KCDAD said:
See, there you go... who'd have thunk it? When I read them in an Old Testament Survey class under Rabbi Jay Holstsein at University of Iowa, I was struck that there were so many differences, other than the idea of a flood itself, how did anyone compare them? The purpose of the flood, how the "hero" was selected, how the flood occurred, the temperment of the god(s)...
Obviously if there were a flood the natural response is build a boat, if you are on a boat you would either send fish (and they wouldn't likely come back) or birds out to see if it were safe... you would off er some great sacrifice... those similiarities I do not see as plagiarism, but obvious elements of the plot. The boat would have to be built with pitch to seal the wood... again, what would be the alternative... silly putty? Animals would have to be saved, otherwise... where are they?
Not that I think I am right... it's interesting how you see the similiarities and I see the differences... half full, half empty?
It's hard to believe that Rabbi Holstsein (sic) would have given such a superficial analysis, but then you didn't say he did, did you?
Here are the similarities I find striking, and you touched upon it, yet only superficially. Try instead of just looking at this bit situationally, look at it in the form in which it is written in the poem.
Genesis, ch 8:
7. And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
8. Also he sent forth a
dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
9. But the
dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
10. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the
dove out of the ark;
11. And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
12. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.
Then from the Gilgamesh:
When a seventh day arrived
I sent forth a dove and released it.
The dove went off, but came back to me;
no perch was visible so it circled back to me.
I sent forth a swallow and released it.
The swallow went off, but came back to me;
no perch was visible so it circled back to me.
I sent forth a raven and released it.
The raven went off, and saw the waters slither back.
It eats, it scratches, it bobs, but does not circle back to me.
