The Pre-Biblical Origins of Noah's Flood

00:00 Introduction
2:11 Sumerian Flood Story
3:47 Atrahasis Epic
5:12 Epic of Gilgamesh
6:58 Genesis and Noah's Flood
8:58 Comparing the Arks
15:47 Comparing Major Themes
20:42 Sponsor: 80,000 Hours

Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images and Reuters

[beanpie]

Please do an in-depth video adam and eve and its pre biblical origins

[MartSchunk]

Too late for breakfast unfortunately. Will save this video for later during dinner.

[zcuveje]

For me, the most interesting thing about such ancient stories is what they reveal about humanity. Our need to ascribe meaning to events, our inherent struggle with guilt and conscience, our hope for justice and atonement, and our desire to live forever.

[EvilSandwich]

It absolutely makes sense that the Mesopotamian dimensions of the boats would be 14, 400. Since that number is itself 24 x 24 x 24 plus 24 x 24. Or 24³ + 24². Which would have been a very nice round number in the base 60 number system that ancient Mesopotamia used. Since 24 is two full hands of finger digit segments that the ancient Mesopotamians would have used for counting on their hands at the time. And it also makes sense why the Hebrew tradition would round that up because the Hebrew language used a quasi decimal system which would have been a strange fit for the Mesopotamian base 60. It seems that whoever wrote the original Mesopotamian flood myth really liked round numbers and consider them very important considering how much time they spent describing the dimensions of it.

[gregcampwriter]

Live in an apartment, and you'll understand Enlil's actions.

[OmegaWolf]

There was also an Ancient Greek flood story, where Zeus flooded humanity and only Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha survived by hiding in a floating chest, then repopulated the world by throwing stones over their shoulders, which turned into new people as they hit the ground.

[FlippytheMasterofPie]

“Can I copy your homework?”
“Ok but don’t make it too obvious”

[karatemaster]

0:19
The fact that this game was on the Super Nintendo and not Sega GENESIS is quite amusing

[myspleenisbursting]

Last time I was this early Christianity was still an underground cult

[nathancraig]

Dr. Irving Finkel is amazing! Not only is he a great lecturer who makes the "dry" subject of ancient languages engaging, but he also has a dry wit that makes me laugh out loud.

[appleciderhorror]

be prosperous and multiply, but always keep the noise level at your parties reasonable 'less you wish to drown the world

[ramentaco]

also worth noting that hinduism has a story of Vishnu in his fish form Maysya, warning Manu (the first man) of a catastrophic flood and bringing him a boat

[mostlyreliable]

Irving Finkel mention I already know this is going to be good

[merrymachiavelli]

oooh, shoutout of Irving Finkel! He is excellent. British tweed man with amusing name and wizard-level head and facial hair who can read cuneiform.

[lilajaned]

i want to say, yesterday my cat died. she was my whole world and i am beyond devastated. i don't know how to continue on with my life without her. today, after i woke up and rerealized that she is gone, i've found solace in your videos. something about the academic outlook on religion and spirituality is really healing for me. i have a personal strained relationship with religion and spirituality, but learning about how humans have interacted with these concepts throughout the ages, is really helpful too me. i am not the first one to lose a beloved pet, and i'm not the first one to struggle with my spirituality. it's reminding me how i am one in humanity and that it will be okay.
i've loved to watch these videos for awhile, and want you to know how healing an academic outlook on religion can be. thank you for putting out these videos. it means a lot to me.

[CKNate]

I highly recommend everyone listen to Finkle’s presentation if you haven’t already. He’s a joy to listen to.

[Wi-Fi-El]

I always love hearing alternate flood stories. I don't really like my name, but the story it comes from has always fascinated me (although I'd rather have been named Ziusudra or Atrahasis lol)

[MissMeganBeckett]

The cube ark wasn’t described as definitively a cube when you read out the translation though, it was the same description of a round coracle as the description in the previous story from my perspective, it says the boat should be as wide as it is long and that description is equally accurate if it is describing a circle as if it was describing a square so there’s no reason to know with certainty that it was a cube instead of a circle that the writer was envisioning when they made that description unless at that time in history they were starting to make a lot of cubic boats and the previously popular round boats were less popular than the new square ones at that time in history, from only the words as translated in this video both shapes are equally possible so we could both be correct.

[nomanmreedha]

There's a similar story in a Hindu purana called Matsya purana.Matsya is an avatar of lord Vishnu who tells a king to build a boat and take a pair of every living things with him but in this story he also tells the king to take 7 Rishis with him to preserve the knowledge of the vedas.

[rickcharlespersonal]

I'm sure there are many gaps in our understanding of ancient mythology, but there is still a tangible progression in how this story evolved over time. The irony of a loving god eradicating humanity with a flood makes a lot more sense when you realize that one "god" was originally a villain-hero god pair.