larshaukeland

Ancient flood narratives (Genesis 6)

I remember watching a New Tribes Missions documentary, where missionaries bring the gospel to a certain tribe in Africa. The missionaries were amazed to find that these Africans, who had no contact with other civilizasions, had a flood narrative in their culture.
One of the other most know flood narratives, is the epic of Gilgamesh, the story of a man (Utnapishtum) who is directed to construct an enormous boat and load it with pairs of animals. He also brings his wife along. The similarities with the biblical account are many.
There is also an Akkadian account that again is very similar to the Gilgamesh epic, only that the hero (or “Noah-person”) is here called Atra-hasis. Again, there is the earlier Sumerian version known as the Eridu Genesis, where the “Noah-person” is called Ziusudra.
There is, of course, a good reason why there are so many flood epics or stories. No doubt, they all decend from the true biblical story of Noah that starts in Genesis chapter 6.
For us Christians, it’s not only important to believe in the world wide deluge in the days of Noah, but also to realize that the same way God rescued Noah and his family from certain death by the flood, the same way God will rescue us from terrible tribulation in the near future.
God wanted all to get saved in Noah’s ark, but only his family came.
God wants all of us to get saved and go to heaven, but only his spiritual family who has received Christ will come.
We want that number of travellers to be as high as possible…