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After going to Torah Study this past Saturday, I was inspired to read Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative (Hardcover) by Herbert Mason. Noah was the Parshah (sp). The book was was flat-out amazing. I immediately went to the library to procure a copy. I started reading it yesterday and finished it in a day.
As is well-known the coverage of the Biblical flood in both the Gilgamesh epic and the Noah story have striking similarities. Less well-known are dream interpretations similar to the story of Joseph. As is explained in various "afterwords" the Gilgamesh epic is recorded in primitive written form in various Cuneiform tablets. Scholars have been piecing together Gilgamesh for roughly a century, give or take.
A deep and abiding part of the epic is the tender tale of the end of a friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu. One of the most touching lines in my opinion, among many, about the end of friendship, in this case by death was: "You to wander on alone? Is that the way it is with friend(s)?
My opinion is that the discussions of this book are rife with arguments as to its historical accuracy, the quality of the translation, and the compiler/translator's understanding of ancient polytheism. My response is that none of us are an "ancient polytheist" and that all ancient epics, such as the Odyssey, have to be treasured for what they are, literature, and for historical accuracy taken with lots of leavening, whether grains of salt or otherwise.
Some worthy quotes:
One which I see parallels to the Joseph story:
Gilgamesh woke anxiously from a dream
And said to Ninsun: I saw a star
Fall from the sky, and the people
Of Uruk stood around and admired it,
And I was jealous and tried to carry it away
But I was too weak and I failed,
What does it mean? I have not dreamed
Like this before.
She said: Your equal is the star
Which fell, as if a sign from Heaven
Had been sent which is too heavy
But which you will try to lift
And drive away, and fail.
But I have never failed before, he interrupted Her, surprised himself at his anxiety.
It will be a person, she continued,
Speaking in her somber monotone,
A companion who is your equal
In strength, a person loyal to a friend,
Who will not forsake you and whom you
Will never wish to leave.
Gilgamesh was quiet at this interpretation
Of his dream.
One which I see parallels to the story of Moses smashing the rock, against G-d's orders
Take your ax in your hand, said Urshanabi;
Go down into the forest, cut down
A boatload of long trees
And set them with bitumen.* They will be your poles
To push yourself across the sea of death.
Laughed at the stranger's folly and even
Danced to mock the crazed man's act.
You have destroyed the Sacred Stones
That might have taken you across!
And one with is a beautiful quote about friendships shattered by death
It's not like you.
Why am I to die,
You to wander on alone?
Is that the way it is with friends?
Being that you mention the story of Noah and the flood, I saw over the weekend the most recent version of "Is Genesis History?". Although there are a few Christian elements mentioned in the film/movie, it does make a good case for validating the great flood of the Bible.
Some said there is a flood in the NORTHERN HEMISPHERE.as many countries recorded a flood and how a king with 7 men and women rebuilt.
The Chinese said the world is pitch dark until god Pai Goo ?use a hammer and open the sky and there is light,you often see drawings of 8 men and woman crossing the ocean.
The Japanese have the same 7 gods carrying hoes,fish,wine barrel crossing the ocean in a boat.
The Mayan or Incas said there was darkness until a dragon?snake came and there is light.
The Sumerian have the same legend of 7 men,woman and a king
There is also an epic in India of a king who found a small fish in his cup,fish said dont throw me back into ocean as I am too young to survive.
So he kept the fish until it grows in size and release it back into the ocean,
One day he had a dream and built a ship with grains and seeds,the fish came and took the ship into ocean and it landed on the top of Himalaya,when water receded,the folks settled down at the foot of Himalaya and today you found plants which are not native to the area.
Did anyone ever figure where the Sumerians come from?
They build the city and then they moved there,
Being that you mention the story of Noah and the flood, I saw over the weekend the most recent version of "Is Genesis History?". Although there are a few Christian elements mentioned in the film/movie, it does make a good case for validating the great flood of the Bible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mojo101
Some said there is a flood in the NORTHERN HEMISPHERE.as many countries recorded a flood and how a king with 7 men and women rebuilt.
The Chinese said the world is pitch dark until god Pai Goo ?use a hammer and open the sky and there is light,you often see drawings of 8 men and woman crossing the ocean.
The Japanese have the same 7 gods carrying hoes,fish,wine barrel crossing the ocean in a boat.
The Mayan or Incas said there was darkness until a dragon?snake came and there is light.
The Sumerian have the same legend of 7 men,woman and a king***********
There almost had to have been a major corresponding event of some kind that was frightening to prehistoric people. This is too much of a coincidence.
Perhaps we are not so different. People react that way to current, frightening events. Maybe we haven't advanced so much.
It's eerie how many ancient people relate the story of a great flood around the same time. As was common, most hold some greater power to be responsible and many people use this event as a springboard to instill some sort of ethics or morality. Surely, it's more than coincidence.
It's eerie how many ancient people relate the story of a great flood around the same time. As was common, most hold some greater power to be responsible and many people use this event as a springboard to instill some sort of ethics or morality. Surely, it's more than coincidence.
Very interesting observation. I agree, it's some combination, likely, of an ethics/morality story (as in both Noah and Gilgamesh) and observations of a real and frightening event. We, in the New York City area had rains of almost similar proportions in recent times, October 2005 and August 2011 and, less recently, June, October and November 1972.
water melts in the Arctic and finally covered the entire northern hemisphere.
The pyramid of Giza is built right in the center of the Northern Hemisphere and will be the first to emerge from a flood if you look at it from the sky.
There are always questions of Alien visiting earth,how did Egypt go from a rural society to advanced civilisation building pyramids?
water melts in the Arctic and finally covered the entire northern hemisphere.
The pyramid of Giza is built right in the center of the Northern Hemisphere and will be the first to emerge from a flood if you look at it from the sky.
There are always questions of Alien visiting earth,how did Egypt go from a rural society to advanced civilisation building pyramids?
Flood stories exist in various cultures around the world because floods occur around the world. Wherever there are rivers and large bodies of water there have been floods which have given rise to legends of floods caused by the gods. Many or most scholars believe that the flood stories of the ancient Near East, including the biblical flood story are based perhaps on a major flooding of the Tigris–Euphrates river system or on the Black Sea flood.
The geological evidence shows that there never was a global flood of the kind portrayed in the Bible and Gilgamesh epic.
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