Gilgamesh reaction to Babel judgment?

[mindlight]

Was the Gilgamesh Epic a reaction to the experience of the judgment resulting from the Tower of Babel?

Gilgameshs wall is similar in many ways to the idea behind the Tower of Babel. It sought to affirm his own city Uruk as the cradle of civilisation. Nature is shut outside but Enkidu , is sent from the gods from it to destroy the wall. Enkidu and Gilgamesh develop a human friendship that then defies the gods but has a new confidence about moving in the nature outside the city walls. When Enkidu dies Gilgamesh goes back to building his wall.

Whereas the judgment on Babel talked in terms of breaking merely human bonds in order to drive the people out of the city , Gilgameshs Epic affirms the value of these bonds in doing so and overcomes the need of the construction project with the new confidence that the unity brings. Thus the Epic in many ways directly challenges the lessons of the Babel judgment and may be symptomatic of the corruption and worldly thinking that then follows in these civilisations. It is at about this time that Abraham is stirred to leave the area to move to the promised land. The Epic in this sense refers to false gods and represents a turning away from the experience of the judgment of the one true God that had occuured several centuries before. It is a story of defiance against the gods that actually reveals an even deeper defiance of the One True God.

 

[Bumble Bee]

That is really interesting. I read an excerpt of the Gilgamesh epic and would like to read more but don't know where to find it.

It is interesting that you bring that up because we have been talking about Babel in my linguistics class (I attend a Christian university). Apparently some theologians gave multiple reasons for building the tower.

One reason was for protection from another flood. The scattering at Babel did not happen too long after the flood, and it could be that the people were afraid of being swept away again. Therefore they began building a tower to the heavens so the waters would not cover them again.

A second reason was to get to heaven. This logic is viewed as weak because the people were probably intelligent enough to realize that they could not get to heaven by climbing a tower. On the flip side of that, though, it was often thought back then that heaven was just beyond the sky so.....

A third reason was to worship celestial objects. I think that the first and third reasons are the most likely options. The first one fascinates me. But all of these are based in rebellion against God. In the first, they were not relying on God's promise to never flood the earth again. In the second, they were limiting God's glory by believing that they could get to heaven on their own. In the third they were blatantly refusing to trust in God.

Putting the Gilgamesh epic alongside it adds an interesting dynamic to me. I did not know that Gilgamesh spoke of that. I'm curious what else he talked about. I only knew about the flood part.

 

[mindlight]

That is really interesting. I read an excerpt of the Gilgamesh epic and would like to read more but don't know where to find it.

It is interesting that you bring that up because we have been talking about Babel in my linguistics class (I attend a Christian university). Apparently some theologians gave multiple reasons for building the tower.

One reason was for protection from another flood. The scattering at Babel did not happen too long after the flood, and it could be that the people were afraid of being swept away again. Therefore they began building a tower to the heavens so the waters would not cover them again.

A second reason was to get to heaven. This logic is viewed as weak because the people were probably intelligent enough to realize that they could not get to heaven by climbing a tower. On the flip side of that, though, it was often thought back then that heaven was just beyond the sky so.....

A third reason was to worship celestial objects. I think that the first and third reasons are the most likely options. The first one fascinates me. But all of these are based in rebellion against God. In the first, they were not relying on God's promise to never flood the earth again. In the second, they were limiting God's glory by believing that they could get to heaven on their own. In the third they were blatantly refusing to trust in God.

Putting the Gilgamesh epic alongside it adds an interesting dynamic to me. I did not know that Gilgamesh spoke of that. I'm curious what else he talked about. I only knew about the flood part.

If building a tower was protection against flood it was defiance cause God had said he would not do it that way again e.g. rainbow etc

Another reason I have heard was in order to consolidate human kind in one place- this was in defience of Gods creation mandate which envisaged human beings filling the whole earth.

Gods answer to the tower of Babel was the confusion of languages which drove the people apart and outwards to the filling of the earth as per his original instructions. This confusion is not reversed until Pentecost when God brings together people of different languages in a new unity and in which they can all understand each other.

Regarding the text of the Gilgamesh Epic

Epic of Gilgamesh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reginald Campbell Thompson Translation-The Epic of Gilgamesh | King of Heroes

 

[pshun2404]

Cuneiformist Oliver Garney translated a Sumerian Tablet found by Archaeologists Spencer and Kramer that says that originally mankind had one language but the god of Wisdom confounded their speech.

The Stele of Ur found by Wooley but not able to be translated until much later (dated to early 3rd millennium) speaks of one King Ur-Nammu who after the flood built a great tower.

George Smith later found a clay tablet in the dame site (a little farther down) that being translated said, the kings tower had offended the gods who threw down what was built and scattered the people abroad making their language strange to one another.

Native Mexican historian Ixtilochitl tells the legend of the Toltecs which says that once after a great flood the people decided to build a tower so high that if another flood came they could escape…the gods grew angry and destroyed the tower and confused everyone’s speech. So a group of 14 who spoke the same tongue (males and females) set out to find a place to populate. After 104 years and journeying through many waters ad over many mountains came to the place where they now live (Mexico). See Byron Nelson, The Deluge Story in Stone)

R. W. Williamson’s Religions and Cosmic Beliefs of Central Polynesia speaks of the Hoa peoples who claim one of the gods saw the people building this giant building to heaven so he chased them all away, broke down the building and changed their languages so they all spoke in different tongues

Hmmm?

Paul