April 4, 2026

Of course you’ll quickly recognize the name Noah as the godly man who built an ark at God’s instruction in order to survive the global flood recorded in the book of Genesis.

By now you may also recognize the name Utnapishtim, sometimes called “the Babylonian Noah,” the main hero of a Babylonian flood narrative with similarities to the Bible that’s described in an ancient work called the Epic of Gilgamesh.

But do you know the names Atrahasis and Ziusudra? Atrahasis is the hero of an earlier Babylonian flood account, likewise written in a similar dialect of Akkadian, the ancient language of that region. In later Babylonian tradition Atrahasis is even identified as Utnapishtim, so clearly the author of the Epic of Gilgamesh borrowed and revised the Epic of of Atrahasis.

The story of Ziusudra, fittingly called “the Sumerian Noah,” predates both of the aforementioned Babylonian epics and records the flood tradition of the ancient region of Sumer. Ziusudra is a king-priest from the important Sumerian city of Shuruppak, located on the Euphrates River near the city of Ur, the hometown of Abraham.

Inscribed on clay fragments that date to approximately 2000 B.C., the Sumerian account, the earliest flood story ever recorded, albeit incomplete, agrees with both the biblical and Babylonian accounts on several core elements, including a divine warning which preceded the flood, the necessary construction of a vessel in order to survive the flood, the sparing of both human and animal life inside the vessel, and the destruction of mankind outside the vessel. Like Utnapishtim, Ziusudra is even awarded with immortality.

These Babylonian and Sumerian flood traditions are just three of the hundreds of ancient flood traditions that anthropologists have identified worldwide. They surely seem to corroborate the historicity of the flood.

-Daniel McCabe

Trivia (Answer below)

What is the most popular soft drink in Israel?

Four Fascinating Archaeologibcal Finds in the City of David

1. Half shekel—a silver coin minted during the First Jewish Revolt, dating to 67 A.D., just prior to the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 A.D. by the Romans in their reprisal against the uprising. The half shekel was given as a donation annually for the upkeep of the temple.

2. Gold earring—a valuable piece of jewelry, evidently worn by an aristocrat’s daughter, dating to the Second Temple period, before 70 A.D.

3. Golden bell—sewn on a garment, likely belonging to someone of high position who lived in Jerusalem towards the end of the Second Temple period, before 70 A.D.

4. Clay Seal—bearing the words, “deka leyah,” meaning “pure for God,” used to mark items and vessels that were brought to the temple in order to show that they adhered to proper purity requirements.

Which one is the most interesting to you?

-Daniel McCabe

Christology—the Humanity of Jesus, part 1

Here’s a topic where our minds prove to be so finite and not fully able to comprehend everything. Jesus is fully human in nature. He took on this permanent addition at His incarnation. That is so fascinating to me. Jesus is God, yet at the incarnation—when He’s born as a baby to the Virgin Mary—He adds humanity unto Himself.

In Philippians 2 Paul describes how Jesus took on servanthood, and we see this also in John 1:14 and Acts 1:11. When we first think of the person of Jesus, we generally think of His coming to earth as the son of Joseph, a carpenter from Nazareth. That’s the human Jesus, but from that point on—what’s really interesting to me—is that He now has that human nature forever, yet it didn’t change His divine nature. The Son of God added on a human nature. So in a unique way, He’s fully God and fully human. This doesn’t mean 100% + 100% = 200%, but rather it’s 100% + 100% = 100%. He’s still just one unified person. He’s the anthropos, the God-man, the only unique one. We can’t ever fully grasp this, but we can know it because the Bible presents Jesus as both God and human.

Jesus, of course, has a human body; therefore, when He was on earth, He experienced the limitations of a human in every way. He got hungry. He got tired. He felt pain, and although He experienced those human limitations, His body was fully perfected upon His resurrection. It’s not that Jesus was imperfect in sin like we are, but rather that following the resurrection, glorification and ascension of His body He was made perfect like we will one day be made perfect. In other words, He’s the firstfruits of the resurrection.

Jesus is completely sinless in His human nature, and that’s the major difference, of course, between our humanity and Jesus’ humanity, for His human nature is unfallen. He is unstained by sin. Again, that’s something that we can’t fully comprehend because sin is such a huge part of our experience. We can’t even think about what it must be like to be free from sin though as believers we are freed from the bondage of sin.

-Adam Keim

History and Geography—Saul of Gibeah

“Then Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the Lord. Then Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his home. Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched” (1 Samuel 10:25-26).

The pictured map might look nondescript to one unfamiliar with Israel’s geography, but about three miles north of Jerusalem lies Gibeah, King Saul’s hometown, which served as the capital during his reign. Not long before Saul’s era, the town was a sad example of the spiritual state of God’s people in Judges 19-20. A Levite and his concubine came to rest in Gibeah after their journey from Bethlehem, only to find great trouble. Ironically, the Levite refused to stay overnight in Jebus (later known as Jerusalem) because it was a Canaanite city at the time. He probably would have encountered less sin there!

Gibeah is mentioned several times in prophetic writings, usually in connection with coming judgment (Hosea 5:8; 9:9; 10:9; Isaiah 10:29). Also, the Roman commander Titus prepared the Legio X Fretensis (the Tenth Legion) there at the “Hill of Saul” before moving against Jerusalem in AD 70.

An interesting piece of modern history stands at the site today. You can walk around the unfinished construction of a royal palace. King Hussein of Jordan began building one there in the 1960s, presumably as a boast that he controlled the land of Israel’s former king. But Israel won that area during the Six-Day War in 1967, leaving the building unfinished as an insult in return. What a retort!

-Adam Keim

Answer to the Trivia

A. Coca-cola