This article is a bit different. It’s an archive of comments I made on reddit explaining how the world having many historic flood myths after Noah gives credence to oral history. Moses wrote the story down on written history through guidance by God later, but Noah’s flood takes place quite literally before any other flood stories of other nations.
/r/Bible/u/goodnewsjimdotcom6/28/2021, 11:09:15 PM
One of my favorite things is people when they say,”All major cultures had flood tales before Moses wrote it down like Gilgamesh.” To which I reply,”So this gives even more credence to Noah’s flood for it happened before all those.” It blows their mind that Moses was given this knowledge divinely in a vision by God, and the actual event predated their flood tales. Another fun thing is how oral history gets corrupted so it gives credence that Noah’s flood only a few generations before Gilgamesh would not be retold perfectly. :)
/r/Bible/u/goodnewsjimdotcom6/13/2021, 10:21:12 PM
I’m not so sure about this oral transmission claim…. That is only used by people trying to discredit the scriptures. The scriptures have been lost and found from time to time, the Bible itself documents it. Oral telephone game stuff that lost stuff didn’t happen. We have 2000 year old Dead Sea Scrolls where nothing has changed. We have prophecies inter-threaded in things the author obviously wasn’t aware he was prophesying. It is nearly impossible to be as you claim, flawed transmission via the telephone game. Instead we know God is real, and his Word is truth, and that adds to the knowledge that he wouldn’t have lies passed on. Where we can look at oral transmission to fortify the Bible’s legitimacy is the many ancient flood tales including “The Flood Story of Ancient Gilgamesh”. Noah actually lived just a few generations before Gilgamesh and these other flood stories. It makes sense they’d pass them on, and it’d get corrupted. “The Flood Story of Ancient Gilgamesh” and other ancient flood stories reinforce the idea that there was a flood before them and Moses’ revelation by God of the actual events that happened that depicted the Flood of Noah. It is fun how God can take something as lossy and unreliable as oral history and reinforce his word of written history.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom5/8/2020, 5:56:17 PM
This is true. This is just like all the flood myths. People say they discredit the Bible because they came before Moses wrote them down, but they came after Noah’s flood by a few generations. Since a flood happened with Noah, he’d obviously tell his kids. They’d oral history to their kids, and again and so on. Then Gilgamesh writes it down as imperfect oral history. Just as this image explains oral history gets corrupted, so did the flood story across generations. Many hundreds of years later: Moses wrote it down not from oral history, but divine visions from God himself.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom4/23/2020, 12:35:11 AM
Gilgamesh was his descendant of a few generations after. Gilgamesh wasn’t even born yet. Gilgamesh wrote down a “telephone game” version of oral history.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom4/14/2020, 2:57:48 PM
Atrahasis is hundreds of years after Gilgamesh. The way you talk… I don’t think you understand the order of events. Noah’s flood happened before Glilgamesh wrote it down which happened before Atrahasis wrote it down which happened before Moses got a description of Noah’s flood from God and wrote it down.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom4/14/2020, 7:15:43 AM
The oldest written version of the flood happened a handful of generations after Noah. It is called the Gilgamesh flood. It is what you’d expect oral history to be like after Noah’s kids told their kids and so on. Moses got divine revelation directly from God and wrote it down much later, but Noah’s flood happened before Gilgamesh wrote what appears to be oral history down. All those flood stories give credence to Noah’s flood happening.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom4/12/2019, 3:32:40 AM
Gilgamesh came a few generations after Noah’s flood. It isn’t an exact retelling of the event, but exactly what you’d expect from a few generations of oral history. Moses came centuries later to write down the event from vision from God. Noah lived before Gilgamesh who lived much before Moses. God is super cool. He sends me miracles all the time like Moses. I should be more stoked in that I don’t know what God will do next, but that it will be strange and wonderful. I recommend everyone to have a closer walk with Jesus.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom3/23/2019, 6:35:43 PM
Yes, but Noah came before Gilgamesh lived or God gave Moses an account of the flood to written down.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom3/23/2019, 5:25:15 PM
Why would they not be historic events? The Gilgamesh Epic and several other cultures have a flood story after the time of Noah. They had oral communication at that time, and the Gilgamesh and other flood stories are compatible with what you’d expect from the telephone game. Moses got the full account by vision from God, and then wrote it down… and it hasn’t changed in 2000 years, so odds are it is the same in our Bible as when Moses wrote it. Considering God is real, the preservation gains even more credibility.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom12/2/2016, 2:30:57 PM
You’re confused at the dates. Yes, Moses lived after Gilgamesh, but Noah lived before Gilgamesh.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom12/2/2016, 12:05:53
There are no known flood stories before Noah. The first written one we know of is Gilgamesh and that dates just a few generations after Noah.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom11/12/2016, 6:52:02 PM
Look: Guided by a revelation from God, Moses wrote down the story of Noah centuries after it happened. But Noah’s flood actually happened before the Gilgamesh epic by a handful of generations. Gilgamesh could be a retelling of Noah with lossy transmission of oral history. Ever play the telephone game? One person says a small paragraph to someone, and they tell the next person that paragraph the best they can remember. After going through a few people, the paragraph is somewhat there, but not totally. This is how it is in oral history.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom10/6/2016, 11:53:01 PM
You can get the source, dating, and Moses all from the Bible. Maybe you just are uncertain about God. I’m a man who knows God exists. Maybe you want to talk with me? PM
me any time, you might even make a new friend. Edit:You can trace the geneology back from the four hundred years of slavery in Egypt and get the date. Noah’s flood happens just a few generations before they likely wrote it down as Gilgamesh, complete with oral history lossy transmission.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom10/6/2016, 11:23:25 PM
You talk like you didn’t even read what I said… I think you don’t understand it. I’ll repeat myself, maybe you can understand if I write the same thing in different words. Noah’s flood is dated to be before the Gilgamesh Epic was recorded. Its only a few generations before hand too. So oral history would remember the flood somewhat until it was written down in the Gilgasmesh Epic. Many hundreds of years later Moses gets an account directly from God and writes it down in the Torah.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom10/6/2016, 10:08:27 PM
Gilgamesh reinforces my faith! Do you know the story of Gilgamesh was written down after Noah’s flood? It gives creedance to Noah’s flood because it is exactly what you’d expect from an imperfect oral history of a few generations handed down. Moses wrote it down much later;however, Moses got told the story directly from God and then wrote it down pretty much immediately. PS: I know God is real and loves you and your descendants. I pray God guards your descendants and blesses them and you.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom8/30/2016, 6:39:16 PM
I have no problems believing in a global flood, its documented in the Bible, and even in Gilgamesh would be something we’d expect from flawed oral history of a few generations. And we know of the genetic bottleneck clues that mankind was down to a few families about the time of Noah. What I have problems is that Ken Ham says the flood had to have caused fossils. The bible doesn’t say that.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom6/11/2016, 9:34:25 PM
Clearly there is miscommunication even here. I was referring to Gilgamesh as an oral translation of Noah’s flood which happened a few generations prior. Everyone was Noah’s descendant, so they heard something from their parents about a flood and God. It is like the telephone game though, Gilgamesh was an incomplete retelling of the Noah flood that actually happened. Moses got a divine revelation from God on Mount Sinai.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom6/11/2016, 2:31:01 PM
Moses might have written it by like 1500 years later, but the actual event of Noah’s flood happened a few generations before the Gilgamesh epic was written.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom6/11/2016, 12:56:58 PM
Gilgamesh actually happens after Noah’s flood which gives creedance of Noah’s through imperfect oral history.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom6/10/2015, 9:41:56 PM
I love the Epic of Gligamesh. If something as big as a flood of the Earth happened to Noah, he’d surely tell his kids and tell them to tell all their descendants. After a couple generations, they’d lose some of the details due to the lossy nature of oral communications. The fact that we have a flood account written down after several oral communication generations serves as some evidence of the flood. Remember while Moses came after Gilgamesh, Noah came before.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom10/12/2014, 7:29:18 PM
Science itself around the early 2000s thought there was a mass extinction event between 5-15 thousand years ago where the population was down to a single family or a couple. That was breaking news when I was in college. It later in the later 2000s tried to push the event back some in order to correspond with a volcano eruption, but that didn’t stick. Also the documentation of the flood of Gilgamesh is interesting because it was written down after the flood of Noah happened, but after a few generations. We know that oral translations lose their specifics so for it to have the flood in it and different details is interesting. If God’s goal was to clean off the planet of evil people, who’s to criticize the guy for making a clean job of it. In that respect, it seems like there is actually some evidence that it did happen now that you bring it up.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom7/14/2014, 4:13:09 PM
I’m one of some people. I say yes there was a global flood. I also say,”Why would there need to be evidence?” Finally I say the Gilgamesh flood is just oral history from Noah since it is only a few generations down from Noah. And oral history is known to get mauled in translation, but hold some truth of what happened. Sure Gilgamesh happened before Moses, but it happened after Noah. If anyone says Noah’s flood dropped all the fossils, I side with 1800s Christians who said that isn’t what we would expect. Many Christians went into geology to prove that, but came with the opposite conclusion. Noah’s flood isn’t where the fossils came from unless God went well out of his way to screw with us. I don’t think God does stuff to screw with our minds and if he does, he doesn’t make it this elaborate out of control ways. I could give examples like,”No Pterodactyl died on high ground, and no pterodactyl died on lower ground. They all clumped together in exactly the same depth. In fact most extinct animals died around animals of their kind. We don’t find them on any other depth.” And so on.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom1/26/2014, 5:40:29 PM
I don’t need to give you reasons to believe Noah’s flood happened. That is between you and God. Because Noah’s flood happened before the Gilgamesh epic, the Gilgamesh could be a good example of oral history finally being written down. I’m not “denying history” here. What I say is perfectly chronological in nature.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom1/26/2014, 5:10:11 PM
I do not think I’m denying history. 1) Noah’s flood happened many generations before the dating of Gilgamesh Epic 2) Moses wrote about Noah many generations after the Gilgamesh epic This is correct, right?
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom12/22/2013, 11:35:57 PM
The writings of the written down Torah happened after the Gilgamesh epic, but the flood itself happened a few generations earlier. To me Gilgamesh shows what happened to Noah’s kids after oral history :) Also breaking news in genetics science when I was in school(2001) said that between 4-10k years ago, humanity was reduced to a single family.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom10/5/2013, 2:01:53 AM
- http://www.fatherspiritson.com/articles/jim-longday.html 2. Noah’s story was written after Gilgamesh’s Epic, but the actual events of Noah happened before the Epic :) This would give us clues that oral history remembered the general events of Noah and wrote them down after a few generations. So the Gilgamesh Epic can be a reinforcing clue that Noah’s flood actually happened.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom11/14/2012, 8:36:11 PM
E-z, anyone can come up with fake religions. And when enough fake religions happen, there is bound to be similar events. Here’s a different look: What I find cool is the Gilgamesh epic actually happens a couple hundred years after the actual event of Noah happening. So instead of looking at it like Moses wrote down something similar, think the Gilgamesh might have been a written down version of a verbal history, so it doubly confirms the flood.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom3/27/2012, 1:47:47 AM
I think Genesis is a history book. The flood is ‘confirmed’ by the Gilgamesh epic which is a written down story passed through oral word. Certainly Noah told his kids about it, but over many generations it was messed up. Only with God telling Moses the events of the past do we have the right answer. I am not sure why anyone would take Genesis metaphorically, but I hear it a lot. I take it literally with the long day theory
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom12/17/2010, 7:28:40 AM
Maybe I’m not clear, here is the order: 1) Noah’s flood happened 2) Oral tradition followed until it was recorded as the legend of Gilgamesh 3) God tells Moses what happened 4) Moses writes it down. 5) Historians later find out both stories saying similar things.
/r/Christianity/u/goodnewsjimdotcom12/16/2010, 6:55:40 PM
If anything, Gligamesh helps support the notion that there was a flood. Noah’s flood happened before the time the Gilgamesh story was told. Moses happened after them both. If there was an oral tradition of the flood, which there should be because it was pretty epic, it should be no surprise there was still some sort of record of it prior to God revealing creation to Moses.