Noah’s Ark and the Great Flood

i kivotós tou Nóe kai o megálos kataklysmós

“...I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never
again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” -Genesis 9:11

Ten generations after Adam, God looked down on the earth and saw that the wickedness

on the earth had become very great. Men’s thoughts were evil. The earth was filled with

violence, corrupt, and rotten to the core. God was sorry that he made men and was grief-stricken. He

decided to get rid of everything He’d created.

There was one man, Noah, who stood out above the rest to God. Noah was a good, just

man full of integrity. He was a preacher of righteousness or right living before God (2 Peter 2:5). He

had a wife and 3 sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

One day, God came to Noah and told him that the earth had become like a sewer, and He

planned to destroy everything on the earth with a flood. Then, He gave Noah these instructions:

Build a ship out of teakwood. Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Build

a roof for the ship and put a window about 18 inches from the top. Put a door in its side.

Make 3 decks. (This would be the capacity of 522 railroad stock cars.)

God promised to make a covenant with Noah. He told Noah to bring his wife, sons, and their

wives into the ark. He commanded Noah to take two of every living creature, a male and a female,

onto the ark with them to keep them alive. He told him to store up food and water for

them all. It would have taken about 100 years to build this ark. The whole time Noah was building

it, he was warning his fellow men about the coming flood and destruction. At the time of Noah, the

earth was a tropical climate. There were mists to water the earth, but there had never been a flood or

even a rain shower, so Noah’s neighbors have thought he was crazy. They may have even taunted him

and his sons and made fun of them as they worked on the ark.

When Noah was 600 years old, the ark was completed. God told Noah to board the ark with his

family because out of everyone on the earth Noah and his family were the only righteous ones. He

told Noah to take seven pairs of every clean animal (a male and a female), one pair of every animal
that God considered unclean, and one pair of every kind of bird onto the ark. (This would have been

about 16,000 animals in all.) God told Noah that in seven more days it was going to began to rain. The

rain would continue for 40 days and 40 nights.

Noah did as God commanded him. He and his whole family entered the ark. The animals came

to the ark to board it in pairs. When everyone and every pair of animals were on board, God closed the

door of the ark.

Then all the underground springs broke open and the waters in the heavens poured forth. This

continued for 40 days and nights. As the waters increased, the ark was lifted up on the waters. (The

ark was built like a barge so it would have been difficult for it to capsize in the flood.) As the waters

continued to rise, they covered the mountains—about 22 feet above the highest mountains. Everything

on the earth died—men, birds, farm animals, domestic animals, every living thing that lived on dry

land died. Only Noah and those with him in the ark survived. The waters prevailed on the earth for

150 days (Genesis 7:24), and after these 150 days, the waters gradually receded from the earth.

God remembered Noah, his family, and the animals that were with him in the ark. He made a

wind to pass over the earth so the flood waters would go down. The underground water and the rain

from heaven stopped. So inch by inch the waters began to withdraw from the face of the earth. The

ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. The waters

continued to decrease until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the

mountains could be seen again.

After 40 days, Noah opened the window on the ark. He sent out a raven, which kept going back

and forth waiting for the waters to dry up. Then he sent out a dove. The dove couldn’t even find a

place to perch so Noah took it back into the ark. Noah waited another seven days, and sent out the

dove again. This time the dove returned in the evening carrying an olive branch. Noah knew that the

waters had gone down.

He waited another seven days and sent out the dove. This time the dove did not return.

When Noah was 601, the flood waters had all dried up. Noah removed the cover from
the ark and saw that the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the next month, the ground was

completely dried up. Then God spoke to Noah and said: “Go out of the ark with your wife, your sons,

and your sons’ wives. Bring out every living thing that has been in the ark with you—all the birds, all

the animals—so that they may reproduce and thrive on the earth.”

So, Noah and all his family left the ark along with all the animals. They went out in family

groups. Noah built an altar to God. He selected clean animals and birds from every species and

offered them as burnt-offerings on the altar. God smelled the sweet fragrance and thought to himself,

"I'll never again curse the ground because of people. I know they have this bent toward evil from an

early age, but I'll never again kill off everything living as I've just done. For as long as Earth lasts,

planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never stop.” (Genesis

8:20-22).

God blessed Noah and his sons. He told them to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. He

explained to Noah that every living creature would be afraid of man. He said that Noah was

responsible for them all. He told Noah all of them had been given to Noah and his family for food.

They were not allowed to eat meat that still had its lifeblood in it. Then God said if anyone took a

man’s life, He would avenge it whether the murderer was man or beast. He said this was because man

is created in the image of God, reflecting the very nature of God.

Then God made a covenant with Noah, his sons, and all their descendants: “I’m setting up my

covenant with you including your children who will come after you, along with everything alive

around you--birds, farm animals, wild animals--that came out of the ship with you. I'm setting up my

covenant with you that never again will everything living be destroyed by floodwaters; no, never

again will a flood destroy the Earth."

God continued, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and

everything living around you and everyone living after you. I'm putting my rainbow in the clouds, a

sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and

the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll remember my covenant between me and you and everything

living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll
see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living

creature on Earth." (Genesis 9:9-1

(iškar Gilgāmeš)

Six days and seven nights

Came the wind and flood, the storm flattening the land.

When the seventh day arrived, the storm was pounding,

The flood was a war-struggling with itself like a woman writhing.

-Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI

The story begins in Uruk, a city in Ancient Sumer (Mesopotamia) where Gilgamesh rules as

king. Though Gilgamesh is known to be stronger than any other man, the people of Uruk complain

that he abuses his power. The gods hear these complaints, and the god Aruru creates Enkidu, a man as

strong as Gilgamesh. Aruru forms Enkidu out of water and clay, out in the wilderness. Enkidu lives in

nature, in harmony with the wild animals.

Eventually a trapper discovers that Enkidu has been destroying his traps. The trapper describes

Enkidu as the strongest man in the world. Both the trapper’s father and Gilgamesh tell him that when

Enkidu sleeps with a woman, the animals he lives with will reject him. The trapper then brings a

temple prostitute, Shamhat, to Enkidu, and she seduces him. Afterwards, when Enkidu returns to the

hills where he lives, the animals run away from him.

Enkidu eventually travels to Uruk and blocks Gilgamesh’s way while walking in the city. They

wrestle, but Gilgamesh beats Enkidu. They each commend each other’s strength and declare

themselves friends.

Because of a dream he has that Enkidu interprets, Gilgamesh realizes that he has not yet made a

name for himself. He pledges to travel to the Land of Cedars and slay the giant Humbaba who guards

it. With the help of Shamash, the sun god, Gilgamesh and Enkidu defeat Humbaba. Humbaba pleads

for forgiveness, but Enkidu delivers the killing blow.

turns her down, however, because she treated her previous lovers badly, often turning them into

animals. Enraged by his refusal, Ishtar threatens to smash the doors of hell and release the dead unless

her father, Anu, releases the Bull of Heaven to destroy Gilgamesh. Because of her threat, Anu does so.

The Bull of Heaven wreaks havoc in Uruk, killing many, but Gilgamesh and Enkidu defeat it.

The following night, Enkidu has a dream of the gods gathered together and agreeing that one of the

two (Enkidu and Gilgamesh) must die for the killing of Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven. Enkidu

grows increasingly sick. Gilgamesh and the people of Uruk mourn Enkidu as he dies.

Again Gilgamesh journeys out into the wilderness, now hoping to find the legendary

Utnapishtim, who survived a great flood many years before and was granted immortality. After

crossing a mountain range that no man has ever crossed before, Gilgamesh arrives at the Garden of

the Gods. Siduri, whom Gilgamesh meets in the Garden of the Gods, warns Gilgamesh that he will

not cross the sea. Gilgamesh then searches for Urshanabi the ferryman, and in his anger Gilgamesh

smashes an essential piece of Urshanabi’s boat. Urshanabi tells Gilgamesh to prepare 120 wooden

poles for their journey, and they set off.

After crossing the sea, Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtim on an island and asks him how to seek

immortal life. Utnapishtim says that Gilgamesh will not find immortality, and he tells Gilgamesh a

story: Long ago, in a city called Shurrupak, the god Enlil grew sick of the city’s noisiness and created

a flood to destroy mankind. But one man, Utnapishtim, received instructions in a dream from the god

Ea, saying to build an enormous boat. Sure enough, the flood came, and Utnapishtim, his family, his

animals, and his craftsmen were safe. They all stayed at sea until a bird they released did not come

back to the ship, having presumably found shore. The gods criticized Enlil for punishing mankind too

harshly, and in return he granted Utnapishtim his immortality.

Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that he must stay awake for six days and seven nights to get the

sympathy of the gods. After the time has passed, Gilgamesh believes he has stayed awake the whole

time, but Utnapishtim had marked each day with a fresh loaf of bread, and now one lies moldy and

uneaten, meaning that Gilgamesh slept. Utnapishtim banishes the ferryman Urshanabi from ever

returning to his island and tells him to bring Gilgamesh back across the sea. Before they depart,
Utnapishtim’s wife says that there is a plant that grows under the sea that can restore youth.

Gilgamesh ties rocks to his feet and walks along the bottom of the sea until he finds the plant.

That night, however, Gilgamesh bathes in a well, and a serpent jumps out of the well and

snatches the plant, then disappears into the water. Gilgamesh and Urshanabi then cross the sea back to

where they originally came from and travel to Uruk. There, Gilgamesh feels proud of the great walls

he built, and we learn that Gilgamesh will be remembered for a long time as having brought the story

of the flood (which he recorded on tablets, with the rest of his adventures) to the people of Uruk.

The last section of the Epic is titled “The Death of Gilgamesh,” and looks back on his reign

after he has died. The god Enlil declares that Gilgamesh will be remembered for longer than any other

man. The people of Uruk mourn Gilgamesh in the streets. The epic ends with praise for Gilgamesh,

proclaiming him the best of men and a faithful servant of the gods. It ends with “O Gilgamesh, lord of

Kullab, great is thy praise.”