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STUDY GROUP - Noah [Flood Myths and Reality]

Noah, Myth and Reality In this episode of Study Group, we pick up our ongoing investigation of Biblical characters and take a look at the story of Noah, his ark, and the mythical flood that is described in Genesis. This story is particularly interesting because of its parallels to much older myths and truly epic floods that actually occurred in the far distant past. We start with a brief look at Dalamatia, before moving on to the first Garden of Eden, the later flooding of the Euphrates valley, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and finally the Noah story from Genesis. Interestingly, all of these, except for the flooding of the Euphrates valley in 5000 BC, involved the destruction of a degraded culture by submergence. Both Dalamatia and the first garden had been overrun by the lowest types in their region when they sank beneath the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea, respectively. In the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Biblical story of Noah, the entire world is flooded to bring an end to its “wickedness.” Another interesting parallel is Adam’s preservation of the plant and animal species of the first garden by transporting them to the second garden. While this was on land, it is otherwise very similar to the preservation of species in the Biblical Noah and Gilgamesh stories. The Genesis story of Noah was written during the Babylonian captivity and borrowed heavily from both the Epic of Gilgamesh and other much older Sumerian writings that were still in existence in Babylon at the time (around 550 BC). But it’s during the flooding of the Euphrates valley that we discover the true Noah, who lived in Aram near Erech. By keeping careful written records, he was able to predict the increasing severity of the annual floods. He warned his neighbors without success, but built a houseboat for his family and animals which allowed them to survive the catastrophic flood that soon wiped out the entire village of Aram. Like the Noah in Genesis, the Noah of Aram was also a wine maker. -CT