Editing Noah's Ark (section)

==Origins==
===Mesopotamian precursors===
{{Main|Flood myth}}
For well over a century, scholars have said that the Bible's story of Noah's Ark is based on older Mesopotamian models.{{sfn|Kvanvig|2011|p=210}} Because all these flood stories deal with events that allegedly happened at the dawn of history, they give the impression that the myths themselves must come from very primitive origins, but the myth of the global flood that destroys all life only begins to appear in the [[Old Babylonian Empire|Old Babylonian period]] (20th–16th centuries BCE).{{sfn|Chen|2013|pp=3–4}} The reasons for this emergence of the typical Mesopotamian flood myth may have been bound up with the specific circumstances of the end of the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]] around 2004 BCE and the restoration of order by the [[First Dynasty of Isin]].{{sfn|Chen|2013|p=253}}

Nine versions of the Mesopotamian flood story are known, each more or less adapted from an earlier version. In the oldest version, inscribed in the Sumerian city of [[Nippur]] around 1600 BCE, the hero is King [[Ziusudra]]. This story, the [[Ziusudra#Sumerian flood myth|Sumerian flood myth]], probably derives from an earlier version. The Ziusudra version tells how he builds a boat and rescues life when the gods decide to destroy it. This basic plot is common in several subsequent flood stories and heroes, including Noah. Ziusudra's Sumerian name means "he of long life." In Babylonian versions, his name is [[Atra-Hasis|Atrahasis]], but the meaning is the same. In the Atrahasis version, the flood is a river flood.<ref name="Cline">{{cite book |last=Cline |first=Eric H. |year=2007 |title=From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible |publisher=National Geographic |isbn=978-1-4262-0084-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJW-zhffwk4C&q=From+Eden+to+Exile%3A+Unraveling+Mysteries+of+the+Bible}}</ref>{{rp|20–27}}

The version closest to the biblical story of Noah is that of [[Utnapishtim]] in the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]''.{{sfn|Nigosian|2004|p=40}} A complete text of Utnapishtim's story is contained on a clay tablet dating from the seventh century BCE, but fragments of the story have been found from as far back as the 19th century BCE.{{sfn|Nigosian|2004|p=40}} The last known version of the Mesopotamian flood story was written in [[Greek language|Greek]] in the third century BCE by a Babylonian priest named [[Berossus]]. From the fragments that survive, it seems little changed from the versions of 2,000 years before.{{sfn|Finkel|2014|pp=89–101}}

The parallels between Noah's Ark and the arks of Babylonian flood heroes Atrahasis and Utnapishtim have often been noted. Atrahasis's Ark was circular, resembling an enormous ''[[Kuphar|quffa]]'', with one or two decks.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nova: Secrets of Noah's Ark|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/secrets-of-noahs-ark/|date=7 October 2015|website=www.pbs.org|language=en-US|access-date=17 May 2020}}</ref> Utnapishtim's ark was a [[cube]] with six decks of seven compartments, each divided into nine subcompartments (63 subcompartments per deck, 378 total). Noah's Ark was rectangular with three decks. A progression is believed to exist from a circular to a cubic or square to rectangular. The most striking similarity is the near-identical deck areas of the three arks: 14,400 cubits<sup>2</sup>, 14,400 cubits<sup>2</sup>, and 15,000 cubits<sup>2</sup> for Atrahasis, Utnapishtim, and Noah, only 4% different. [[Irving Finkel]] concluded, "the iconic story of the Flood, Noah, and the Ark as we know it today certainly originated in the landscape of ancient Mesopotamia, modern Iraq."{{sfn|Finkel|2014|loc=chpt.14}}

Linguistic parallels between Noah's and Atrahasis' arks have also been noted. The word used for "pitch" (sealing tar or resin) in Genesis is not the normal Hebrew word, but is closely related to the word used in the Babylonian story.{{sfn|McKeown|2008|p=55}} Likewise, the Hebrew word for "ark" (''tēvāh'') is nearly identical to the Babylonian word for an oblong boat (''ṭubbû''), especially given that "v" and "b" are the same letter in Hebrew: [[bet (letter)|bet]] (ב).{{sfn|Finkel|2014|loc=chpt.14}}

However, the causes for God or the gods sending the flood differ in the various stories. In the Hebrew myth, the flood inflicts God's judgment on wicked humanity. The Babylonian ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'' gives no reasons, and the flood appears the result of divine caprice.<ref name="May Metzger">May, Herbert G., and Bruce M. Metzger. ''The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha''. 1977.</ref> In the Babylonian [[Atra-Hasis|Atrahasis]] version, the flood is sent to reduce [[human overpopulation]], and after the flood, other measures were introduced to limit humanity.<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Stephanie Dalley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0YHfiCz4BRwC&q=flood|title=Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others| date=2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424054145/https://books.google.com/books?id=0YHfiCz4BRwC#v=onepage&q=flood&f=false |archive-date=24 April 2016 |pages= 5–8| publisher=OUP Oxford | isbn=978-0-19-953836-2 }}</ref><ref>Alan Dundes, ed., [https://books.google.com/books?id=E__dnnQwGDwC&q=Gilgamesh%2C+flood&pg=PA62 ''The Flood Myth''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514162849/https://books.google.com/books?id=E__dnnQwGDwC&pg=PA62#v=onepage&q=Gilgamesh%2C%20flood&f=false |date=14 May 2016 }}, pp. 61–71.</ref><ref>J. David Pleins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=PX0fIE5IU8gC&q=ziusudra+flood+story&pg=PA102 ''When the Great Abyss Opened: Classic and Contemporary Readings of Noah's Flood''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624184753/https://books.google.com/books?id=PX0fIE5IU8gC&pg=PA102#v=onepage&q=ziusudra%20flood%20story&f=false |date=24 June 2016 }}, pp. 102–103.</ref>

===Composition===
{{main|Genesis flood narrative#Composition}}
A consensus among scholars indicates that the [[Torah]] (the first five books of the Bible, beginning with Genesis) was the product of a long and complicated process that was not completed until after the [[Babylonian exile]].{{sfn|Enns|2012|p=23}} Since the 18th century, the flood narrative has been analysed as a paradigm example of the combination of two different versions of a story into a single text, with one marker for the different versions being a consistent preference for different names "Elohim" and "Yahweh" to denote God.<ref>Richard Elliot Friedman (1997 ed.), ''Who Wrote the Bible'', p. 51.</ref>