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not return. The story ends with Atrahasis disembarking and sacrificing a sheep and burning
incense offerings to the gods.
While the original Sumerian story shares striking details with that of Noah's Flood, the
parallels to the biblical story are even more apparent in the later elaborately detailed Baby-
lonian flood story of Gilgamesh. Fearing death, Gilgamesh sought the secret of eternal life
from Utnapishtim, the great king who saved mankind from the flood. Passages that are vir-
tually identical show that the tale of Atrahasis was spliced into the Gilgamesh epic, with
the name of the heroic flood savior changed to Utnapishtim (which some consider an old
Babylonian translation of “Ziusudra”). One version of the Gilgamesh epic even refers to
Utnapishtim as “Atrahasis.”
As Smith and others continued to find and translate more versions of the flood story, its
historical background grew increasingly complicated. Each period and region possessed its
own version, with no master version against which to compare all other versions. There
were many versions of the Mesopotamian flood story. Societies throughout the region ad-
opted the tale, adapting it to their language and culture.
The story of a great flood became widely known across the Middle East because Akka-
dian, the language of Babylon, served as the language of diplomacy until the first millen-
nium BC . Novice scribes helped spread the story from one culture to another as they prac-
ticed their Akkadian by copying classic texts. It has even been argued that an abbreviation
of Utnapishtim, with emphasis on its second syllable, was pronounced as “Noah” in early
Palestine. As a foundational piece of regional lore, it's a story the Jews would have been
exposed to as they wept in captivity by the rivers of Babylon after their exile from Judea.
On the whole, the exile of the Jews to Babylon was a period of political banishment
rather than outright enslavement. The Jews were treated well enough in their temporary
home so that significant numbers chose not to return to Judea when their captivity ended.
We know that at least some Jews rose in Babylonian society, if only because the Bible says
that those who returned to the Holy Land dragged their own slaves with them. That they
also took the Mesopotamian flood story fits the expected pattern in which a well-treated
conquered people are more likely to assimilate their captor's culture.
Still, the Genesis stories differ from Babylonian precursors in a very fundamental way.
The contrasts between monotheistic and polytheistic culture is striking, and reading Gen-
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