Are their flood stories around the world that talk of a universal cataclysm reminiscent of Noah's flood? The prevalence of flood legends in folklore from diverse cultures worldwide provides compelling evidence for a global flood that eliminated all but Noah's family. Despite localized variations, these stories consistently tell a similar tale, reinforcing the significance of this historical event.
Currently, there are more than 200 stories that have been gathered by different missionaries, anthropologists, and ethnologists. Why Does Nearly Every Culture Have a Tradition of a Global Flood? | The Institute for Creation Research (icr.org)
The prevalence of flood stories can be attributed to the shared knowledge before the Tower of Babel. Once dispersed and languages were confused by God, the details of the true event, such as names, altered. The chart below illustrates some commonalities of a global flood found in various cultures worldwide.
Ancient Tables of Flood Stories Around the World
Item description:
The precious fragment is the earliest known Akkadian version of the familiar Noaj motif. The epic begins with the creation of man when "great indeed was the drudgery of God." So the gods created man but soon tired of him and decided to destroy all of mankind.
The god Enki(Ea) tells Atrahasis of the impending flood and instructs him to build an ark. With over 1,200 lines, the story filled three tablets. The Morgan fragment, from the second tablet, or chapter, preserves a unique colophon, stating the work's title—"When Gods Were Men"—as well as the name of the scribe and the place and date upon which he copied it.
Translation:
(The god) Enki made his voice heard...Dismantle the house, build a boatReject possessions, and save living things.The boat that you build...Make upper and lower decks.The tackle must be very strong,The bitumen strong, to give it strengthI will make rain fall on you here.The Flood roared like a bull,Like a wild ass screaming the windsThe darkness was total, there was no sun...For seven days and seven nightsThe torrent, storm and flood came on...
Name: Gilgamesh flood tablet
What it is: Also known as the 11th tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, this fragment of a baked clay tablet contains cuneiform inscriptions describing an epic flood that swept through Babylon. It is considered one of the oldest pieces of literature in the world.
Where it was found: Nineveh (also known as Kouyunjik), an ancient Assyrian city in Upper Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq).
What it tells us about the past: The epic tale that was carved into the ancient tablet is eerily similar to the biblical story of Noah's ark found in the Book of Genesis. The tablet describes how the gods sent a flood down to destroy Earth. However one god, Ea, alerts Utu-napishtim, the ruler of an ancient kingdom, of the plan and instructs him to build a boat to save himself and his family along with "birds and beasts of all kinds," according to the British Museum, which counts the artifact as part of its permanent collection.
Just like in the Book of Genesis, the voyagers release birds to see if the waters had receded enough for land to emerge.
One of the most exciting events in Near Eastern archaeology was the discovery of a cuneiform tablet from Nineveh that recounted the ancient story of Gilgamesh. The tale is remarkable not only for being mankind’s oldest epic, but also because it tells the story of a catastrophic flood that parallels the biblical story of Noah.The translation of the tablet caused a sensation when it was first announced in 1872. Other tablets with versions of the flood story were later discovered at a number of ancient Near Eastern sites.
A tablet discovered in the ruins of the ancient Babylonian city of Nippur in the 19th century by a team from the University of Pennsylvania also tells the story of a plan by the gods to destroy the world by means of a great flood and recounts the tale of an immortal man named Utnapishti, who builds a huge boat to rescue his family and every type of animal.
Dating from the 17th century BC, the tablet contains six columns of text, three per side, with 10 to 15 lines in each column. Written in Sumerian, it not only tells the story of the deluge but also describes the creation of humans and animals and records the names of antediluvian cities and their rulers.
It reads, in part: “… A flood will I send which will affect all of mankind at once. But seek thou deliverance before the flood breaks forth, for over all living beings, however many there are, will I bring annihilation, destruction, ruin. Take wood and pitch and build a large ship! … take into it … the animals of the field, the birds of the air and the reptiles, two of each … and the family …”
Two of Each: The Nippur Deluge Tablet and Noah's Flood | Emory | Michael C. Carlos Museum
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