Summary Of The Utanapishtim Flood

The flood stories of Noah and Utanapishtim have many similarities throughout the stories. Noah was a man who found great favor in God's eyes. The entire population of mankind had become evil and wicked and God decided to bring a flood to the earth to destroy everyone but Noah and his family. God told Noah to prepare an ark big enough to hold one male and one female from every kind of animal and creature. When it started raining, Noah brought his wife and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth and theirs wives onto the ark. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. After coming to rest on a mountain, Noah sent out a dove to find dry land but it returned. Seven days later he sent out another dove and it returned with an olive leaf, signaling that it was now safe to go onto land. Utanapishtim, the Mesopotamian Noah, similarly is …show more content…
When he finally felt it was safe to open the hatch, he saw the slopes of Mount Nisir, supposedly the mountain known today as Pir Omar.

He waited seven days before he sent a dove out to see if the water had receded, but the dove could not find anything but water and returned. Utnapishtim repeated the procedure. Next time he sent out a swallow, and just as before, it returned, having found nothing. Finally, Utnapishtim sent out a raven, and the raven saw that the waters had receded, so it circled around, but did not return. Utnapishtim then set all the animals free and made a sacrifice to the gods. Noah and Utanapishtim had many similarities as both set aside worldly possessions and followed the commands they were given to build a ship made sturdy and up to the standards of both Gods and later sail away with only relatives and animals. Both took members of their families and waited until the water receded and sent out birds to find out if the water was gone; Noah got an olive tree branch back and Utanapishtim received nothing. Later both rested on a mountain and were able to be saved from both