The book of Genesis and the great flood

[Gleason92]

Hello again.  Long story short, I had an unfortunate, sudden but not unexpected death in the family recently.  The adult siblings all gathered.  5 families, 4 of which are lapsed or worse.  We get on the topic of faith, and I'm sent into action.  I defend truth as vehemently as I know how. However, I'm green, an amateur.  I was challenged on the great flood and I was tripped up.  A very sly objection I had never heard or had to defend anywhere.  I was challenged on the timing of the Bible vs. Gilgamesh when it comes to the great flood.  My only defense was to ask for empirical proof of dates and to explain the Bible was orally passed down for a long time as well. 

I also explained how all the Messiah myths of old were simply false Christ stories attempting to fulfill old testament prophecy, and it's backwards to think those myths are the same thing as the Jesus Truth which in fact DID fulfill ALL prophecies (attempting to correlate this logic to the Genesis flood).  But I'm not satisfied with myself on the Gilgamesh topic and would like to ask if anyone could help basically debunk Gilgamesh as an empirical proof of an older flood story compared to Genesis? 

I apologize if the answers are already archived here, I'm just trying to engage some positive discussion, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Edited April 17, 2018 by Gleason92
Paragraph breaks, easier on the eyes.

[other one]

18 hours ago, Sojourner414 said:

This may be of some assistance to you:

https://creation.com/noahs-flood-and-the-gilgamesh-epic

Here's a snippet that should answer your question more fully:

 

It also explains that not only is the Genesis account older, but that it wasn't even Gilgamesh, but Utnapishtim  who was the hero of the Sumerian legend.

I've been wanting to look into where the Gilgamesh name came from.....   do you know by any chance it's origin?

[TheMatrixHasU71]

On 4/17/2018 at 12:45 AM, Gleason92 said:

Hello again.  Long story short, I had an unfortunate, sudden but not unexpected death in the family recently.  The adult siblings all gathered.  5 families, 4 of which are lapsed or worse.  We get on the topic of faith, and I'm sent into action.  I defend truth as vehemently as I know how. However, I'm green, an amateur.  I was challenged on the great flood and I was tripped up.  A very sly objection I had never heard or had to defend anywhere.  I was challenged on the timing of the Bible vs. Gilgamesh when it comes to the great flood.  My only defense was to ask for empirical proof of dates and to explain the Bible was orally passed down for a long time as well. 

I also explained how all the Messiah myths of old were simply false Christ stories attempting to fulfill old testament prophecy, and it's backwards to think those myths are the same thing as the Jesus Truth which in fact DID fulfill ALL prophecies (attempting to correlate this logic to the Genesis flood).  But I'm not satisfied with myself on the Gilgamesh topic and would like to ask if anyone could help basically debunk Gilgamesh as an empirical proof of an older flood story compared to Genesis? 

I apologize if the answers are already archived here, I'm just trying to engage some positive discussion, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

EVERY culture in the world has some sort of flood story. Ask yourself why. Does the bible borrow from these cultures or is it the other way around. 

[other one]

what makes anyone think that they are not just telling their own story.....  they are the decedents from those that lived through it and they are telling their story concerning their lines of ancestors.      I doubt that any of them borrowed from anyone.   They also all speak of heavenly beings coming down and mating with humans creating a huge problem with evil....  causing the need for the flood in the first place.

[other one]

On ‎4‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 10:45 PM, Gleason92 said:

Hello again.  Long story short, I had an unfortunate, sudden but not unexpected death in the family recently.  The adult siblings all gathered.  5 families, 4 of which are lapsed or worse.  We get on the topic of faith, and I'm sent into action.  I defend truth as vehemently as I know how. However, I'm green, an amateur.  I was challenged on the great flood and I was tripped up.  A very sly objection I had never heard or had to defend anywhere.  I was challenged on the timing of the Bible vs. Gilgamesh when it comes to the great flood.  My only defense was to ask for empirical proof of dates and to explain the Bible was orally passed down for a long time as well. 

I also explained how all the Messiah myths of old were simply false Christ stories attempting to fulfill old testament prophecy, and it's backwards to think those myths are the same thing as the Jesus Truth which in fact DID fulfill ALL prophecies (attempting to correlate this logic to the Genesis flood).  But I'm not satisfied with myself on the Gilgamesh topic and would like to ask if anyone could help basically debunk Gilgamesh as an empirical proof of an older flood story compared to Genesis? 

I apologize if the answers are already archived here, I'm just trying to engage some positive discussion, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

The Sumerian stories of Gilgamesh were written by the Sumerians about 2000 bc.    That was about the time that Noah died.    Abraham was 58 years old when Noah died..    Shem actually lived about 35 years longer than Abraham  Shem's son Eber lived until Jacob was about 40....   The people who handed down the Biblical Story wasn't too many generations away from the Bible being written....     

The Sumerian Story of Gilgamesh was written before the Bible because the Sumerians started writing before the time that the Bible was written.....    but the story in the Bible came through the Bloodline of the decedents of our Lord.....     Considering that Shem was still alive when Isaac was about 40, I would think that the families would have known what happened.   And consider that the Bible really doesn't spend a lot of time dealing with the individual lives before Abraham...  Abraham was about 40 years old when Gilgamesh was being penned....   About the only people mentioned before Abraham was Nimrod and not much spoken of him in any positive way. 

Personally I think the Bible tells us about all we really need to know of the history of Nimrod and those that followed him.   Many scholars today consider Nimrod and Gilgamesh the same entity, but that's a discussion for another day.    Gilgamesh sought out the watchers supposedly at the edge of the earth and learned of the things taught men before the flood.....    and that knowledge is what brought on the flood....     Why in the world would the Bible bring that knowledge back to mind......     it tells us not to deal with those things in our lives.

Basically I think none of the different stories were copied off of any of the others, but the stories of each of the blood lines that spread out after the flood.   Especially after the tower of Babel thing.    It's a fascinating study but will quickly lead you into the study of the occult which to a lot of people is spiritually not really good.  There is reasons why most of the world went to the satanic side of things after God dealt with the people at the tower of Babel, and why the decedents of Abraham stuck with Yahweh.    It's a shame his decedents didn't always do the same.