The Atrahasis Epic and Its Significance for Our Understanding of Genesis 1-9 Author(s): Tikva Frymer-Kensky Source: The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Dec., 1977), pp. 147-155 Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3209529 . Accessed: 02/04/2013 14:21 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The American Schools of Oriental Research is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Biblical Archaeologist. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 130.58.65.10 on Tue, 2 Apr 2013 14:21:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE ATRAHASIS EPIC AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR OUR UNDERSTANDINGOF GENESIS 1-9 Dedicated to the memory of J. J. Finkelstein whose unique genius is sorely missed. TIKVA FRYMER-KENSKY The Babylonian Epic of Atrahasis, written no later than 1700 B.C.E., is an ancient Primeval History of Man which relates the story of manfrom the events that resultedin his creationuntil after theflood. Therecent recovery of this epic has enormous importancefor understandingthe great cos- mological cycle of Genesis1-9, for it enables us to appreciate the major themes of this cyclefrom a new perspective. The Babylonian Flood Stories Millard,Atrahasis: The BabylonianStory of the Flood, Oxford, 1969) can be understoodwith the aid of Three'different stories of the flood only Babylonian the other known flood stories. The Gilgamesh Epic have survived: the Sumerian Flood the ninth Story, a different for analysis. tablet of the and the Atrahasis presents problem comparative GilgameshEpic, Epic. Here the flood is in a secondarycontext, Details in these such as the of animals story clearly stories, placing and, more importantly,this context is so differentfrom in the ark, the landing of the ark on a mountain,and the biblicalas to cause seriousdifferences in content. In the sendingforth of birdsto see whetherthe watershad the the of the flood is relatedas indicate that these stories are GilgameshEpic story receded, clearly of the tale of for immortality. related to the biblical flood part Gilgamesh'squest intimately story and, Utnapishtimtells his descendantGilgamesh the story of indeed, that the Babylonianand biblical accounts of the flood in order to tell him he becameimmortal the flood different of an why represent retellings essentially and, in so doing, to show Gilgameshthat he cannot identical flood tradition. Until the recovery of the become immortal in the same This is Atrahasis the usefulnessof these tales way. purpose Epic, however, explicitly stated, for the story is introduced by toward an understandingof Genesiswas limitedby the "As I look lack of a cohesive context for the flood Gilgamesh'squestion, upon you, Utnapish- story compa- tim, featuresare not are as I ... rable to that of Genesis.The SumerianFlood has your strange;you just Story how did you join the Assembly of the gods in your survivedin a very fragmentarystate, and even its most for life?" recent edition Civil in Lambert and quest (Gilgamesh XI:2-7). Utnapishtim (by Miguel concludeshis recitationwith the admonition,"But now who will call the gods to Assembly for your sake so Tikva Frymer-Kensky is Assistant Professor ofNear Eastern that you may find the life that you are seeking?" Studies at Wayne State University, Detroit. Her manu- (Gilgamesh XI:197-98). script, Judicial Ordeal in the Ancient Near East, is forth- The nature of the story as "Utnapishtim'stale" coming in the series Bibliotheca Mesopotamicafrom Undena colors the recitationof the flood episode and makes it Publications (Malibu, CA). fundamentallydifferent from the biblical flood story. BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST 147 This content downloaded from 130.58.65.10 on Tue, 2 Apr 2013 14:21:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The "first person narrative"format means that Utnapish- tim can only tell those parts of the story that he knows, and that he may leave out those aspects that do not concern him or fit his purpose. For example, even though Babylonian gods are not portrayed as capricious and are considered as having reasons for their actions, Utnapishtim tells us nothing about the reasons that the gods brought the flood. This lapse is dictated by the literary format: Utnapishtim may not know the reason for the flood, or he may not record it because it is irrele- vant to his purpose, which is to recount how he became immortal. Similarly, the only event after the flood that Utnapishtim relates to Gilgamesh is the subsequent convocation of the gods that granted him immortality. The result of the "personalization" of the flood story in the Gilgamesh Epic is that the scope of the story is Jacob J. Finkelstein restricted to the adventures of one individual and its significance to its effects upon him, with the flood itself emptied of any cosmic or anthropological significance. (1922-1974) The flood stories in Genesis and in Gilgamesh are so far removed from each other in focus and intent that one cannot compare the ideas in the two versions of the flood In the three years since Jacob J. Finkelstein's without setting up spurious dichotomies. premature death at 52, the measure of his loss to Assyriological and biblical studies has become increasingly apparent. J. J. Finkelstein was a many- faceted scholar. He was a superb cuneiformist; his The AtrahasisEpic ability to read and copy cuneiform texts was unparalleled among Assyriologists, and the volumes The recoveryof the AtrahasisEpic providesnew of cuneiform texts that he published are an enduring perspectiveson Genesis because, unlike the other two monument to his work. Also an acknowledged Babylonianversions of the flood, the AtrahasisEpic master of cuneiform law, Finkelstein published presentsthe flood story in a context comparableto that seminal and provocative articles on many aspects of of Genesis, that of a Primeval History. The flood Babylonian law. His interest in law was far-reaching, episode of the Atrahasis Epic has been known for a and his essays "The Goring Ox: Some Historical long time, but the literary structureof the epic, and Perspectives on Deodands, Forfeitures, Wrongful thereforethe context of the flood story, was not under- Death and the Western Notion of Sovereignty" stood until Laessoe reconstructedthe work(J. Laessoe, Temple Law Quarterly 46/2 (1973) 169-290 demon- "The Atrahasis Epic, A Babylonian History of strates an interest in and mastery of the entire field Mankind," Biblioteca Orientalis 13 [1956] 90-102). In of History of Law. Although Finkelstein would not 1965, Lambert and Millard (Cuneiform Texts from have considered himself a biblicist, he had a deep Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, London) interest in the Bible, particularly in the relationship publishedmany additional texts fromthe epic, including of biblical law and religion to Mesopotamian an Old Babylonian copy (written around 1650 B.C.E.) culture. His insights in this area were so numerous which is our most completesurviving recension of the and perceptive that many biblicists came to Yale to tale. These new texts greatlyincreased our knowledge sit in on his classes and to discuss their ideas with of the epic and served as the foundation for the English him. His death is thus a deep loss to everyone edition of the Epic by Lambert and Millard (Atrahasis: interested in the development of biblical and The Babylonian Story of the Flood, Oxford, 1969). Western culture. A complete bibliography of The Atrahasis epic starts with a depiction of the Finkelstein's publications has been compiled by world as it existed before man was created: "When the Peter Machinist and Norman Yoffee and appears in gods worked like Man" (the first line and ancient title Essays on the Ancient Near East in Memory of of the composition). At this time the universe was Jacob Joel Finkelstein, Memoirs of the Connecticut divided among the great gods, with An taking the Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. 19, Dec. 1977. heavens, Enlil the earth and Enki the great deep. Seven gods (called the Anunnaki in this text) established 148 DECEMBER1977 This content downloaded from 130.58.65.10 on Tue, 2 Apr 2013 14:21:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions themselves as the ruling class, while the rest of the gods same problem recurs, and the gods bring famine (and provided the work force. These gods, whose "work was saline soil), which again do not end the difficulties. At heavy, (whose) distress was much," dug the Tigris and last Enlil persuades the gods to adopt a "final solution" Euphrates rivers and then rebelled, refusing to continue (II viii 34) to the human problem, and they resolve to their labors. On the advice of Enki, the gods decided to bring a flood to destroy mankind. Their plan is create a substitute to do the work of the gods, and Enki thwarted by Enki, who has Atrahasis build an ark and and the mother goddess created man from clay and so escape the flood. After the rest of mankind have from the flesh and blood of a slain god, "We-ilu, a god been destroyed, and after the gods have had occasion who has sense," from whom man was to gain ration- to regret their actions and to realize (by their thirst and ality.