World Literature- Flood Accounts - Essay Example

World Literature- Flood Accounts Introduction The race of the humans is diversified on various grounds. The Holy Books like the Bible andthe Quran both propagate the words of the Almighty under the different names of the God and Allah respectively. Prophet Muhammad has claimed Quran as the miracle and regards it as the perfect utterance of the Almighty. The Quran is written in Arabic language in prose form. It contains 114 Surahs or chapters with religious, social, military codes of Islam. It also contains stories from the Jewish and Christian scriptures. The Bible on the other hand, is a sacred book containing the scriptures of Christianity and Judaism. The Bible itself is an exemplary of mixed culture as we have the Hebrew Bible, Christian Bible. The Gilgamesh is not a discourse on religion but it there are theological elements in the book. It is really difficult to trace the real origin of all the religious dictums. The three books are similar in certain spheres and differs in a many a grounds with the basic similarity of punishment. Early Muslims perceived that the Quran and the forerunner biblical texts and figures. Intertextuality is evident of the fact that each culture owes something to the other. The cross cultural influence is definitely responsible for these similarities. The cross cultural studies are a branch of literary or cultural studies dealing with the writings and the scriptures by the authors associated with more than one culture. The Great Flood in the three books brings out the issue of cross cultural influence. The Great Flood is mentioned in the religious books of the Bible, the Quran and the Gilgamesh. The basic ground of all theologies is the Almighty and is related to sin, retribution and redemption. The books also bear the message that God’s warnings should not be ignored and the judgment of the God should be done in the form of destruction to purge the world of sins. In other words, the books depict to show that the wages of sins are punishment, death and destruction. In Bible the story of the flood appears in Genesis (6:9-8:22).There are three motifs shown for this flood. It aims to show God as the judge of the whole world. He is the entity who has the supreme authority to distinguish between right and wrong. The second motif intends to say that God has made provisions for the recipients of His grace. To be explicit to receive the grace of God one must follow the path of righteousness. The third is significant for Israel. Through the flood the God judged the wicked Egyptians and brought them to the Red Sea to lie in humble supplication to God. The flood of Genesis is different from the Babylonian Gilgamesh flood that was conducted by the gods on account of the noise made by man. (Baker, Zuck and Blaising 37-38) The Gilgamesh flood myth is a story of deluge which has its origin in the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is believed that Gilgamesh reigned around B.C.2700. One of the Sumerian Gilgamesh’s poems narrates his journey to meet the flood hero and the incident of the flood. The flood hero Utnaphistism is granted immortality by the gods. He relates the story of the flood to Gilgamesh and with alacrity Utnaphistism give him the chance to seek immortality. As per the words of the Utnaphistism, Gilgamesh from the ocean deep finds out the rejuvenating plant. But a serpent steals it and gets a new life. The demoralized Utnaphistism reaching Uruk is fascinated by the walls of it. He cannot resist himself from praising the labor of the mortal men. The theme of immortality is uplifted with the very suggestion that human beings can achieve immortality through the works of civilization and culture.It expresses the futility to overcome the all encompassing death and the ’reconciliation to immortality –by- reputation- and- achievement only’. (Tigay, 249) The flood myth too upholds the theme of survival through destruction and purgation. Utnaphistism relates to Gilgamesh that the Sumerian god, Enki revealed the secret plans of the other gods to ravage the city of Shurrupak on the banks of Euphrates. This flood would destroy life on earth. In the Sumerian deluge Ziusudra stands in place of Noah or Utnaphistism and the old Babylon Astra-hasis. There are minor differences in this flood myth of Giglamesh. There is a resemblance between the flood in Genesis and Gilgamesh Tablet. However with a difference that in genesis the city is not named whereas Shurrupak is the modern Fara. Like Genesis, in Gilgamet Tablet the destruction of man in the flood is followed by the resurrection of life on earth with and the servitude to god. The same machinery like the construction of the boat, the entry of the animals into the boat and the sacrificial rituals is used in the flood of the Genesis. In the Gilgamesh flood Ishtar and Enlil was the goddesses of destruction unlike the Almighty in Genesis. But the outlook and purpose of the flood incident in the two books are different. The solemn pledge of Noah to God is replaced by the detestable picture of the gods hovering over the sacrifice. (Sandars). A mention of flood is also there in the Quran. Before the flood a celestial warning is imparted to the people on earth through Nuh- ‘Warn your people before there come to a painful chastisement’. (Rehman, 83). It is said that they have been drowned because of their sins, rebellious attitudes and adhering to various immoral and corrupt activities. It is also stated that ‘they will be carried to the flood of the seas to the heat of the fire’. (Rehman, 91). Like the Bible and the Gilgamesh, the Quran also speaks of a deluge. In this respect it is closely related to the flood mentioned in the Bible. There are multiple sets of religions followed by intertextual duality. This brings out the notion of complexity about the discourse on God. There is the identification between the Egyptian and west Semitic deities that emerged from the encounter of the East with the religious culture of Western Asia. However it is also suggested that God or the gods seen as an international figures operate in the ancient polytheistic religions neat east. In the Gilgamesh we find the gods of powers ruling the sphere. The meaning of a deity is the mythical presence of a figure endowed with celestial power and granted immortality. (Smith, 36-38). The biblical traditions are manifested in the Quran in distorted or amplified form. The Jewish influence and Medieval Christian stories are prominent in the Quran. Hejaz was the homeland of Prophet Muhammad and it was also the denizen of the Jewish tribes. It is pertinent that prophet would be somewhat be influenced by the tradition of the Jews. The common ground of similarity is that both the Islam and Judaism stress the unity of God. The Muslims stresses the unity of God five times a day and the Jews emphasize on it twice a day. The religious laws of both the institutions are based on the oral transmission which overweighs the written laws that fails to distinguish between the holy and secular subjects. However the hostility of the Islamic society towards the Jews is non-theological. But for the Christians it is related to the sphere of religion. The influence of the cross culture operates either in a positive or in a negative way but it cannot be negated. Conclusion The question of the influence of cross culture also raises the conflict which religion is the oldest in nature. It is said that for the flood incident the Babylon borrowed from the Hebrew account and the other account states that the Hebrew documents depend on the Babylon incident of flood. The third opinion speaks that they have hailed from a common source. The Christian puts faith on the dictums of the Bible and it is their only way out for salvation and sanctification. It is important to investigate the relationship between the flood account in Gilgamesh and the Bible to find out the truth. It is important to investigate into the flood incident to find out whether there had been any historical flood. It is also asserted that the Bible wrongly adhere to the occurrence of a universal flood. On the other hand, the Quran agrees with the modern science and archeology which affirms that the flood of Noah’s time was a local event. However, the counter agreement that Noah’s plea does not fit into the periphery of a local flood. As he said that no evil doers on the earth would be left living. This is universal in approach from the perspective of the Christians. It is quite difficult to come to a fixed conclusion because even the researchers are bound to be biased by his religion. The identity based on religion and race affects the individual mind. Works Cited Baker, Walter, Zuck, Roy and Craig Blaising, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, Colorado: David. C. Cook, 1985 Rahman, Abdul, Saed, Muhammad, Tabsir Ibsn Kathir Juz’29 (Part 29) Boston: MSA Publications, 2009 Smith, Mark, God in Translation: Deities in Cross Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World, Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008 Sandars, Nancy, The epic of Gilgamesh, New York: Penguin, 1972 Tigay, Jeffrey, The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic, Illinois: Bolchazy- Carducci Publishers, 2002 Read More