Found an ancient Babylonian epic that confirms the biblical story of Noah and the Flood
Found an ancient Babylonian epic that confirms the biblical story of Noah and the Flood

Video: Found an ancient Babylonian epic that confirms the biblical story of Noah and the Flood

Video: Found an ancient Babylonian epic that confirms the biblical story of Noah and the Flood
Video: Блокада Ленинграда | История Второй мировой (English subtitles) @Max_Katz - YouTube 2024, November
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There is probably not a single person on Earth who has not heard the biblical story of Noah and the worldwide flood that destroyed all of humanity. Even people who are very far from religion know this story. It is very interesting that the ancient epic of various peoples contains a very accurate retelling of the events set forth in the Bible. What is the story of the so-called "flood tablet" according to the modern translation?

In the middle of the 19th century, the ancient city of Nineveh was discovered by a young archaeologist and enthusiast Austin Henry Layard. During the excavation of this city, archaeologists have unearthed a lot of ancient historical artifacts. Among the sculptures, household items and other things, clay tablets with cuneiform text were found. It was part of an Assyrian library, and the deciphering of these tablets excited the public not only in academia, but also in theological circles. One of the tablets, it was called the 11th, contained a fragment of the ancient Sumerian epic, which tells about the flood. After several expeditions and excavations, scientists were able to find the rest of the tablets with this story. It was the poem The Song of Gilgamesh.

A tablet containing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh (Tablet 11 depicting the Flood). It is now kept in the British Museum
A tablet containing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh (Tablet 11 depicting the Flood). It is now kept in the British Museum

This epic was apparently very famous in the second millennium BC. Various versions of this poem have been found in the archives of the Hittite capital, Bogazkei (Anatolia). It was written in Akkadian. Fragments of a similar epic were found by archaeologists in Turkey. A small portion of a similar narrative has been found in Palestine. This means that there was a Canaanite version.

Clay tablet with a fragment of the epic about Gilgamesh
Clay tablet with a fragment of the epic about Gilgamesh

The Bible tells the story of the flood and the building of the ark at the very beginning, in the book of Genesis. God was very disappointed that people were endlessly corrupted. “And the Lord saw that the corruption of men on earth was great, and that all the thoughts and thoughts of their hearts were evil at all times;” (Genesis 6: 5 - Genesis 6: 5). God decided to exterminate all people from the face of the Earth. But there was one righteous man - Noah, who "found grace in the eyes of the Lord God." The Lord spared Noah and his family.

Noah and his sons are building an ark
Noah and his sons are building an ark

The Lord God told Noah to build an ark. The Lord made a covenant with Noah that Noah and his family would enter the ark, and He would bring a flood of water to the Earth. Noah also had to take a couple of different animals with him. Noah fulfilled God's command. While he was building the ark for many years, he preached so that people would repent and renounce their sins. But no one listened to him, everyone laughed at him.

Noah tells people about the coming global flood and calls for repentance
Noah tells people about the coming global flood and calls for repentance

After the construction of the ark was completed, Noah brought animals into the ark, his family, and after seven days God began to pour rain on the Earth. The Bible tells us that “in the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the springs of the great abyss were opened, and the windows of heaven were opened; and it rained on the earth for forty days and forty nights.”After the water came down, Noah and his family left the ark and released all the animals.

Noah gathers different animals into the ark
Noah gathers different animals into the ark

In 2oo7, scientists made a sensational statement that they found the remains of, presumably, an ark in the Ararat mountains. Geological analyzes of the remains of an ark-like object have not confirmed that it is wood. And now, last year, another sensation: Iranian scientists report that they have found an object that outwardly resembles Noah's ark. It is quite logical that this find is more suited to the biblical story. After all, it was the descendants of Noah, according to the Bible, who built the ancient city of Babylon. And it was also there that archaeologists discovered tablets with the epic "Song of Gilgamesh". Too many coincidences, right?

The pagan interpretation of the flood story differs from the biblical one in that there are many gods in the Sumerian epic. But most importantly, the pagan gods, according to the poem, decided to destroy the world on a whim. They just wanted to. Dr. Martin Worthington, a Cambridge University scientist, was recently interviewed by Newsweek. In which he said that in fact, the text of one of the clay tablets from the "Song of Gilgamesh", which contains the story of the flood, can be deciphered as a manipulative fake. That is, the pagan god Ea deceives people, saying that from heaven the food will rain. This will happen if they help the hero of the epic build the ark. Worthington says Ea played a "verbal joke" with the Babylonians. “People didn't realize that Ea's nine-line message was a ruse. It is such a special sequence of sounds that can be understood in completely different ways. There is a hidden flood warning in the text. I have found several negative signs that warn of an impending catastrophe."

A page from a medieval German Bible with an illustration of the flood
A page from a medieval German Bible with an illustration of the flood

Historians have found other parallels with biblical stories in this ancient Sumerian epic. It can be argued that the ark has not yet been found. Research in this area is ongoing. But so much historical evidence in the myths and legends of different peoples speaks of the same thing. And as they say: chance is a special case of regularity. If you are interested in other evidence and historical artifacts confirming biblical events, read another about it. our article. Based on materials

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