The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels

Cuneiform records made some three thousand years ago are the basis for this essay on the ideas of death and the afterlife and the story of the flood which were current among the ancient peoples of the Tigro-Euphrates Valley. With the same careful scholarship shown in his previous volume, The Babylonian Genesis, Heidel interprets the famous Gilgamesh Epic and other related Babylonian and Assyrian documents. He compares them with corresponding portions of the Old Testament in order to determine the inherent historical relationship of Hebrew and Mesopotamian ideas. Chapters I and II of the book contain translations, fully annotated, of the Gilgamesh Epic, the Sumerian version of the deluge from Nippur, the Atrahasis Epic, Perossus' account of the deluge, the story of Ishtar's descent to the underworld, the myth about Nergal and Ereshkigal, and the Assyrian prince's vision of the underworld. Introductory comments deal with the discovery of the clay tablets, publication of the material, and the sources and dates of composition of the documents. Chapters iii and iv investigate the parallels between the Mesopotamian and Old Testament materials on the two main subjects of the aforementioned texts. The deluge versinos of the Hebrews and of the peoples of the Tigro-Euphrates Valley and the beliefs concerning death and the afterlife of these peoples as attested by the inscriptions from Mesopotamia and Old Testament records, supplemented by uninscribed archeological remains brought to light from the mounds of Palestine and the Land of the Two Rivers, are compared.