March 29, 2026

Flood Stories: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Part 4

More Similarities to the Bible

We’ve already noted five key similarities between the Bible and this Babylonian epic. Let’s complete the list with six more.

6. The duration of the flood is given—in the Babylonian account the storm lasted only six days and nights, and the flood ceased on the seventh day. No mention is made of the length of time that Utnapishtim and the others remained inside the boat. The Genesis account, however, describes a violent downpour of forty days and nights (7:12) with ordinary rain and upheaval that continued for another five months (8:2-3). The entire flood event looks to have lasted for roughly one year.

7. The landing place of the boat is given—Utnapishtim’s vessel grounded on Mount Nisir, a site commonly identified with Pir Omar Gudrun, located about four hundred miles north of the Persian Gulf in the Kurdish region of modern Iraq, east of the Tigris River. Noah’s ark rested on the mountains of Ararat (v. 4), a general region located west of the Caspian Sea and southeast of the Black Sea in Armenia, very near the borders of Iran and Turkey.

8. Birds are sent out to assess the level of the water—in the Babylonian account a dove, a swallow and a raven are all released consecutively on the seventh day. The dove and the swallow return; the raven does not. This bears a striking resemblance to the biblical account in which Noah first releases a raven forty days after the tops of the mountains became visible (vs. 6-7) and then a dove on three subsequent occasions until finally feeling confident that the water had abated (vs. 8-12). There is no mention of a swallow.

9. The hero and his family are delivered—in addition to all living animals, Utnaphistim survives the flood with his immediate family, extended family, all craftsmen and the boat pilot. Eight people exit the ark in the biblical account, including Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives (Genesis 6:18; 7:7, 13; 1 Peter 3:20).

10. The hero worships after disembarking—Utnapishtim pours out a drink offering and burns a fragrant sacrifice of sweet cane, cedar and myrtle to the gods who are drawn to the sacrifice like flies. Noah offers numerous burnt offerings to the Lord who smelled the “soothing aroma” (Genesis 8:20-21).

11. The hero is blessed—Utnapishtim and his wife receive divinity and immortality. Genesis 9:1 also notes that “God blessed Noah and his sons.” They would be fruitful; they were granted permission to eat meat; and they became recipients of a covenant with God that promised no more global flooding (vs. 11-17).

The many similarities between these two ancient flood traditions suggests to many that both had independent knowledge of a global flood.

-Daniel McCabe

Trivia

Which one of the following is legal in Israel?

History: Irena Sendler

I just stumbled across a newspaper article about this remarkable woman. I can’t find the source of the article, but it was clearly printed shortly after May 12, 2008, the date of Irene Sendler’s passing. This young Polish woman saved more than twice as many Jews as did Oskar Schindler during World War II. How is it that I had never heard her name until today? I’ve transcribed the article for you, for I couldn’t have captured her life story any better than this.

“‘Female Schindler’ who saved 2,500 dies at 98” by Ross McGuinness

A social worker who saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis during World War II has died, aged 98. Irena Sendler, who was known as the ‘female Schindler,’ rescued children and babies from the Warsaw ghetto in Poland—smuggling some out by wrapping them as parcels.

Mrs. Sendler, who lived at a Warsaw nursing home, had been in the hospital with pneumonia since last month.

During the war, she and her team of 20 were allowed into the infamous ghetto on the pretence of checking it during a typhoid outbreak. Instead, they searched for children to save.

They smuggled out babies in ambulances and trams, some wrapped in packages. Teenagers escaped by joining teams of laborers. Those rescued were placed in families, orphanages, hospitals or convents.

In 1943 the Nazis destroyed the ghetto and the inhabitants were shot or sent to death camps.

Mrs. Sendler, a Roman Catholic, was eventually captured by the Gestapo, tortured and sentenced to death—but released when a guard was bribed.

The names of the hundreds of children she saved were known because Mrs. Sendler kept a list buried in a jar under an apple tree.

She became one of the first ‘Righteous Gentiles’ to be honored at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel in 1965. Last year she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

‘It took a true miracle to save a Jewish child,’ said Elzbieta Ficowska, who was rescued as a baby by Mrs. Sendler in 1942. ‘She saved not only us, but our children and grandchildren and the generations to come.’”

-Daniel McCabe

Geography: Ramon Crater

The land of Israel is a place with such historical and spiritual significance that its importance cannot be overstated. But it is also a land of natural wonders and fascinating geography. The Ramon Crater in the southern desert area of the country, known as the Negev, is one such example. This six-mile wide crater-like formation is not believed to have been shaped by a volcano or a meteor, but rather by water erosion. Modern scientists credit an ancient ocean that used to sit in the area for the formation of the crater, which accords wonderfully with the worldwide flood account of Genesis 6–8. The surrounding region is known for its access to ancient spice routes as well as wildlife, such as desert mountain goats and a unique caper plant that grows only on specific gypsum layers within the crater.

Visitors to the Ramon Geological Park Reserve can enjoy a feature known as “The Carpentry Shop” that is made of thousands of symmetrical quartzite prisms that resemble logs in a woodshop as well as numerous marine fossils and vertical cracks in the rock through which magma used to flow upward before solidifying. The Ramon Crater has also been designated as an “International Dark Sky Park,” one of the best places on earth for stargazing and viewing meteor showers. The crater even has a fun connection to astronauts, as its harsh, arid terrain is so similar to the surface of Mars that it is used as a training site for astronauts preparing for future missions. The nearby visitor center and the highest peak, Mount Ramon, display a memorial for Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut, who was a frequent visitor to the area.

Even though the crater is not mentioned in the Bible, it is situated near the Wilderness of Zin where Moses sent the twelve spies to scout out the Promised Land in Numbers 13. I wonder what Joshua and Caleb would have thought of the crater if they passed by this beautiful spot in the Negev, perhaps even looking up to the bright stars.

–Adam Keim

Christology—the Deity of Jesus

What words could possibly do justice in describing the person of Jesus Christ? Paul the Apostle offered a good summary in Colossians 1:15-16, 19, 20, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him…. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.”

In this series we’ll divide the topic of the person of Christ into six subtopics: His deity, His humanity, His hypostasis, His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, His offices and His Second Coming. My favorite way to teach about Jesus Christ is simply by studying the Gospels, for so many things will pop out at you when you read them, but in this series we’ll take a systematic walk through the entire New Testament.

Christology is, of course, the theology of Christ, the second person of the Godhead, and the first category we’ll study is His deity. Jesus Christ is fully divine in nature and completely equal with God the Father and God the Spirit. Many teachings about Jesus have failed to grasp His full divinity, including many errors that came out of the early church as they attempted to understand His nature to the best of their ability. On the other hand, we have folks today whose teachings on the nature of Jesus strike me as being demonic. After all, the ultimate source of these false teachers is the devil who desires to deceive us by either denying Jesus’ divinity or His humanity.

Jesus is fully divine in nature. He’s completely equal with God the Father and God the Spirit. We see this in Philippians 2:6, for example. In Exodus 3:14 God reveals Himself to Moses, saying, “I Am,” and Jesus claims this for Himself in John 8:58, saying, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” a clear link to Exodus 3, and His audience knew exactly what He was saying. Jesus is God Himself in human flesh. He existed before time. He’s outside the bounds of time. He’s eternal, and, of course, God is the only eternal one.

Which leads to me to a slight quibble, for when we as Christians talk about the gift of eternal life, we should technically be referring to everlasting life because only one being is truly eternal, outside of time, and that’s God. Of course, when someone refers to eternal life in heaven with God, we know what they mean, and it’s no reason to start an argument or anything, but God is the only eternal being outside of time. This is evident from passages like Isaiah 9:6, Micah 5:2, John 1:1, Revelation 1:10 and Revelation 22:13. In John 1:1, for example, we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” so in some sense Jesus is equal with God the Father as well as the Holy Spirit. As the Son, however, He is distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit, yet the three are one God.

In the Gospels we read about Jesus’ divine authority to forgive sins and that He’s worthy of worship. He created the entire universe and continues to hold it together in some way. “All things were created through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16), and He holds it all together. Without the Son of God holding the created order together, it would all fall apart. Perhaps you’ve heard that if gravity was slightly different than what it is now, then everything would fall apart, or if the earth was just minutely closer or farther from the sun, then we couldn’t sustain life on earth. Jesus holds it all together. So Jesus is fully divine. He is God, and there’s no denying it. If you spend any time in the Scriptures, you cannot deny that Jesus Christ is God of very gods and Lord of very Lords.

-Adam Keim

On Location—20 Chairs

How many kings of Judah were there? Yes, 20. Well, technically 19 kings and 1 queen. Can you name them all? My friend Sara Beth once could! Maybe still can!

So, what are we looking at in this picture that I took last September on our trip to Israel? Well, the modern caretakers of the ancient site of Lachish have set up a marvelous display of 20 chairs next to the ancient ruins of the king’s house. Each chair represents a king of Judah—all 20 of them in order. The name of the king is printed at the top of each chair in English, Arabic and Hebrew and just below his name are the dates of his reign. At the base of the chair is a Bible verse associated with each king, written in Hebrew. Then there’s the part that I really like! The height of the chairs are directly proportional to the length of each king’s reign. Two chairs are particularly tall. What kings do these two chairs represent? Do you know? The two kings of Judah with the longest reigns are Manasseh and Uzziah (also called Azariah).

-Daniel McCabe

Answer to the Trivia

C. Buying alcohol at age 18