Running head: A GREAT FLOOD: ATRAHASIS, GILGAMESH AND GENESIS !1
A Great Flood: Atrahasis, Gilgamesh, and Genesis
Robert Sean Emslie
Spertus Institute of Jewish Learning and Leadership: The Bible and the Ancient Near East
July 1, 2015

A GREAT FLOOD: ATRAHASIS, GILGAMESH AND GENESIS !2
A Great Flood: Atrahasis, Gilgamesh, and Genesis
This paper will examine the great flood accounts of Mesopotamia, namely Atrahasis and
Gilgamesh in light of their presentation and also in comparison to the Biblical flood story in
Genesis. The Mesopotamian flood accounts and the Genesis account of Noah will be examined
to decipher correlations and differences and further examined to see how these accounts fit into
Ancient Near Eastern literary history.
Atrahasis
The flood story of Atrahasis focused on the flood being sent to force the “workers”, the
non-divine/non-immortal peoples to be quiet and not disturb the “elders”. After various plagues
do not quiet the “workers” as the “elders” desire them there is a plan to kill off all of the “work-
ers” via a flood (I:355-60). Ea-Enki warns Atrahasis of the impending flood and instructs him to
build a barge to save himself and others (III, i:18-48). After seven days the flooding ceased.
Enlil, one of the elders, was furious that Atrahasis had survived the flood and the plan to destroy
humanity had failed (III, vi:5-10). Being that humanity was not silenced by the flood and Atra-
hasis and others survived in the barge, the divine assembly decided to control the growth of hu-
manity and their “noisiness” by making some women infertile, sending “demons” to kill babies
and also having women take on celibacy as priestesses (III, vii: 1-8).
In contrast to what we will see in the flood account in Gilgamesh, in the Atrahasis flood
story does not conclude with reward for the hero, but the divine assembly whose plan to destroy
all life in the flood finds an alternate way to control humanity with the aforementioned making
women sterile, babies dying and celibate priestesses.

A GREAT FLOOD: ATRAHASIS, GILGAMESH AND GENESIS !3
Gilgamesh
The flood story of Gilgamesh begins with the divine assembly deciding to flood the earth.
Ea, the divine patron of fresh water, was opposed to flooding the earth and secretly warned Ut-
panishtim. Utpanishtim is told to build a barge and take samples of living creatures with him to
save them also (Tablet XI, col. i:7-40). Utpanishtim built the barge in seven days and loaded it
with his gold and silver, his family, his animals, wild beasts and the craftspeople that built the
barge (Tablet XI, col. ii:58-94). For six days and seven nights the flood took place (Tablet XI,
col. iii:96-144). After waiting seven days after the end of the rain and wind, Utpanishtim left the
barge and prepared a sacrifice to the divine assembly. At first Enlil was angry that all of humani-
ty was not destroyed in the flood but in council with Ea and the rest of the divine council decided
that Utpanishtim showed great wisdom to defeat the plan to destroy humanity in the flood and,
therefore, made Utpanishtim and his wife immortal (Tablet XI, col. iii:145-98).
The Gilgamesh flood account demonstrates the cultural need to understand how to prop-
erly interact with the gods and also the important answer to how to attain immortality, the ever
present need to find a way to defeat death (Kuo & Redding, 2014, Gilgamesh, Epic of). Utpan-
ishtim showed Gilgamesh that he was able to become immortal by his outsmarting the plans of
the divine assembly.
Similarities and Difference to Genesis
The similarities lie in all three accounts feature a great flood, a hero that creates a barge

A GREAT FLOOD: ATRAHASIS, GILGAMESH AND GENESIS !4
or ark and that they and those on the ark with them survive the flood. These parallels caused Hill
(2009), to put forward that the three flood accounts demonstrate at minimum a common ancient
literary source for the flood stories or even more that they are based on a historical event in
Mesopotamian history (p. 81).
As to differences one of the most important is in the Genesis account, God allowed many
years to pass (up to 100) before the flood to allow for humanity to change their wicked ways,
whereas in both Atrahasis and Gilgamesh the timing of the flood was at most seven days. God
also directly told Noah to prepare for the flood and build the ark (Gen 6:13-16), whereas in the
Atrahasis and Gilgamesh accounts they were informed indirectly of the divine council’s plan to
flood the earth. The direct action to save Noah in the Genesis account was seen as an important
difference in the flood stories by Sarna (1989) in his commentary on Genesis (p. 48). The Gene-
sis flood was for 40 days and 40 nights (Gen. 7:12) in contrast to the seven-day flood of Atraha-
sis and six-day flood of Gilgamesh. The Genesis flood account contrasts with Atrahasis and
Gilgamesh in that the Genesis account reflects Biblical monotheism whereas the Atrahasis and
Gilgamesh reflect the polytheism of the Mesopotamian world (Elwell & Beitzel, 1988, p. 800).
Comparing Biblical Texts with Ancient Near Eastern Texts
As to the Genesis flood the comparison with other ANE texts is important in showing that
as the Biblical account puts forward that the whole world was effected by the flood:

A GREAT FLOOD: ATRAHASIS, GILGAMESH AND GENESIS !5
“All existence on earth was blotted out—man, cattle, creeping things, and
birds of the sky; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left,
and those with him in the ark.” (Genesis 7:23, Tanakh)
it would be understandable for there to be flood accounts from many cultures given the
global nature of the flood per the Genesis account. Along with bolstering the Biblical texts, the
comparing of the Bible with ANE texts also allows for more understanding of the cultural back-
ground of the Biblical texts given that much of early Biblical history took place in Mesopotamia
where Abraham came from and also with the Babylonian exile, important development of Jewish
life took place and was developed in Babylon.
Conclusion
This paper examined the great flood accounts of Mesopotamia, namely Atrahasis and
Gilgamesh in light of their presentation and also in comparison to the Biblical flood story in
Genesis. The Mesopotamian flood accounts and the Genesis account of Noah were examined to
decipher correlations and differences and further examined to see how these accounts fit into An-
cient Near Eastern literary history. This examination highlighted the similarities and contrasted
between the Mesopotamian flood accounts with the Genesis account of Noah to better under-
stand the development of Ancient Near Eastern thought and religious practice.

A GREAT FLOOD: ATRAHASIS, GILGAMESH AND GENESIS !6
References
Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Book House.
Hill, A. E. (2009). A Survey of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Kuo, J. C., & Redding, J. D. (2012, 2013, 2014). Gilgamesh, Epic of. In J. D. Barry, L. Wentz, D.
Mangum, C. Sinclair-Wolcott, R. Klippenstein, D. Bomar, … D. R. Brown (Eds.), The
Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Matthews, V. H., & Benjamin, D. C. (2006). Old Testament parallels: Laws and stories from the
ancient Near East [Kindle Mac].
Sarna, N. M. (1989). Genesis. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.