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Epic of Gilgamesh

Imagine if some spectacular event occurred in the country where you live. Few people had witnessed it but you wouldn't be surprised to hear variations of the story from various sources. Different versions of the same story. Eventually, though, the government would present their version. Would the government's version be a rip-off of the earliest account as had been reported to you?

As people, sometimes we don't give much thought to our political, religious, or ideological fixations. Especially when we've heavily invested in them. So, let's take a look at Gilgamesh! Not the oldest flood story, but certainly the favorite among skeptics.

Did the Bible rip-off the flood story from Gilgamesh? The Gilgamesh Epic tablets were discovered at Nineveh in 1850. The Assyro-Babylonian tablets, dated to the seventh century BCE, are believed to have been fragmentarily handed down since about 1900 BCE.

Here's the problem. Bible chronology is far more accurate than scientific estimation. From just a few verses (Genesis 5:1-29 and 7:6) you can take the creation of Adam in the fall of 4026 BCE to the flood in 2370-69 BCE, as being 1,656 years.

Adam's creation to Seth's birth 130 years.
To the birth of Enosh ...............105 years.
To the birth of Kenan .................90 years.
To the birth of Mahalalel ............70 years.
To the birth of Jared ..................65 years.
To the birth of Enoch ...............162 years.
To the birth of Methuselah .........65 years.
To the birth of Lamech .............187 years.
To the birth of Noah .................182 years.
To the Flood .............................600 years.

Peleg (division) was named as such because during his time the earth was divided. That is the people were scattered after their language was confused at the tower of Babel. He was born 100 years after the flood and lived 239 years, so the scattering took place sometime from 2369-2130. Moses wrote the flood account c. 1513. So, that gives 856 years for the flood myth and other things, like the symbol of fertility or phallic symbol the Mystic Tau (an early form of the cross) used by the Sumerian King Demuzi of Babel (Tammuz: Ezekiel 8) to begin to circulate among the scattered people from Babel.

So all throughout the globe, despite geographical, cultural, social and linguistic barriers we find the flood story, stories of giants, the cross. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

Granted my math is worse than my grammar, if that's possible, and it is, you might want to go over that, but it doesn't matter. From the time of the alleged flood until Moses allegedly wrote the flood account would be plenty of time for that story to get started and be found all throughout the globe.
hippyjoe1955 · 61-69, M
You are assuming Moses actually wrote the flood story. I suspect that ancient people kept written records of the events and Moses found these accounts in the royal library in Egypt. He transcribed them and edited them but he based the account on existing records. The fact is that the flood story is pretty much a world wide story but only one of them sounds plausible. None of the other accounts are adequate for what was required. A floating reed boat is not sufficient to carry any animals much larger than a dog. It is prone to tipping and breakup. A wooden ship as was described by Noah is extremely stable and able to withstand tremendous forces. If Noah used drogue stones the ship would never capsize.
Floods happen all over the world to this day. There’s no evidence for a worldwide flood, however. The problem with the Biblical account is that it doesn’t say any plants survived since none were taken on the ark. So the story was clearly made up.
@LeopoldBloom [quote]Floods happen all over the world to this day. There’s no evidence for a worldwide flood, however. The problem with the Biblical account is that it doesn’t say any plants survived since none were taken on the ark. So the story was clearly made up.[/quote]

So, when the uh . . . floods that happen all over the world to this day they leave a wake of dead plants?
@AkioTsukino "[b]Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out[/b]; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. [b]Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark[/b]." Genesis 7:23

Since the Bible doesn't mention Noah collecting any species of plant (except forage for the plant-eating animals on the ark), based on the above quotation, we must conclude that all plant life on earth died in the flood. Most plants and seeds can't survive being underwater for that length of time - plus, the passage says everything died. Or, we can accept that the Bible story is a legend based on a devastating local flood, and the writer simply neglected to include plants in the story of what Noah brought onto the ark.

 
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