what are your prespectives on the epic of gilgamesh

[Guest Past Tense]

And the hammurabi codes

Someone tried to throw this in my face as a reason to why the bible was false

Could someone please break down what they think about this subject to me? It's bugging me

[whirlwind]

And the hammurabi codes

Someone tried to throw this in my face as a reason to why the bible was false

Could someone please break down what they think about this subject to me? It's bugging me

Gilgamesh is said to have been "written" before the Bible....that doesn't mean the events "happened" before the true events, as given to us in Genesis. The true events weren't written until the time of Moses, as far as I know.

So....consider the twisted story that Gilgamesh tells. It is just a contorted view of the truth of God's Word that Satan uses to keep souls from God. All of the mythological gods are for that purpose - to keep souls from God.

My personal view is that these stories are from Cain. When he was thrown out of Eden he "builded cities" and that city was in all probability Babylon, which means confusion.....and look at the confusion of God's truth that has come from it. He knew the true story but was led by Satan and developed a twisted version and that same version is keeping others from the Father even today.

On another site I am astounded by young people that truly seem to believe those ridiculous stories and don't believe the Bible because of them. Satan's plan is working very well!

So....that's my story and I'm sticking to it (until someone with true knowledge and not just speculation comes along)

.........Whirlwind

[cwcrenshaw]

Gilgamesh is said to have been "written" before the Bible....that doesn't mean the events "happened" before the true events, as given to us in Genesis. The true events weren't written until the time of Moses, as far as I know.

So....consider the twisted story that Gilgamesh tells. It is just a contorted view of the truth of God's Word that Satan uses to keep souls from God. All of the mythological gods are for that purpose - to keep souls from God.

You are correct, The Epic of Gilgamesh was written far before the bible...something like 2500 years before. How then is it a distorted version of God's word when "God's Word" hadn't even been compiled yet?

Edited November 2, 2007 by cwcrenshaw

[Fraught]

my perspective is that gilgamesh strengthens the historicity of the word of God, a way of authenticating that advanced forms of writing were going on at that time and that the places existed that were written of in the O.T. babylon, sumeria, and ur were places mentioned in the o.t. but not gone into in detail - it does tell us tho that they worshipped their own gods and so it is not surprising that they would have their own myths and legends.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is, perhaps, the oldest written story on Earth. It comes to us from Ancient Sumeria, and was originally written on 12 clay tablets in cunieform script. It is about the adventures of the historical King of Uruk (somewhere between 2750 and 2500 BCE). from ancient texts.org

it's kind of cool in a way that some of these remained to be found

Look at this: (from wikipedia) 'gilgamesh, who appears in the Sumerian king list, was the fifth king of Uruk . . .' also called Ur - now where do you recall that place from??

although the o.t. is only concerned with babylon and these other places as they related to abraham and his descendants, these other places and people did exist with their own cultures and writings and myths + we know they had their own gods. just because our bible is written from one viewpoint and concerning one peoples doesn't rule out that there were other people and other cultures living side by side with them at that time that were real people with real lives and gods they certainly thought were real and active.

the opposite side of this coin is that ancient writings focusing on the history and culture of for example the babylonians or the sumerians, also doesn't rule out that we have ancient writings focused on the israelites that were real people with real lives also.

[Fraught]

Gilgamesh is said to have been "written" before the Bible....that doesn't mean the events "happened" before the true events, as given to us in Genesis. The true events weren't written until the time of Moses, as far as I know.

So....consider the twisted story that Gilgamesh tells. It is just a contorted view of the truth of God's Word that Satan uses to keep souls from God. All of the mythological gods are for that purpose - to keep souls from God.

You are correct, The Epic of Gilgamesh was written far before the bible...something like 2500 years before. How then is it a distorted version of God's word when "God's Word" hadn't even been compiled yet?

hello! you are correct in saying that God's Word had not been completely compiled yet, but the torah was written many many hundreds of years before the year 1 c.e. (and compiled); then the Good News and the letters to the churches began to be compiled around the year 70.

[whirlwind]

Gilgamesh is said to have been "written" before the Bible....that doesn't mean the events "happened" before the true events, as given to us in Genesis. The true events weren't written until the time of Moses, as far as I know.

So....consider the twisted story that Gilgamesh tells. It is just a contorted view of the truth of God's Word that Satan uses to keep souls from God. All of the mythological gods are for that purpose - to keep souls from God.

You are correct, The Epic of Gilgamesh was written far before the bible...something like 2500 years before. How then is it a distorted version of God's word when "God's Word" hadn't even been compiled yet?

Because God's Word had not yet been compiled doesn't mean it had not yet happened. It was history when it was compiled and written. So...because Gilgamesh was written before the Torah was written doesn't make the Torah a copy of Gilgamesh.

.....Whirlwind

[cwcrenshaw]

Because God's Word had not yet been compiled doesn't mean it had not yet happened. It was history when it was compiled and written. So...because Gilgamesh was written before the Torah was written doesn't make the Torah a copy of Gilgamesh.

I did not mean to imply that the Torah was a rip off of Gilgamesh, I only meant to correct what was earlier implied...which was that the Epic of Gilgamesh was somehow a twisted version of God's Word. They are two completely seperate documents (speaking of Gilgamesh and the Torah) in themselves, granted the Epic of Gilgamesh is much much older.

Edited November 2, 2007 by cwcrenshaw

[kari21]

It is true that the Genesis flood account shares many striking similarities with the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic - and with the Babylonian Atrahasis epic, for that matter. In fact, literally hundreds of flood traditions have been preserved all over the world, with traditions abounding in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, as well as both of the Americas, and the Genesis account shares similarities with most of them. Of the flood traditions which have survived up to the present time, about 95% describe a global cataclysmic deluge, 88% tell of a favored family of humans saved from drowning to reestablish the human race after the deluge, 66% say the family was forewarned of the coming cataclysm, 66% blame the wickedness of man for the deluge, and 70% record a boat as being the means by which the chosen family (and animals) survived the flood. More than one third of these traditions mention birds being sent out from the boat.

Since every culture has descended directly from the flood

[whirlwind]

Because God's Word had not yet been compiled doesn't mean it had not yet happened. It was history when it was compiled and written. So...because Gilgamesh was written before the Torah was written doesn't make the Torah a copy of Gilgamesh.

I did not mean to imply that the Torah was a rip off of Gilgamesh, I only meant to correct what was earlier implied...which was that the Epic of Gilgamesh was somehow a twisted version of God's Word. They are two completely seperate documents (speaking of Gilgamesh and the Torah) in themselves, granted the Epic of Gilgamesh is much much older.

Thank you for the clarification. Most do assume that the Bible was taken from it, instead of the other way around.

There is an interesting book, "Sargon the Magnificent." In it the author puts forth the possibility of that first "Sargon" actually being Cain. If true, that would account for the similarities in the Genesis narrative.

...........Whirlwind

[yaqub]

Many people think that "older is better" when it comes to archaeology and history. In some cases, it might make sense, but it many cases it doesn't have to. The Gilgamash Epic belongs to the second category, because a lot of embellishments have gone into it. If the Biblical account was taken from the G.E., then who is to say it did not come from the Chinese, or a tribe in Burma?

The G.E. and other legends found across a wide area of the world and across different cultures actually increases the probability (mathematically speaking) that a widespread flood did occur. While the G.E. has similarities to the Flood in the Bible, we can say also that about many other cultures as well. For example, in Chinese culture, there is a figure called Nuwa (sounds like Noah) who was credited with repopulating the world after the flood. The Chinese word for big boat means a boat with eight lives on it (count how many people was on the Ark).

This page contains a very good summary of various flood legends:

http://www.nwcreation.net/noahlegends.html