Did Moses steal Noah’s Ark? Did the first Charlton Heston (The Ten Commandments) rent some semi-trucks, dismantle the Ark and hide the parts in an airplane hangar somewhere?
Well no, but I’m surprised the scenario didn’t end up in Russell Crowe’s “NOAH,” everything but the biblical story did (love those exploding rock monsters). I’m referring to the media myth that Moses borrowed or premeditatedly stole ancient Mesopotamian stories (Gilgamesh Epic, 2600 BCE) to write Noah’s Ark/Genesis—a common, veiled claim about many Bible events over the last three decades on television Bible documentaries.
“In the case of Noah and the flood, it’s very clear that it (was) borrowed from an older version … “—Daniel Smith-Christopher (Noah and the Flood, A&E).
“If you read the stories, the passages in Gilgamesh and you didn’t tell people where they come from, you’d say this is from the Bible. It sounds almost the same.” —Bruce Zukerman, University of Southern California (Mysteries of Noah’s Flood, The Learning Channel).
Are there similarities between Noah’s Ark and the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh? Yes there are (11) but the overall proposition is that Genesis is rooted in pagan myth. Is this true? The following are examples of the differences between the Bible and Gilgamesh rarely mentioned on television.
- Gilgamesh is polytheistic (many gods).
- The Ark was launched.
- It had a ship’s captain and sailor.
- Twenty lines missing on the artifact (unrecoverable).
- 6-7 days was the flood length.
- There was a battle and gods fled in fear.
- Ark craftsmen onboard.
- The Noah figure (Utnapishtim) and his wife became like gods.
“If television documentary creators revealed these facts it would obliterate their ‘controversy for ratings’ goal/premeditated attempt to discredit the Bible’s foundation—if you can’t trust the foundation (Genesis) the house (Exodus–Revelation) will fall. Do I sound like a conspiracy nut? It’s one thing to have a documentary or two insinuate this false belief quite another when theatrical/television films in the 1970s and 1980s propose this and for the next three decades documentaries do the same,” stated Rick Dack of Defending the Bible Int’l.
Historian Dr. Kenneth Kitchen stated, “It’s fair to say that the Mesopotamians had a flood tradition in common, which existed and was transmitted in several versions. Therefore it is out of place to talk of borrowing the Hebrew from the Babylonians (or Sumerian) or vice versa (Bible and Spade Magazine).”
What do you think? Did Moses steal Noah’s Ark?
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