Genesis and Gilgamesh - Essay Example

In Genesis account, there is a unique interaction of God and Humankind in a very complicated relationship. There is a close connectedness between God and humankind right away from the creation of man and later creation of Eve from mans rib. The creation of the two creatures shows that there was a unique connection between divine power and the mortals. After God had created the universe and placed man in it, the creation stories tell us that God gave the man the mandate to name all the animals by a unique name. This shows that God himself gave human beings the power to rule animals. Later, there is connectedness between humankind and the serpent whereby the serpent communicates with Eve by asking her on which fruits God had waned them from eating. Then, the immortal serpent told Eve to take the fruit since it was edible and it would open her eyes and see what God had denied them from seeing. Later the effect was spread to Adam (Melvin, 25). There is also another communication between God that showed the curse that humankind had caused themselves by going against the rules of the divine power of God.

On the other hand, in Gilgamesh there exist a divine connection to mortals only when there was a mess that made Gilgamesh as a divine being to intervene. In Gilgamesh, the gods associated with humans physical places unlike in the account of creation where God was in spirit form. The divine immortals act as patrons.

In both Genesis and Gilgamesh theories, the gods are shown to be caring for the beings. For instance, in creation theory, God felt sympathetic to man when he found out that he was lonely without a partner and decided to make him one. God also showed that he cared when he gave the man a deep sleep before carrying out a divine operation that utilized one of his ribs to create him a partner, Eve. On the other hand, the one-third god Gilgamesh shows that he cares for the mortals when Enkidu his companion dies, and he is filled with despair (Melvin, 24). He also shows caring by traveling around the earth in search of the cause and mysteries of death.

In the accounts of Genesis, Satan is the deity that is remote in the story since he managed to convince Eve and Adam to eat the fruit that was forbidden. It is a belief that people have that there is an evil spirit called Satan, but it is hidden and not easily recognized god. In Gilgamesh, Bull of heaven and demon Humbaba are remote since they were killed by Gilgamesh and Enkidu (Ziolkowski n.p).

In the two accounts of Genesis, the gods in Gilgamesh are readily available but mostly in times of reconciliation. But it shows that they are always available and can make friends with people. In the creation account, God was not readily available since his presence is not predetermined. The Genesis creation theory is fair and well understood since it involves events that are logically true like the start of evil and death (Melvin, 23). The genesis theory is capricious since it has two accounts of creation by which the in the first one, God created human beings in the likeness of him and his son (Genesis 1: 26-27). In the second account, God saw created man and saw that he was alone and later created a woman from the mans rib Genesis 2: 18).

Works cited

Melvin, David. "The Gilgamesh Traditions and the Pre-history of Genesis 1-6." Perspectives in Religious Studies 38.1 (2011): 23-32.

Ziolkowski, Theodore. Gilgamesh among us: modern encounters with the ancient epic. Cornell University Press, 2011.