By Israel Drazin The biblical flood and the Gilgamesh myth - 3 There are remarkable similarities between the biblical story of the flood and the more ancient version of Gilgamesh. The Babylonian epic Gilgamesh was written on twelve tablets around 2000 BCE and has survived in several versions. It [...]
By Israel Drazin The biblical and Babylonian flood stories - 2 There are three diverse Babylonian tales of a world-wide flood that have endured until today. One is a Sumerian version that survived only in fragments. Another is the rather famous Gilgamesh epic in which Utrapishtim tells his descendant Gilgamesh [...]
By Israel Drazin The biblical and a Greek flood stories - 1 Judaism is far from alone in chronicling the flood that covered the entire earth. Virtually every culture had the story, including the ancient Mesopotamian Gilgamesh epic, several Greek versions, and even one among the American Indians. The tales [...]
The following is a brief version of an excerpt from “Beyond the Bible Text” by Rabbi Dr. Stanley Wagner and me that was published in September 2013. We usually put three articles for each biblical portion, generally discussing thought-provoking subjects that people will not find elsewhere. This week’s essay is from Noach (Genesis 6:9 [...]
