Grace
Theological Journal 12.2 (Spring, 1971) 3-22
Copyright © 1971 by Grace
Theological Seminary. Cited with permission from
ATRA-HASIS: A SURVEY
JAMES R. BATTENFIELD
Teaching Fellow in Hebrew
Grace Theological Seminary
New discoveries continue to revive
interest in the study of the
ancient Near
East. The recent collation and
publication of the Atra-hasis
Epic is a
very significant example of the vigor of this field, especially
as the
ancient Near East is brought into comparison with the Old Testa-
ment.
The epic is a literary form of Sumero-Babylonian
traditions about
the
creation and early history of man, and the Flood. It is a story that
not only
bears upon the famous Gilgamesh Epic, but also needs to be
compared to
the narrative of the Genesis Flood in the Old Testament.
The implications
inherent in the study of such an epic as Atra-hasis
must
certainly impinge on scholars' understanding of earth origins and
geology.
The advance in research that has been
conducted relative to Atra-
hasis is graphically apparent when one examines
the (ca. 1955) rendering
by
Speiser1 in comparison with the present volume by Lambert and
Millard.2
Although Atra-hasis
deals with both creation and flood, the pre-
sent
writer has set out to give his attention to the flood material only.
Literature
on mythological genres is voluminous. Therefore the present
writer will
limit this study to a survey of the source material which
underlies Atra-hasis, a discussion of its content and its relation to
the
Old Testament and the Gilgamesh Epic.
James R. Battenfield earned the B. A. degree at San Diego State
College,
and the
B. D. and Th. M. at Talbot Theological Seminary. He taught for
two
years at Talbot Theological Seminary and pursued graduate study
at U.
C. L. A. He is presently taking work
toward the Th. D. degree
at
Grace Theological Seminary.
3
4 GRACE JOURNAL
SOURCE MATERIAL
The source material behind the present
edition has been a long
time in
coming to the fore. The great amount of
energies that have
been
expended on this research will hardly be reflected in this brief
study;
however, the main lines of endeavor can be traced.
One may surmise that the Atra-hasis epic flourished in
ian civilization for some 1,500 years. At the time of Alexander the
Great, when
Hellenism figuratively and literally buried what was left
of
Mesopotamian cultural influence in the
hasis was lost.
For over two thousand years the only record known
to man
of a great Flood was the story in Genesis.
Berossus, a Baby-
lonian priest about the time of Alexander, wrote
a Babylonian history
which is
also lost. Fragmented traditions of his
history have come
down to
the present through such worthies as Polyhistor and
Eusebius.3
The middle of the nineteenth century saw
the beginning of serious
exploration in
terests. Reliefs and monuments were unearthed and taken to Western
museums. Thousands of clay tablets awaited
decipherment, an inter-
esting process in its own right.4 Kuyunjik, the
larger mound at
is the
site where much Atra-hasis material was found,
although its iden-
tification was not apparent for a long time. In 1842/3 Paul Emile Botta
first dug
at Kuyunjik, but he did not find any spectacular
museum pieces
such as
were expected in those days. Austen
Henry Layard6 secured
British
rights to dig in the area and this caused a conflict with French
interests. By 1851 the
Rassam, a
Christian of local extraction, who favored the British, be-
came the
leader of native digging efforts. At
first he and his helpers
dug
secretly at night. Having come across
the most magnificent reliefs
found to
date, Rassam continued digging by day. They had dug into the
well
known as one of the great discoveries from antiquity. Practically
all of Ashurbanipal's library was taken to the
to Layard and Rassam.
In
ing the fragments of Ashurbanipal's
collection. This man was George
Smith. At fourteen the humble lad was apprenticed to
a firm of bank-
note
engravers. From an Old Testament
background, his first love
soon took
over in his life as he read with diligence concerning the
archaeology of
before
long, and soon was at work collating the thousands of fragments
of Ashurbanipal's library.
In his own words, Smith mentions with kind-
ness the
labors of Botta.
Botta found Sargon's palace (which dated from
ATRA-HASIS 5
ca.
722-705 B. C.) at Khorsabad, after his work at
afailure.9 He mentions Layard
and Rassam as well, but does not men-
tion Rassam's
nocturnal digging.10 Smith
showed that he knew as much
about the
tablets as anyone and in 1866, at the age of twenty-six, he was
made
Assistant in the Department of Oriental Antiquities at the museum.
Others knew that works of mythology were
preserved,
but only George
Smith collected and joined enough bro-
ken pieces to
reconstruct entire episodes, and only he
could understand
the content. His lack of philological
training was made
up for by hard work and sheer ge-
nius.11
It was on
Smith read a
paper to the Society of Biblical Archaeology concerning his
discovery of a
Babylonian version of the Biblical Flood story.
This paper
rocked the
world of Biblical scholarship. Four
years later Smith pub-
lished The Chaldean
Account of Genesis, and among this selection of
Babylonian literary texts was one Smith called "the story of Atarpi."12
This is now
known as the Epic of Atra-hasis.
An amazing feature of the story of the
gathering of the fragments
that make
up Atra-hasis is the unusual length of time required
to join
the
fragments properly. Smith had three
broken pieces, enough to gain
a plot
and to distinguish this from other creation/flood stories. Smith
mistook
obverse for reverse and his mistake was not corrected properly
until
1956. Even more amazing is the fact
that, after Smith's untimely
death in
1876, the three "Atarpi" fragments became
separated and were
not
joined again until 1899, and the third of the pieces was not published
until
1965, and not joined to the other two until 1967. This is the rea-
son that
Atra-hasis is spoken of as a "new" flood
epic: it is new be-
cause its
tablet sequence has only recently been finalized.
Other fragments of Atra-hasis
naturally experienced independent
histories from
their discovery to their publication. V.
Scheil, a French
priest,
published a fragment of a flood epic in 1898.
His differed from
Smith's, and
he dated it to the reign of Ammi-saduqa (1646-26 B.
C.)
of the
Old Babylonian dynasty.13 The
same year a mythological text
from the
same period was copied by T. G. Pinches.
This last text
describes the
creation of man.14 In 1899,
the German scholar, Hein-
rich Zimmern wrote an article in which he gave the Umschrift of Smith's
two then
available fragments, showed Scheil's and Pinches'
work was of
the same
epic,15 and demonstrated that the name of the hero should be
not Atarpi, but Atra, or Atra-hasis. Still at
this point the correct
order of
the fragments was undetermined, and so the matter remained
for
fifty years.
6 GRACE JOURNAL
It remained for the Danish scholar, Jorgen
Laessoe, to point out
the
proper sequence.16 Lambert
and Millard take credit for publishing
material done
by the same original scribe who wrote Scheil's 1898 frag-
ment.
This material had been in the
CONTENT OF THE EPIC
By way of definition, the Epic of Atra-hasis is more a literary
tradition than
a narrative with precise bounds and limits.
Lambert states
that
plagiarism and a lack of respect for literary rights were common in
the
ancient world.17 The only
"title" that Atra-hasis had in antiquity
is seen
repeated in the colophon at the end of each tablet, inuma
ilu
awilum, "When the gods like man."18
The principal edition used by Lambert was
copied out by Ku-Aya,
"the junior scribe."
This fact is also discernible in the colophons.
Scheil in
1898 had given the name as Ellet-Aya or Mulil-Aya; neither
of these
is acceptable. It is known that ku + divine name is
Sumerian.
At one time
there was some question about ku in Old
Babylonian, but
this sign
is found in the Code of Hammurapi20 as well as in Ammisa-
duqa's own famous "Edict."21 Ku-Aya's text is not that of a schoolboy,
even
though he is called "junior scribe."
He did his copying ca. 1630
B. C., if
one holds to the "middle chronology," the majority opinion,
on
Babylonian chronology.22 The
original must be before 1630 B. C.,
making Atra-hasis one of the oldest, practically complete texts
now
known. Ku-Aya's work is an
edition in three tablets. Other collated
pieces must
be relegated to much later periods, to the late Assyrian
(ca. 700-650 B. C.) in particular. George Smith's "story of Atarpi,"
now brought
into comparison with the other pieces, must be of the
Assyrian Recension, according to Lambert, since it shows marked
Assyrian dialectal forms. The distinction between
Old Babylonian and
Middle
Assyrian would show up in the orthography as well. The Assyr-
ian story is essentially the same as Ku-Aya's, but substantially rewritten,
Neo-Babylonian
fragments differ even more. A Ras Shamra fragment,
written in Akkadian, not Ugaritic, has been
found, and is included in
Lambert. Its first three lines read:
e-nu-ma ilanumes im-tas-ku mil-ka i-na matatimes.ti
a-bu-ba
is-ku-nu i-na ki-ib-ra-ti
The
translation is:
"When
the gods took counsel in the lands,
And brought about a flood in the regions of the world."
ATRA-HASIS 7
The sixth
line reads:
mat-ra-am-ha-si-sum-me
a-na-ku-[ma], "I am Atra-
hasis."24
As to the theme of the text, the essence
of its content, one must
categorize it
as both a myth because gods play a dominant role, and an
epic, because
the leading character is a hero. Most
basically Atra-hasis
deals with
the problem of organization. A certain dialectic goes on here,
viz., there is a conflict which goes through
two phases. Both phases
feature
supernatural forces, but in the first "act" the conflict is among
the gods
for their own sakes and has to do with divine goals; the second
phase
concerns the conflict of the gods for the sake of man, i.
e.,
human
organization enters the picture.
Tablet I
The story begins with a hearkening back to
an earlier time. It
almost has
a "once upon a time" flavor.
Certainly the plot is etiolog-
ical from the outset.25 "How did man become as he is?" "Once it was
like
this," the modern storyteller might commence. Once the gods,
those
superhuman reflections of man's aspirations, worked and suffered
as men
do now. Quite understandably, since
depended upon
man-made waterways to redistribute the capricious flood-
ings, the gods are represented as digging the
canals. This was at a
time when
only the gods inhabited the universe.
The greater and lesser
gods are
mentioned in 11. 5-6.
The seven great Anunnaki are men-
tioned.
The term is used for all gods at times; at other periods the
Anunnaki are
the gods of the nether world.26 Three senior gods are
mentioned
individually. They are Anu, Enlil and Enki. In
evidently cast
lots to determine their particular spheres of influence.
Anu
rules henceforth from heaven; Enlil evidently stayed
on earth; Enki
descended to his
abode in the Apsu, a subterranean body of water. The
Assyrian recension of the epic from
set the Igigi (here, junior gods) to work on the canals.27 The Igigi suf-
fered this humiliation for forty years and then
rebelled, "backbiting,
grumbling in
the excavation" (1:39b-40). They
agree to take their mu-
tual grievance to Enlil. They want not just reduction of their
workload,
but
complete relief from it. In typically anarchous fashion the junior
gods set
fire to their digging tools, and utilize them as torches to
light
their way to Enlil by night. They surround Enlil's
temple, called
Ekur, in
the city of
bring word
to the god29 that he is surrounded.
Lines 93 and 95 of this
first
tablet are a little unclear. Lambert
believes some kind of prover-
bial usage of the word binu/bunu,
"son" is employed. If this
term were
clear, it
might be more readily apparent why Enlil does not
hesitate to
8 GRACE JOURNAL
summon Anu from heaven and Enki from the
Apsu to stand with him
against the
rebels. It must be assumed that the
gravity of the situation
was
reason enough for a coalition of the senior gods to deal with the
matter. It is Anu in 1:111
who seems to be the supreme leader. The
question is
put to the rebels, "Who is the instigator of battle?" (11.
128, 140). The answer comes: "Every single one of us. . . " (1. 146).
When Enlil heard that the extent of the antagonism toward him in
his
realm,
earth, was so great, he cried (1:167).
It is curious that Enlil
seems to recover his composure so quickly
and
begins to command30 Anu to go to heaven
and bring down one god and
have him
put to death as a solution to the problem.
Perhaps more might
be
known about the decision to slay a god, if it were not for the fact
that
right at this juncture (11. 178-89), the text is unclear, and the var-
ious recensions must
be used to fill the gap. At any rate,
when the
text
resumes, Belet-ili is on hand.31 It is she who is summoned to
to
create32 the "Lullu-man."33 Man now will bear the work burden
of the
gods. Belet-ili
is called Mami in 1:193,34
and then it would seem
that she
is also called Nintu.35
Though she is the birth-goddess, she
disavows any
claim to being able to "make things."36 She points to the
skill of Enki in that realm.
But in 1:203 it becomes apparent that Enki
must give
her the clay so that she can create man.
Enki will make a
purifying bath. One god will be killed;
this is
one
called We-ila (1:223). He is not mentioned but this once in the
text.37 His flesh and blood, combined with Enki's clay will result in
man. God and clay, therefore, are mixed to make
man in the Baby-
lonian conception. Line 215 is instructive: "Let there be a
spirit from
the god's
flesh."38
The plan to make a man is agreed upon by the
Anunnaki, the
plan is carried out, and the Igigi spit on the
clay. Mami
then
rehearses before the gods in typically redundant, oriental fashion
what she
has done. The summum
bonum of her work is this: the gods
are
free. Yet, strangely, the work is not
complete, because more
birth-goddesses, fourteen, are called in on the project and the group
proceeds to
the bit simti, "the house of
destiny"39 (1:249) to get at
the work
in earnest. So the creation of man is
not too clear. Four-
teen
pieces of clay designated as seven males and seven females, are
"nipped off, " and separated by a "brick."
(1:256, 259). Another break
in the
story occurs here. Then there are some
rules for midwifery in
the Assyrian
recension that fills the gap. Ten months is the time neces-
sary before the mortals are born. Finally they are born and the text
relates some
rules about obstetrics and marriage, but it is not parti-
cularly clear until 1:352.
At this point the significant statement is
made. "Twelve hundred
years had
not yet passed."40 This sentence begins the second part in
ATRA -HASIS 9
the
plot, if one views its story content apart from the tablet divisions.
This much
time, twelve hundred years, is given as the span of time
from
man's creation to the Flood. During this
period people multiplied
and
their noise became intolerable to Enlil, who becomes
dissatisfied
with the
noise because he cannot sleep. ". . . Let there be plague,"
reads the
last part of 1:360. Enlil
has decided to reduce the noise by
reducing the
source, man. Namtara,
the plague god, is summoned
(1:380), but
first, the reader is startled by the abrupt introduction of
Atra-hasis, the king (1:364).
Perhaps he has been mentioned in some
lost
portion earlier. He must be a king
because his personal god was
Enki himself.
Usually a Babylonian's personal god was a very minor
deity. This is seen in much of the wisdom literature
and prayers.41
Enki is
one of the chief gods; Atra-hasis must be a
king. Atra-hasis
petitions Enki to intervene and stop the plague. Enki advises the
people
to
direct their attentions to Namtara, so that he will
relax the plague.
This is what
then ensues as Tablet 1 closes with the statement repeated,
"Twelve
hundred years had not yet passed."42
Tablet II
The sequence that ended Tablet I is now
paralleled. Enlil
lost
his
sleep again, and decides to use drought/famine to eradicate men.
Adad the
storm god43 should withhold his rain (
arise:
from the abyss. Again Atra-hasis entreated Enki and at
length
Adad
watered the earth, Lambert says, "discreetly. . .
without attrac-
ting Enlil's attention."44
From this point on in the epic the gaps
frequently hide the story
development. Evidently Enlil
slept again but was roused by a third vis-
itation of noise.
By now Enlil must realize that some god is
thwarting
his
extermination plans. Enlil
resumes the drought. In column 3, 4
Atra-hasts is
praying to Enki.
By column 4 the famine is still in prog-
ress. Enki acts in the behalf of Atra-hasis
in column 5. A late Baby-
lonian piece inserted here tells of a cosmic sea
that existed in the bot-
tom of
the universe.46 From this
area, fish were caught up in a type
of
whirlwind, and the second drought perpetrated by Enlil
was averted
by the
sending of these fish among starving mankind.
Enlil by now is
tired of
seeing his plans frustrated. Enki has been his adversary, he
surmises. Since water (and fish) was used to save
humanity this last
time,
water will be man's destruction, and Enki is sworn to
an oath
not to
interfere in Enlil's plan. It would seem at this juncture Lullu-
awilum, puny man, is doomed.
Tablet III
This last tablet contains the flood story
itself. Lambert observes
10 GRACE JOURNAL
that
"the version known to George Smith from Tablet Xl of the Gilgamesh
Epic is in fact largely derived from the
account in Atra-hasis."47
Fortunately, Ku-Aya's
Old Babylonian text is the main source of
the
third tablet. Atra-hasis
is addressing Enki as it begins. It would
seem that
Enki, as is so typical of polytheistic morality, has
already
found a
way to get around his oath to Enlil. 111:1:18 begins Enki's mes-
sage for
avoiding the flood, and it has a familiar ring:
"Wall, listen,
to me!
Reed wall, observe my words!"48 Atra-hasis is told to destroy
his
house, undoubtedly made of reeds, and build a boat.49 Reeds grow
particularly in southern Mesopotamia, near the
the
story originated in such an environment.
Interesting nautical terms
are
employed in 11. 29-37.
Concerning the boat:
Roof it over like the Apsu.
So that the sun50 shall not see inside it
Let it be roofed over above and below.
The tackle should be very strong.
Let the pitch be tough, and so give( the
boat) strength.
It will rain down upon you here
An abundance of birds, a profusion of
fishes.
He opened the water-clock and filled it;
He announced to him the coming of the flood51 for the
seventh night.
Atra-hasis did
as Enki commanded him. The reason for the flood
is
given "theologically" in the fact that the two gods of the earth and
the deep
are angry with one another. This sounds
primitive indeed.
Since Atra-hasis is a devotee of Enki,
he must side with him and no
longer live
in Enlil's earth.
Column 2 of the third tablet is badly
broken. It would seem the
boat is
being built by such as a "carpenter" and a "reed worker."52
By line 32
of this column, clean and fat animals are mentioned as being
put on
the boat. And, then, in the lines
remaining of the column, the
most
personal touch in the poem is given. Atra-hasis must go to live
with his
own god. He calls for a banquet for his
people and his family.
Yet he
cannot enjoy or even participate in this festivity because he is
overcome with
grief in contemplating the impending horror.
At the banquet
he was
"in and out: he could not sit,
could not crouch" (1.45). His
heart was
broken instead and he was vomiting.
By now the weather worsened. Adad's thunders
being heard in the
clouds
overhead. Pitch was brought to enable Atra-hasis to close his
door. The winds and the waves rose. He cut his restraining hawser
and set
his reed-boat adrift.
ATRA-HASIS 11
Lines are missing at the beginning of
column 3 of tablet III. Re-
stored by
conjecture is the mention of the Zu bird in line
7. Zu is men-
tioned again in one of the recensions.53
and is also found elsewhere in
ancient Near
Eastern mythology.54 The
strength of the flood came upon
the
peoples; its destruction was a nightmare.
Enki took it badly from
the
outset. The birth-goddess Nintu55
and the Anunnaki regret the dis-
aster. Nintu bewails the
loss of her children, who have become "like"
flies."56 She
seems to have lost her purpose for existence.
She rightly
blames Enlil for such a lamentable act. Her crying is enunciated in
111:4:5-11. The gods thirsted
during the flood, as if they could no more
subsist on
salt water from the Apsu than could humans. Nintu wanted
beer in
fact in 111:4:16. The gods stood like
sheep standing together in
a dry
trough waiting for a drink.57
Seven days and seven nights the deluge
continued. As column
5 is missing
its first 29 lines, the flood itself is over at III:
Atra-hasis is
"providing food" (line 32), and as the gods smell the food.
"they gathered like flies over the offering." This last statement is hardly
very
flattering to the gods, and most typical of the skepticism of the
wisdom genre
in Babylonian literature. After the god's repast. Nintu
arises and
complains concerning the unknown whereabouts of both Anu
and Enlil. Since they are the instigators of this terrible calamity.
where are
they? The question is not immediately
answered. Instead
an
etiological explanation is given on flies, telling of the manufactured
flies in
the jewelry of lapis worn around the necks of Mesopotamian
deities. The reason for this episode is given by
Lambert:
Thus the flies in the story are a memorial of the
drowned offspring of Belet-ili,
and the idea may have
been suggested to its originator by a proverb or cliche
about dragon-flies drifting down the river.59
Enlil, who now
has appeared, sees the reed boat and becomes
angry at
the Igigi.
After all, the gods had decided to exterminate man;
all the
gods were under oath. How did man
survive? Enlil
wants to
know. Anu points out that
only Enki, whose realm is the sea, could
save
man. Enki
steps forward and freely admits his deeds and evidently
seeks to
be exonerated (in a badly damaged passage).
Volume 7 is of
no help
in the flood story; its chief concern is proverbial sayings on
childbearing. Column 8 begins at the
ninth line: this is the epilogue.
The text is
so problematic that it is not certain who is speaking in
III:8:9-18. Lambert
thinks the mother goddess is a leading candidate.
In line 15
the whole epic is perhaps called anniam zamara, "this song."60
Perhaps the
song was recited in some way in Babylonian religious wor-
ship.61 Thus ends the last tablet.
12 GRACE JOURNAL
RELATION TO GILGAMESH XI
Still foremost in size and state of perservation among Akkadian
epic
selections are the twelve tablets (containing over 3,000 lines) of the
Epic of Gilgamesh.62 The eleventh tablet here deals with
the Flood.
Gilgamesh meets the figure who is synonymous
with Atra-hasis of
the
recent epic, Utnapishtim.63
The latter is called "the Faraway"64
or
"the Distant"65 because he dwells removed from others, he
is im-
mortal. Gilgamesh had thought in Utnapishtim
he would find one prepared
for
battle,66 but he lies indolent upon his back (line 6). Gilgamesh has
long
sought immortality and he asks the serene Utnapishtim
how he
attained the
blessed state.
Utnapishtim will
tell Gilgamesh a secret which begins in Shurup-
pak,67 the city where the gods lived. There the hearts of the gods led
them to
produce the flood.68 The gods
present are the same as those
in Atra-hasis, among whom are Anu,
who is called abasunu, "their
father,"69
and Enlil, who is denominated maliksunu,
"their-counselor."70
Ninigiku-Ea is
present. This name is another
appellative of
Enki the
god of wisdom who dwells in the Apsu.71 As in Atra-hasis.
Enki/Ea
speaks to the house of reeds, Utnapishtim's home:
Reed-hut, reed-hut! Wall, walll
Reed-hut, hearken! Wall, reflect!
Man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-tutu,
Tear down (this) house, build a ship!72
Thus in both epics the command to build a
boat in order to escape
the
flood is similar. The seed of all living
creatures is called to go up
into the
ship. Dimensions are not given for the
ship in Atra-hasis; how-
ever,
Gilgamesh mentions that the ship should be accurately measured,73
and that
the width and length of the boat are to be equal, or square.
Finally, the
boat should be covered, ceiled over like the Apsu,
i.e.,
impenetrable.
Like Atra-hasis, Utnapishtim
pledges to carry out Enki's orders.
He must
sever his tie with Enlil's terrestrial economy and go
to his own
god, Enki.
There is a large break in the left margin
of the tablet that extends
from
about line 41 to the center at about 45, and then proceeds to the
center of
55 and angles back to reveal the first sign of 53.74 A lesser
break at
the right side extends over lines 48-53.
Children
brought pitch for Utnapishtim's boat. The "strong"75
ATRA-HASIS 13
or the
"grown ones"76 brought all else needful. The floor space of the
boat is
said to be about 3,600 square meters,77 or approximately an
acre. The walls were 120 cubits high, the decks
were 120 cubits on a
side. The boat had six decks. Speiser conjectures
that the ship took
seven days
to build from his restoration of line 76.78
Utnapishtim's
family, the beasts of the field, and all the crafts-
men were
made to go on board the ship. This is a
greater number than
Atra-hasis.
The rain that is coming is called by Speiser
"a rain of
blight." It was Enki's
water-clock that was set for Atra-hasis. Here
it is
Shamash,79 the sun god, who sets the time of the flood.
Adad's
thunders signal the approaching deluge. Nergal, god of
the
underworld,80 tears out the posts of the world dam, letting the
waters
loose. There must be a connection between Atra-hasis 111:3:9-10 and
Gilgames XI:I07, where in both cases it is stated that the land was
shat-
tered like a pot.81 This must have reference to a cataclysmic
force,
something of
diastrophism. Countless other examples
could be given
of this
kind of parallelism between the two epics.
Cataclysmic language
is
repeated in Speiser's rendition of line 109,
"submerging the moun-
tains. "82
The gods cowered during the storm in
typically mortal fashion.
Ishtar83
seems to take the role of the Mami/Belet-ili/Nintu
birth-goddess
in
Gilgamesh. It is she that laments the
sad state of things and blames
herself.
On the seventh day the flood ceased. All of mankind had returned
to
clay. The ship comes to rest on
forth
first a dove, then a swallow and lastly a raven, which does not
return to
the ship. Thereupon he lets out all his
"passengers" to the
four
winds,85 and offers a sacrifice.
The gods, smelling the aroma
as in Atra-hasis, "crowded like flies about the
sacrificer."86 Ishtar
and the
jewels are brought into the context here too, with the idea that
the
jewels are a memorial remembering the flood.
Enlil is excluded
because he
perpetrated the crime.
Utnapishtim is
specifically called Atra-hasis, "the exceedingly
wise,"
in line 187. Enlil
seems to abate some of his anger and by
11. 193-4,
he pronounces a blessing upon the Babylonian Noah and his
wife:
"Hitherto Utnapishtim has been but
a man;
But now Utnapishtim and his wife shall
be like unto us
gods.87
14 GRACE JOURNAL
Thus the close similarities can be seen
between Atra-hasis and
Gilgamesh
XI. As has been said Atra-hasis
is the older of the two, its
copy dating
from the Old Babylonian with an archetype perhaps as early
as ca.
1800 B. C. Both compositions are part
myth and part epic.
Both show
the marks of wisdom literature in their themes of introspec-
tion.
It must be remembered both heroes are "wise men." Simply
because it
is longer and better preserved at key points of flood-story
interest,
Gilgamesh remains the more detailed document on the flood.
RELATION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
In Genesis 6:5-9; 19 the author of the
Book of Genesis, Moses,
writes
concerning God's judgment of the world by a flood. Immediately
one is
struck by the solemnity of the story: hvhy xr;y.ava, "the
Lord/Jehovah
saw" the wickedness of man. There
is no pantheon of gods
conniving
against one another. There is no
"noise" prompting the de-
struction by the flood. The God of Heaven is hardly dismayed over
all,
the
noise men may make. The problem here in
Genesis is not organ-
ization or the lack of it, the problem is that
"every imagination of the
thoughts"
of man "was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). Such a world
wide
problem as moral corruption is so vastly more realistic than noise.
In
ark will
be of sturdier construction than mere reeds:
it will be of
rp,go-xcefE, "gopher wood." The ark will be covered with rp,Ko,
"pitch."89 The dimensions of Noah's ark are
superior as well. It is
not
square but more boatshaped. All three accounts speak of the boat,
the
pitch and the door. God promises
deliverance to Noah in 6:17;
Enki
indicates that
Atra-hasis will "save life," if he escapes
as planned.90
Only in the
Biblical account is the number of animals to be brought
into the
ark realistic. The tablet is marred in Atra-hasis 111:
but
indiscriminate numbers of birds (?), cattle (?) and other wild crea-
tures (?), plus Atra-basis'
family, go on board.91 The
"clean beast"
of
Genesis 7:2 may be reflected in the elluti of
III:2:32.92
The duration of the actual rain is more
realistic also. Forty
days and
nights are cataclysmic duration on a world-wide scale. Six
or
seven days is far less believable. The
flood of Genesis lasted 371
days.93 With the words of Genesis 7:11, tnoy;f;ma-lKA Ufq;b;ni
UHTAp;ni Myimaw.Aha tBoruxEva hBAra MOhT; the action and extent
of the
flood are clear. The niphal
verbs here show that these natural
ATRA-HASIS 15
forces were
acted upon by an outside Agent, God.
One might assume
that Enki's Apsu erupted adding to the
waters, but the only clear
statements have
to do with Adad's roaring in the clouds, e. g., in
III:
The closing of the boat's door is treated
variously. Genesis
brought the kupru ("pitch")for Atra-hasis
to close his door?94 Then
that one
was swept away in the flood?
Very little is said about the amount and
the subsequent assuaging
of the
waters. Even if this is the case, it is
a little difficult to see
how one
could say of Gilgamesh XI that it portrays a local flood, since
the
mountains were submerged. That claim is
better supported with
respect to Atra-hasis, but chiefly from silence, because the latter
does
not give
any real clue as to the extent of the flood.
The destruction of man and beast is deemed
complete, however.
This would
imply a universal catastrophe for both Atra-hasis and
Gil-
gamesh.
All flesh died; the waters had to seek out all, in effect. Gen-
esis 7:21-23 is most plain on this point.
Atra-hasis III:
kind of
bird to find dry land.95
Gilgamesh clearly indicates a dove,
swallow and
raven, while Genesis employs a raven and a dove.
Atra-hasis does
not give the place of the ark's landing.
Mt.
Nisir
should be identified with Pir Omar Gudrun in
ing to Speiser.96 Ararat (FrArAxE yrehA) has
generally been thought to
coincide with
the mountain of that name in what was ancient Urartu,
the
region of
The altar that Noah built is
"paralleled" in the Babylonian epics,
as has
been shown. The words HaHoyn.iha Hayre-tx, hvhy Hray.Ava
"and the Lord smelled the sweet savor" (Gen. 8:21), have
their grossly
polytheistic analogy in both Atra-hasis and
Gilgamesh. Leupold
has said
that God
"viewed the sentiments behind the sacrifice with satisfaction."98
If there is a blessing on Atra-hasis at the end of his epic, it is
missing. III:7 is about
childbirth and seems as if it has no real con-
nection with the rest of the poem. Utnapishtim obtains
immortality and
goes to
live somewhere in the West. Noah
receives a promise from
God that He will not judge the earth by water again.
The Covenant is
16 GRACE JOURNAL
given to
Noah; there is no Babylonian counterpart to the covenant.
CONCLUSION
After languishing in museum collections for
nearly a century, the
Epic of Atra-hasis has at last been presented to the scholarly
world in a
more
readable form. The process is as yet
incomplete. It is hoped
that more
fragments may be added to the missing sections of Tablet III.
Such a
discovery would enhance Flood studies even more. It must be
admitted at
this point that Gilgamesh XI is still the chief extra-biblical
document on
the Flood from the standpoint of completeness and parallels.
Gilgamesh is
a dynamic composition; its story is quite captivating. All
of its
twelve tablets constitute a marvel of ancient literature, surpassed
only by
Scripture itself. Atra-hasis,
on the other hand, is somewhat
colorless by
comparison. Lambert has forewarned his
readers on this
account: "a modern reader must not expect to find
our translation im-
mediately appealing or fully intelligible."99 The
greatest appeal in Atra-
basis must
be, in the final analysis, for the philologist.
The present
author has
only given a taste of the rich mine of comparative linguis-
tical material in the epic. As to content, it may be reiterated with
previous
generations of academicians, all accounts--Atra-hasis,
Gil-
gamesh XI (including the Sumerian flood story of
Ziusudra, purposely
not
touched upon here) and the Genesis Flood--go back to an actual,
historical
occurrence of a world-wide flood catastrophe.
The inspira-
tion of the Holy Spirit has preserved the
Biblical account without any
mythology,
polytheism or low moral concepts, and its very text has
been supernatlurally preserved as well.
DOCUMENTATION
1. E. A. Speiser,
trans., "Atrahasis" (in Ancient Near
Eastern
Texts, James B. Pritchard, ed. 2nd edition.
ton University Press, 1955), pp. 104-6.
2. W. G. Lambert and A. R. Millard, Atra-hasis: The Babylonian
Story of the Flood (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969, pp. 42-
105).
Recent periodical discussions by these co-authors include: Lam-
bert, "New Light on the Babylonian
Flood," Journal of Semitic
Studies, 5/2:113-23,
April, 1960; and Millard, "A New Babylonian
'Genesis' Story," Tyndale
Bulletin, 18:3-18, 1967.
3. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
pp. 134-7.
4. E. g., cf. Samuel Noah Kramer, The Sumerians (
5. Work continues on the smaller mound
until very recently, cf.
Geoffrey Turner, "Tell Nebi Yunus: The Ekal Masarti of Nine-
veh,"
ATRA-HASIS 17
6. Layard's works
are well known. Some of them include: Nine-
veh and its Remains (new edition; 2 vols. in 1.
George P. Putnam, 1852); also A Popular Account of Discoveries
at
1852).
7. Layard's
remarks on his second expedition are interesting, cf.
his Discoveries Among the Ruins of
8. Lambert, Atra-Hasis,
p. 2
9. George Smith, Assyrian
Discoveries (3rd edition.
Scribner, Armstrong and Company, 1876), pp. 2-3.
10. Ibid., p. 4.
11. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
p. 3.
12. Ibid.
13. "Dates are according to the
"middle chronology" on Hammurapi,
as presented by J. A. Brinkman in A. Leo Oppenheim,
Ancient;
pp. 335-52.
14. Theophilus G.
Pinches, The Old Testament in the Light of
the
Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia (
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,
1902), p. 117. This
fragment is from Scheil
and has come to be denominated "W" in
Lambert, cf. the latter's p. 129.
15. As early as 1902, i.e., at the time of
Pinches' first edition of
his work quoted immediately above, Pinches is willing to say,
p. 117: "It is not improbable that the fragment published by
the
Rev. V. Scheil O. P.,
belongs to this legend. . . ."
Pinches
does not seem as convinced as Lambert implies he was.
16. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
pp. 4-5.
17. Ibid., p. 5.
18. Ibid., pp. 32, 42.
19. Ibid., p. 31, n. 1; cf. also Rene Labat, Manuel d'Epigraphie
Akkadienne (quatrieme
edition;
1963), pp. 210-11.
20. The sign is *
in Old Babylonian, and is found in phrases
such as ina kaspi
(KU. BABBAR)-su, "in his silver," cf. E.
Berg-
mann, Codex Hammurabi: Textus Primigenius (editio tertia;
Roma: Pontificium Institutum
Biblicum, 1953), p. 8 (Law 35,
line 3, of the Code).
21. I.8' in the edict reads, in part, ku.babbaram, "and silver," F.
R. Kraus, Ein Edikt des Konigs Ammi-saduqa von
Studia et Documenta ad iura Orientis Antiqui Pertinenta, Vol. V
(
other version of the name of the scribe in the collophon: Azag-
18 GRACE JOURNAL
dAya, cf. Albert T. Clay, A Hebrew Deluge
Story in Cuneiform
and Other Epic Fragments in the Pierpont
Morgan Library.
Oriental Series, Researches, Vol. V-3. (
versity Press, 1922), p.61.
22. Cf. Brinkman in Oppenheim,
Ancient
23. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
p. 131.
24. Ibid., pp. 132-3.
25. The "etiological motif" was
first popularized by Gunkel and is still
a topic of current discussion, cf. F. Golka,
"Zur Erforschung der
Atiologien in Alten
Testament," Vetus Testamentum,
20/1:90, Jan-
uary, 1970.
26. Giorgio Buccellati,
"Religions of the Ancient Near East" (unpub-
lished lecture notes,
ifornia), April 16, 1970.
27. Lambert, Atra-Hasis,
pp. 42-3.
28. The word E. KUR may be subdivided: E
is "temple" and KUR is
"mountain," in Sumerian/Akkadian. Thus the Ekur in
the "mountain temple," Enlil's
ziggurat; cf. Buccellati, "Religions."
April 28, 1970.
29. Nusku calls Enlil Beli, "my
lord." This name has had a wide
distribution in Semitic languages and is seen in the
West Semitic
lfaBA, "to marry, rule over;" lfaBa, "owner, lord," and the
many compound names using this epithet, Francis Brown, S. R.
Driver and C. A. Briggs, eds., A Hebrew and English Lexicon
of the Old Testament (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1962), pp.
127-8 (Hereafter BDB).
30. The word liqi
is an imperative from lequ in 1:171.
31. The name indicates "Mistress/Lady of
the gods." By 1 247 Ma-
mi has undergone what Moran terms "a change of status" to
be-
"Mistress of all the gods," William L. Moran, "The
Creation of Man in Atra-hasis I 192-248,"
Bulletin of the Amer-
ican Schools of Oriental Research, 200:48-9, December 1970.
32. The term libima
is from banu, final weak, analogous to the
Hebrew hnABA "to build."
33. Lullu is
to be taken here as lullu-awilum,
"mankind," Lambert,
Atra-hasis, pp. 175, 187. -
34. The usual word for "mother" in
Babylonian is ummu, R. Borger,
Babylonische-assyrische Lesestucke (Roma: Pontificium
Institu-
turn Biblicum, 1963), p. LXXXVI.
35. Nintu is but one
of the many names of the mother-goddess.
The name means "queen who gives birth," according to Kra-
mer, Sumerian Mythology: A Study of
Spiritual and Literary
Achievement in the Third Millennium B. C. (revised edition; New
ATRA-HASIS 19
36. I:200, Lambert, Atra-hasis, pp. 56-7.
37. Ibid., p. 153, n. 223
38. The word for "spirit" is etemmu, "ghost," Ibid.,
p. 177. There
is, of course, no analogy to the Holy Spirit.
39. Simtu is a word
normally translated "fate" or destiny," Oppen-
heim, Ancient Mesopotamia, p. 201. These renderings are mis-
leading, though, because the Akkadian
word means much more
than the connotation in English. "Destinies" can be
conceived
concretely, they can be written down, hence a
"table of des-
tinies. " The
power of the gods is not inherent in Babylonian
thought, but is in a god's power to hold onto the
destinies, cf.
Buccellati, "Religions," April 21, 1970.
40. The
text reads "600.600 mu.hi.a."
Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 66.
"To acquire a god" was to experience unexpected good
fortune.
Jacobsen says: "In Sumerian religion the power whose presence
was felt in such experiences was given form from the situation
and was envisaged as a benevolent father or mother figure con-
cerned with the individual in question and bent
on furthering his,
fortunes,"Thorkild Jacobsen, "Formative Tendencies in
ian Religion" (in The Bible and the
Ancient Near East, G. Ernest
Wright, editor. Garden City,
pany, Inc., 1961), p. 270.
42. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
p. 71.
43. Like Baal in his actions, his name appears
in many personal
names, e. g., dSamsi-dAddu,
Samsi Adad, king of
Georges Dossin, Correspondance de Samsi-ddu. Archives
Royales de Mari, I (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1950), p. 34
(ARM 1:7:3).
44. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
p. 10.
45. The frequent breaks in the text have
caused Lambert to number
Tablet II differently.
46. The Babylonians believed everything
floated (?) in a heavenly
ocean, Buccellati, "Religions,"
April 9, 1970.
47. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
p. 11, cf. George Smith, The Chaldean
Account of Genesis (4th edition:
Searle, and Rivington.
1876).
48. For the relevant
lines. cf. Gilgamesh XI:21-2 in E. A. Speiser.
trans. "The Epic of Gilgamesh"
(in Ancient Near Eastern Texts.
James B. Pritchard. ed. 2nd edition,
versity Press. 1955). p. 93.
49. Again, the words "build a boat."
bini eleppa
show that in "to
build" a boat and "to create" a man, banu/hnABA is used synon-
ymously.
It is interesting to note that in Genesis 2:22. Nb,y.iva
from hnABA, is used in the creation of Eve.
20 GRACE JOURNAL
50. Actually dSamas,
the sun god, is indicated.
51. Abubu is
"flood" in Babylonian, from * 'bb, or ebebu,
"to puri-
fy, clean,"
52. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
p. 160.
53. Ibid., pp. 125, 167n.
54. Cf. Speiser,
"The Myth of Zu" (in Ancient Near
Eastern Texts,
James B. Pritchard, editor. 2nd edition.
Princeton:
University Press, 1955), p. 111 ft.
55. Nintu has
feverish lips, a disease, Lambert, Atra-hasis,
p. 161.
56. The word zubbu
is "fly" in Atra-hasis. In the Ugaritic
literature
il.dbb is used, where it probably means
"Lord of the Fly," Cyrus
H. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook
(Roma: Pontificium Institutum
Biblicum, 1965), p. 388. The z-d is phonemically assured.
II Kings 1:3 and Matt. 12 :24 are-later
instances of this pheno-
menon of the king of demons.
57. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
p. 163.
58. Ibid., Gilgamesh XI:167-9 accuses Enlil alone.
59. Ibid., p. 164.
60. BDB, p. 274. Hebrew equivalents are: hrAm;zi and rymizA, "song,
melody."
61. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
p. 165.
62. Cf. Oppenheim, Ancient
63. Cf. Speiser,
"Gilgamesh," p. 88, n. 143, and also cf. Thorkild
Jacobsen, The Sumerian King
List. Assyriological Studies,
No.
11 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966), pp. 76-7, n.
34.
Ubar-Thtu the father (?) of Utnapishtim
is recorded in the king
list, but Ziusudra, Utnapishtim's
Sumerian name, is missing.
64. Speiser,
"Gilgamesh,"
pp. 92ff.
65. Alexander Heidel,
The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Par-
allels (2nd edition;
1967), p. 80.
66. Speiser,
"Gilgamesh," p. 93.
67. Cf. Borger, Lesestucke, III, Tafel 60,
line 11. It must be due
to scribal error that this reading is uruSu-ri
-pak when it should
be uruSu-ru-pak.
68. Ibid., line 14: there is *** , a-bu-bi,
"flood."
69. Ibid., II, 94.
70. Ibid, Mlk
designates "king" in Hebrew, but the idea inherent is
"counse1or" in Akkadian. Certainly the two are
closely aligned.
71. Henri Frankfort, et al., Before
Philosophy (reprinted:
Penguin Books, 1968), p. 267.
72. Speiser,
"Gilgamesh," p. 93.
73. Translation by Heidel,
Gilgamesh, p. 81, 1. 29.
74.
75. Heidel, Gilgamesh,
p. 82.
76. Speiser,
"Gilgamesh," p. 93.
ATRA-HASIS
21
77. Heidel, Gilgamesh,
p. 82
78. Speiser,
"Gilgamesh." p. 94.
79. It is an easy matter to trace, Utu of the Sumerians through
Shamash of
the Akkadians to wm,w,, the
word for "sun" in the
Old Testament.
80. Speiser,
"Gilgamesh," p. 94, n. 205.
81. cf. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
p. 93
82. There is a broken sign (
* ). This could be restored to
*, KUR Sumerian; sadu, Akkadian, "mountain which is what
Speiser is supposing.
83. The Sumerian Inanna.
84. Vide infra.
85. Instead of anything analogous to tOHUr fBar;xa, "four winds,"
in Hebrew, the text here has the numerical ***
(4.IM. MES), 4 sari, "four winds, "
II, 99; III, Tafel
65.
86. Speiser,
"Gilgamesh," p. 95.
87. Heidel, Gilgamesh,
p. 88.
88. John Skinner, A. Critical and
Exegetical Commentary on Genesis
(in The International Critical
Commentary, S. R. Driver, et al.,
eds. 2nd edition.
and G. J. Spurrell, Notes on the Text of
the Book of Genesis
(2nd edition, revised;
76, think that this is possibly an Egyptian loanword, perhaps
teb(t), "chest, sarcophagus."
It is interesting that the Egyptian
word for "box" is written * . The first sign, *,
stands for a reed shelter in the field, the
* is the sign
for water, and the last is a determinative for any kind of box
or coffin. The resultant word
is hnd.
If, however, the word is * in Egyptian, as Ludwig Koehler
and Walter Baumgartner, eds., Lexicon in Veteris
Testamenti
Libros (Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1951), p. 1017, say, then Gardiner
lists in his grammar *, "floats," under *.
the first sign of which indicates "reed floats used in fishing
and
hunting the hippopotamus," Alan Gardiner, Egyptian
Grammar
(3rd ed., revised;
p. 514, cf. also A. S. Yaduda, The Language of the Pentateuch
in its Relation to Egyptian (
1933), 1, 15*.
89. BDB, p. 498. The equivalent is given in Atra-hasis, III:1:33,
90. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
pp. 88-9.
22 GRACE JOURNAL
91. Ibid., pp. 92-3.
92. Ibid., p. 178; the verb elelu, "be pure," has as its noun ellu,
"pure."
93. John C. Whitcomb, Jr., and Henry M.
Morris, The Genesis Flood
(
1962), p. 3.
94. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
pp. 92-3. The words are [k]u-up-ru ba-
bi-il.
The verb is from abalu, "to
carry," The form babil does
not look passive, but it is well-attested that from Old Akkadian
on by-forms with an initial b are passive, Ignace
J. Gelb, et al.,
The Assyrian Dictionary (Chicago: The Oriental Institute,1964),
vol. I, pt. I, pp. 10,
28-9. "Pitch was brought" is the correct
translation.
95. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
p. 98; the words ana sari, "to the
winds, "
are all that is left.
96. Speiser,
"Gilgamesh," p. 94, n. 212.
97. Cf. the Assyrian Empire map in the
unnumbered back pp. of
Georges Roux, Ancient
Books, 1966).
The present writer has long wondered what con-
nection is possible between the biblical
state of Aratta, probably situated somewhere
in the region of the
a long history and appears, e. g., in Sargon's eighth campaign
in the late eighth century, B. C., cf. Francois Thureau-Dangin,
Une Relation de
la Huitieme Campagne de
Sargon. Textes cune-
iformes, Musee du Louvre, III (
ner, 1912), 1. 61; p. 12,
pl. III.
98. H. C. Leupold, Exposition
of Genesis (
House, 1950), I, 322.
The Targum is careful to avoid such an-
thropomorphisms.
Genesis 8:22 reads there: yAy; lyBeqav;
h.yneBAr;qA tya
xvAfEraB;, "and the Lord received/accepted with
pleasure his sacrifice/gift," cf. Marcus Jastrow, comp., A Dic-
tionary of the Targumim,
the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi,
and
the Midrashic
Literature (
1950), II, 1309, 1486 and 1411, for the
terms. lbaq; the
Pael here, is "he received"; xvAfEra is "pleasure,"
and NBAr;qA,
the term referred to in Mark 7: 11, "Corban"
(A. S. V.).
99. Lambert, Atra-hasis,
p. 6.
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