall that this account was written by priests who were bent on putting their gods and heroes above all other gods.
The flood story in the epic has some similarities to the Bible, but there are also large differences. The blame for the Flood is not laid on mankind's wickedness (as the biblical account maintains), but on the caprice of the gods. The gods are despicable creatures in the Epic as compared to the majestic person of God in the Bible. Noah was given warning and time to build the Ark. In the Epic there was little warning. Noah's Ark was very seaworthy; the ark in the Epic was a cube, 120 cubits on a side. In the biblical Flood it rained 40 days and nights; in the Epic it rained only six days and nights. In both stories all the mountains were covered (in neither was it simply a local flood). The landing took place on the mountains of Ararat; the Epic said the boat landed on Mt. Nisir. The "captain" in both stories released a dove which came back. They both sent out still other birds. Both Noah and the Epic hero made sacrifices after exiting the boat. Despite differences, they obviously relate the same event.
These differences are not insignificant in deciding which tale was written first. The odd shape of the Ark in the Epic -- being a cube and entirely unseaworthy -- compared with the sturdy, storm defying shape of Noah's Ark, surely indicates that the writer of Genesis was not "borrowing" from the Epic.
11.4. Atrahasis Epic
Until 1965 only one-fifth of this very early Babylonian deluge account was known. Alan Millard then discovered more of it in the British Museum, making up four-fifths of the original. A colophon (notation of title, scribe, contents, etc.) on it says it originally was three large tablets. It has astonishing parallels with the biblical account. But there are also great differences. In it, the creation of man is fraught with problems. 1200 years had not passed before mankind became too noisy, disturbing the gods. After much trouble with man and considerable over population, the gods decided to send a flood and destroy all mankind. Utnapishtim is the name of the flood hero in the Atrahasis Epic.
Apparently, based on remarks on fragment IV, it was used as a birth incantation to facilitate delivery of a baby.
11.5. Ras-Shamra (Ugaritic) Flood Story
First published in 1968, it was written on a single tablet. Only the beginning and end have been preserved, however. It dates to the Middle Babylonian period, but may be a copy of a much earlier Akkadian original. The hero is Atrahasis and what is available of the tablet seems to be like the Atrahasis Epic.
11.6. Sumerian Kinglists and the Establishment of City-States
The Sumerian Kinglists are very old documents. The first fragments were published in 1906. Since 1923 the Weld-Blundell prism (a square clay stela-like tablet impressed with Sumerian cuneiform signs) has become the standard text. It and other kinglist sources were published by Thorkild Jacobsen in 1939.
The kinglists refer to the establishment of cities and kingship before the Flood. There are actually several kinglists, each concerned with a particular period and one area. Babylonian and Assyrian Kinglists (later in time) have also been uncovered and name some of the same kings as are on the earlier Sumerian Kinglists. High ages given for the kings are either deliberately inflationary, or we have not discovered the correct interpretation of their numbering systems. Sumerian, in general, is still not well understood.
11.6.1. Sumerian Kinglist Part I (Pre-Flood)
"When kingship was lowered from heaven, kingship was (first) in Eridu. In Eridu, Alulim became king and ruled 28,800 years. Alalgar ruled 36,000 years. Two kings thus ruled it for 64,800 years. I drop the topic Eridu because its kingship was brought to Bad-tibira. In Bad-tibira En-men-lu-Anna ruled 43,200 years; En-men-gal-Anna ruled 28,800 years; the god Dumuzi, a shepherd, ruled 36,000 years. Three kings thus ruled it for 108,000 years. I drop the topic Bad-tibira because its kingship was brought to Larak. In Larak En-sipa-zi-Anna ruled 28,800 years. One king thus ruled it for 28,800 years. I drop the topic Larak because its kingship was brought to Sippar. In Sippar En-men-dur-Anna became king and ruled 21,000 years. One king thus ruled it for 21,000 years. I drop Sippar because its kingship was brought to Shurruppak. In Shurruppak, Ubar-Tutu became king and ruled 18,600 years. One king thus ruled it for 18,600 years. These are five cities, eight kings ruled them for 241,000 years. Then the Flood swept over the earth."
11.6.2. The Flood that swept over the earth. "The Flood sweeping over the earth" is described in Sumerian (2500 BC and before), as well as later texts. Mention of a flood covering the (whole) earth identifies it as Noah's Flood. It is the Flood in which every human died except those on the Ark. Since the outworkings of divine kingship was at least one of the reasons which brought on the Flood and kingship was thus terminated, (divine) kingship had to be "lowered from heaven" again after the Flood (see below).
11.6.3. Sumerian Kinglist Part II (Post-Flood)
"After the Flood had swept over the earth and when kingship was lowered again from heaven, kingship was first in Kish. In Kish, Ga(...)ur became king and ruled 1200 years. . . . Etana, a shepherd, he who ascended to heaven and who consolidated all countries, became king and ruled 1560 years . . . etc. . . . Twenty-three kings thus ruled it for 24,510 years, 3 months and 3 1/2 days. Kish was defeated in battle, its kingship was removed to Eanna (sacred precinct of Uruk). In Eanna, Mes-kiag-gash-er, the son of the sun god Utu, became high priest as well as king, and ruled 324 years. Mes-kiag-gash-er went daily in the Western Sea and came forth again toward the Sunrise Mountains; En-me-kar, son of Mes-kiag-gash-er, he who built Uruk, became king and ruled 420 years; the god Lugal-banda, a shepherd, ruled 1200 years; the divine Gilgamesh, his father was a "lillu," a high priest of Kullab, ruled 126 years; Ur-nun-gal, son of Gilgamesh, ruled 30 years; Utul-kalamma, son of Ur-nun-gal, ruled 15 years; Laba (h...)r ruled 9 years; En-nun-dar-Anna ruled 8 years; Mes-he, a smith ruled 36 years; Melam-Anna ruled 6 years; Lugal-ki-tun ruled 36 years. Twelve kings thus ruled it for 2,310 years. Uruk was defeated in battle, its kingship was removed to Ur (The peak of its glory.) 2050-1950." [Author's note: Gilgamesh visited a flood survivor, so these figures cannot possibly represent actual years.]
Kish was the first city established after the Flood. Excavations there indicate it was founded about 3000 BC. "Divine" Gilgamesh listed above, actually visited a survivor of the Flood Tablet XI of the Gilgamesh Epic). Therefore, he must have reigned shortly after the Flood regardless what the kinglist says.
12. Worldwide Records of Flood Story
12.1. Samaritan Pentateuch.
The Samaritans (which today live on Mt. Gerizim) use only the five books of Moses. They are of mixed blood dating to the time when the Assyrians took most of the Jews from the northern kingdom to Assyria, and colonized the area with Assyrians which intermarried with local Jews. Their short Bible updated many geographical sites in the fifth century BC, and tried to harmonize difficult passages. So it differs from the Hebrew Bible. In their Pentateuch, the landing place of the Ark was in the Kurdish mountains north of Assyria -- Mt. Cudi (Judi).
12.2. Targums
These are Aramaic renditions of the Hebrew Bible since Hebrew had largely been forgotten by the captives in Babylon. Nehemiah struggled with this problem. At first only oral, these paraphrased portions of the Bible were eventually written down. Three of the Targums (Onkelos, Neofiti, and Pseudo-Jonathan) give the landing place of the Ark in the Qardu (Gordian) mountains. This mountain was not far from where Jews were held captives.
12.3. Berossus
A priest of Marduk, or Bel in Babylon, he had at his disposal hundreds of tablets written in Sumerian and Akkadian. He later left there to become a member of the Seleucid court of Antiochus I. His account of the Deluge, dedicated to King Antiochus, was the latest published (about 281 BC), and was written in poor Greek. None of it has survived except for quotations of his writings quoted by Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor (first century BC). Although Polyhistor's work was also lost in its original form, he had abridged Berossus' work, and Josephus used some of his abridgment near the end of the first century AD. It was also used by Eusebius in the fourth century AD.
In Book two, Berossus' flood hero was Xisuthrus. The chief emphasis was the survival of man and the preservation of important books containing the principles of civilization so that after the Flood man could begin again. The remainder of book two deals with the gradual re-establishment of civilization by Babylonians during the first ten generations after the Flood. It seems that he used the Sippar version of the Flood story for writing book two.
In Book 2, section 2 Cronus tells Xisuthrus that all mankind would be destroyed by a flood, and that he is to bury all his writings in Sippar (the "City of the Sun"). He was ordered to build a boat, which he did, then took his wife, children, and some friends aboard. After the Flood he sent out birds several times until they did not come back. He then opened the boat and saw it was on top of a mountain (later learning it was in Armenia in the Gordian mountains). Xisuthrus was taken to heaven and his wife and the boat's pilot were sent to Sippar to dig up the buried writings and give them to mankind.
After sacrificing to the gods, they went to Babylon on foot. When they arrived they dug up the writings and founded many cities including "New" Babylon, and rebuilt temples.
Berossus tells that a portion of the boat was still to be found in Armenia in his day and people were scraping off pieces of bitumen to use for good luck charms. Josephus also supports this.
This interesting account is considerably different from the Genesis story, the emphasis being the saving of the books of civilization in order to regain them after the Flood, thus reviving pre-Flood corruption (from the biblical viewpoint). We note also that writing was apparently well-known before and after the Flood. Perhaps that is the greatest contribution to us in that it substantiates the fact that the Flood was a funnel for all literature and customs from pre-Flood times.
12.4. Josephus
"Then the ark settled on a mountaintop in Armenia. . . then Noah let the animals out of the ark, went forth himself with his family, sacrificed to God and feasted with his household. The Armenians call that spot 'the landing-place,' for it was there that the ark came safe to land, and they show the relics of it to this day to this day. . . . This flood and the ark are mentioned by all who have written histories of the barbarians. Among these is Berossus the Chaldean, who in his description of the events of the flood writes somewhere as follows: 'It is said, moreover, that a portion of the vessel still survives in Armenia on the mountain of the Cordyaeans; and that persons carry off pieces of the bitumen which they use as talismans'. . . Hieronymous the Egyptian, author of the ancient history of Phoenicia, by Mnaseas and by many others. . . Nicolaus of Damascus in his ninety-sixth book relates the story as follows: 'There is above the country of Minyas a great mountain called Baris where, as the story goes, many refugees found safety at the time of the flood. And one man, transported upon an ark, grounded upon the summit, and relics of the timber were for long preserved.' . . ." (Whiston, Antiquities,1.3.5-6, Loeb, 43-47)
12.5. Sibylline Oracles
The work consists of an original Jewish oracle with extensive Christian renditions. Its date is difficult to ascertain and opinions vary from the first to the third century AD.
The Flood story is somewhat embellished and amplified in the Oracle. Noah is bidden to prepare an Ark for his family while warning the wicked around him to repent. After his family has entered the Ark he is told, "Call as many as I bid you to address, species of four-footed animals, and serpents and birds. I will subsequently put in the breasts of as many as I apportion life to go willingly" (Collins, 1983, 339, lines 206-09). This indicates that wild beasts were given a "homing" instinct to come to the Ark from wherever they were.
The Flood itself was accompanied by hurricane winds, great springs were released, cataracts fell from heaven, "measureless waters appeared and the entire immense earth was covered" (lines 220-24).
Finally, the Ark came down on a "tall, lofty mountain on the dark mainland of Phrygia. It is called Ararat" (lines 261-62). Noah's family came down out of the Ark with all the living creatures, but Noah came out last. Thus ends the account of the "fifth generation" described in the Oracles: Book 1: lines 147-282.
12.6. Koran
In the chapter on Noah, the latter urges sinful men to repent, but they will not. So they are finally destroyed. Although it is a short theological treatise, it mentions that the Ark came to rest on Mt. Cudi (Judi).
12.7. Other Later Accounts
See Filby, 1970, 48-58 for many other "worldwide records," and Montgomery, 1972, 30 for a chart of 40 more non-biblical accounts of the Flood.
