Understanding Genesis 6-8: The Story of Noah’s Flood (And its Similarities and Differences with Gilgamesh)

Compared to everyone else in Genesis 1-11, Noah gets the most ink by far. The story of Noah’s flood goes from Genesis 6:5 to the end of chapter 8. And then, Noah even gets another chapter after the flood is over, in Genesis 9. Now, the interesting thing about the story of Noah and the flood is that other cultures in the ancient Near East also had similar stories. The two most famous ones are the Atrahasis Epic, which probably dates to the 17^th century BC, and the Gilgamesh Epic, which probably dates to around the same time.

The thing to remember is that flood stories like these were well-known in the ancient Near East. Many like to speculate that the very reason why so many cultures have flood stories must be because at one point in history there was, in fact a world-wide flood. Others speculate that the origin of the stories could have been a local flood throughout the ancient Near East. For our purposes, though, we have to simply say, “Okay, maybe…” and move on. Our task should not be to try to figure out how the stories came into existence or whether or not a literal world-wide flood really happened. Instead, we should be concerned with how they were used by the various cultures of the ancient Near East. Or to put it another way, what is the point of the stories, and what are they trying to teach?

Before we get to that, though, take time to read both the biblical account of Noah and the Flood as well as the account in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and then notice the similarities and differences between the two stories. But if you don’t want to do that, allow me to give some highlights. Just for clarity, though, let me tell you that in the Gilgamesh epic, Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtim, the man who survived the flood—hence, the Noah-figure—and Utnapishtim recounts to Gilgamesh the events of the flood.

A Brief Overview of Both Stories
First off, the reason why the gods send the flood in Gilgamesh is worth noting: human beings were being too loud, and the gods were unable to get any sleep. By contrast, the reason for the flood in Genesis 6 is given in 6:1-4—it wasn’t that human beings were too loud; it was because they had become evil and corrupt. Right there, that should tell you someone about the difference between the Israelite perception of YHWH and the pagan view of their gods. I’ll touch upon this is bit. But for now, on with the overview…and the similarities and differences. In Gilgamesh, the god Ea tells Utnapishtim what the gods were planning to do and gives him instructions on how to build a boat. On this point, the instructions are somewhat similar—consider the following:

When Utnapishtim had finished building the ship he arranged a sumptuous banquet. He provided venison and mutton for those who had helped with the work of building and dispensed “cider, beer, oil and wine to the people as if it were running water.” After that, Utnapishtim began to load his boat. Again, the similarities between the Gilgamesh story and the Genesis story are there:

The gods of Mesopotamia become terrified of the flood, though, so they flee to the upper reaches of heaven where the god Anu has his abode. Before they enter, “they crouch and cower like dogs.” They are grieved and shattered by what is happening and tearfully and in utter dejection lodge their complaint. But the flood rages on, as Gilgamesh learns…

Now for the Questions
Given all that, the natural question must be, “If you were an ancient Israelite, living in the culture of the ancient Near East, and you heard the story of Noah, what sort of things would stand out to you?”

Now, what I want to emphasize is how easy it is for us in the modern world to miss the point of the Noah story. For the most part, people are unaware of the epics of Atrahasis and Gilgamesh, and therefore have no idea about the culture of the ancient Near East. Consequently, we in the modern world read the story of Noah, and because of our ignorance of the ANE culture, as well as our modern scientific-Enlightenment worldview, we immediately ask historical and scientific questions, like “Is it possible for one man to build a boat like that? When did it happen? Is there any evidence of a world-wide flood?” We thus assume that the validity of the Noah story depends on whether or not it could be historically or scientifically proven.

But the ANE culture was not a scientific-Enlightenment culture, and they would not have been asking those questions in the first place. Sure, it is very possible that people assumed that the story they were reading (be it Atrahasis, Gilgamesh, or Noah) happened “way back when,” but that simply wasn’t really the focus. The purpose of these stories was to teach that particular culture’s worldview and beliefs about the gods and human beings. And if you were pagan who grew up listening to Gilgamesh, there is one thing that was crystal clear to you when it came to the gods: they were petty and dangerous…and rather psychotic!

Think about it, think back to when you were a kid and had a sleepover with your friends. It’s getting late, and you should all be going to sleep, but you’re having too much fun, and you’re getting a little loud…and then your parents break your bedroom door down, shout at the top of their lungs, “We told you pathetic leeches to shut up!” and they proceed to spray the entire room with bullets, killing all of your friends! Then they turn to you and say, “Now clean this mess up, and don’t you ever disobey us again!” I’m guessing that you wouldn’t have too high an opinion of your parents. Of course, you wouldn’t say anything—you’d pick up the shovel and start digging a mass grave for your friends in the back yard, because if you didn’t, you’d be killed too!

Why such a morbid analogy? That is kind of what the flood story in Gilgamesh is teaching about the gods: human beings are worthless slaves, and if they get too loud, the gods will commit mass genocide…whatcha gonna do? By contrast, the Noah story is strikingly different. The reason for the flood is not petty gods getting angry that their pathetic slave labor is enjoying themselves too much and getting too loud so that the gods can’t get their beauty sleep. No, the reason is that humanity had become exceedingly sinful and evil. The odd story in Genesis 6:1-4 that leads into the flood story illustrates that very thing. Therefore, the worldview in Genesis 6-8 is quite different than the pagan worldview of the ANE: the One God is concerned with justice and morality; it is not a matter of psychotic, immoral gods who are willing to wipe out humanity, simply because they’re being too loud.

Going Back to the Beginning
Instead of representing God’s character to His creation, as His image-bearers were created to do, humanity had degenerated into becoming the exact opposite of what God intended. Therefore, God decided to “wipe the slate clean,” so to speak, and allow the waters of chaos flood over His creation, and thus take things back to the beginning and start over. Simply put, the story of Noah’s flood is a story of God’s re-creation. What the flood represents is God taking things back to the original state in Genesis 1:1, so that He can start over. The flood is the unleashing of the primordial forces of chaos to “wash away” the corruption that humanity had brought upon God’s original creation. And once that is done, God gets back to work, re-establishing His creation through Noah.

This concept is actually incredibly important if one is to understand, not only the story of Noah’s flood itself, but also the literary structure of Genesis 1-11 as a whole. Now, I was a literature major in college, and I taught English Literature for eight years. And so, when I did my graduate work in Biblical Studies, I naturally took what I learned regarding how to read literature and applied it to my reading of the Bible. And part of being able to truly understand any given work of literature is being able to discern the way the work is structured. Poems have structure, novels have structure, even music has structure—and that structure that gives the work coherence and makes it possible for people to follow and enjoy. The same goes for the Bible in general, and Genesis 1-11 in particular.

Once I understood that the story of Noah’s flood was essentially a re-creation story, I was able to recognize that Genesis 1-11 has a distinct “literary flow” and structure to it. I will illustrate the overall literary structure of Genesis 1-11 once we get through Genesis 11, but for now, let me say this: with the literary structure of Genesis 1-11, the story Noah’s flood takes the reader “back to the beginning,” and what we find happening in Genesis 9-11 is a repetition of what happens in Genesis 1:1-6:4. What happens in the second half of Genesis 1-11 follows the exact same pattern and structure as the first half of Genesis 1-11.

We’ll see this played out in the next couple of posts.