Episode 134. If you read these four Mesopotamian Flood Accounts, here is where it gets interesting and quite challenging. There are many similarities between them and the Biblical Flood Account. Please turn to page 29 in the class handouts for a comparison between the four flood accounts from ancient Mesopotamia and the flood account in the Bible. You will notice that these include a reason for destroying the world with a flood, a warning to build a boat and its construction by the flood hero and then a flood destroys all life on Earth. There's also the preservation of the hero, his family, and animals in the boat. And afterwards, the hero sacrifices to the god or gods who smell the offering. There is also the use of stylistic numbers, 7 and 60. The similarities are even more striking between the epic of Gilgamesh, and the Biblical Flood Account. In both a boat lands on a mountain after the flood. A dove and a raven are used to determine if the Earth is dry. And there are seven day periods for the bird reconnaissance. To fully appreciate the similarities between the Epic of Gilgamesh and Noah's Flood, this is what I suggest, first read the Biblical Flood Account in Genesis 6 to 9. And then turn to pages 30 to 32 in the class handouts, and read an excerpt of the flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In my opinion, this is the best way for you to see and experience the similarities. The first time I read the Flood accounts in the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh, I was amazed to see how similar they were. And this leads to the question, there are too many similarities to be coincidental. Who borrowed from who? Did the Mesopotamians borrow from the Hebrews, or did the Hebrews borrow from the Mesopotamians? First, let's consider the possibility that the Mesopotamians borrowed from the Hebrews. This is the position of Christian tradition and young Earth creation. This approach has two assumptions. Assumption number one, a global flood is required so that the oral account of the flood can descend through Noah's sons to the Mesopotamians. But as we've seen, there is no evidence for a global flood. A second assumption required by this position is that a major civilization, in this case Mesopotamia, would inherit an account from a small insignificant tribe like the Hebrews, and then make it a major part of their history. But these seems doubtful. For example, when Europeans came to North America, did they incorporate the oral traditions of indigenous people and their history? Of course, this did not happen. The second possibility is that the Hebrews borrowed the notion of a worldwide flood from the Mesopotamians. This is the position of many Old Testament scholars. This view aligns with the archaeological and historical evidence. The Mesopotamians pre-date the Hebrews by over 2,000 years. The first Mesopotamian city, Erech had a population of over 10,000, and it was established about 3500 BC, BCE. In contrast, as we've noted earlier, the first archaeological evidence of the Hebrews is 1200 BC, BCE with the Merneptah Stele. But more importantly, the Mesopotamian flood accounts pre-date the Biblical flood account. They were written between 2000 and 1600 BC BCE, while Genesis 6 to 9 was composed between 1000 and 500 BC BCE, as we'll see below. Here are the assumptions of this second approach. First the Hebrews borrowed the flood motif from the Mesopotamians. And then under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they replaced the Pagan theology with their spiritual truths. In this way the flood motif is an incidental vessel that transports messages of faith. From this perspective these assumptions are more plausible than those which assume that the Mesopotamians inherited the flood account from the Hebrews. It's very important for me to emphasize that the recycling and reinterpreting of accounts was common in the ancient Near East. Take for example the Babylonian creation account Enuma Elis. The Assyrians inherited this account and replaced the Babylonian god Marduk with their god Assur. Therefore, for the Hebrews to borrow, the Mesopotamian Flood accounts and replace the Pagan gods with their God is typical of the literary practice of the day. End of episode.