Digging Up the Bible: The Gilgamesh Epic

DIGGING UP THE BIBLE
Important Archeological Finds that help Us Understand Scripture
pdf
Linda Manuel—1996

Gilgamesh Epic
(7^th century BC)

This clay tablet with cuneiform (wedge-shaped) script was discovered at the site of ancient Nineveh (modern Iraq), capital of the Assyrian empire, by Austen Henry Layard in 1851 and deposited in the British Museum. George Smith translated the text in 1872.

The Gilgamesh Epic (tablet XI) is an ancient Mesopotamian (Sumerian) poem that chronicles the events of a flood told by one of the only survivors, Utnapishti, to the mythical hero, Gilgamesh.

King Gilgamesh

There were originally twelve clay tablets recounting the adventures of the King of Uruk from the third dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 B.C.). The tale was recorded centuries before Moses wrote the book of Genesis. The document shows a striking resemblance to the biblical account of the flood (chapter 8), as the selections below illustrate. This tablet came from the library ruins of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal.

Gilgamesh	Genesis
When the seventh day arrived, I put out and released a dove. The dove went; it came back, for no perching place was visible to it, and it turned round.	After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. (Gen 8:6-7)
I put out and released a swallow. The swallow went; it came back, for no perching place was visible to it, and it turned around.	Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. (Gen 8: 8-9)
	He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. (Gen 8: 10-11)
I put out and released a raven. The raven went, and saw the waters receding. And it ate, preening, lifted its tail, and did not turn around.	He waited seven more days and sent the  dove out again, but this time it did not return  to him. (Gen 8:12)

This text, although not identical to the biblical record, probably came from the same source, but in the transmission of the actual account the traditions diverged. There are other texts even older than Gilgamesh that speak about a great flood, yet we believe the story that came down through the patriarchs and that Moses recorded is what actually happened during the time of Noah.

Significance for Biblical Studies: What this document (and others like it) shows is that Scripture was not composed in a vacuum. Biblical authors working through the guidance of the Holy Spirit may have used existing literary sources to compile the historical record we now call the Bible.

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