Noah’s Ark and Descriptions of the Flood in Sumerian and Akkadian Texts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21906/rbl.3638Keywords:
Akkadian language, ark, cuneiform, dimensions, Genesis, Gilgamesh, Noah, translationAbstract
This article contains new suggestions for interpreting and translating the story of Noah’s Ark in Genesis regarding the building material of the ark as well as its dimensions. According to the author of the article, the dimensions of the ark given in the book of Genesis are too large to have been built by a team of several people within seven days. Since the description of the ark’s construction was probably taken from the older Epic of Gilgamesh, this article attempts to determine its dimensions based on Sumerian and Akkadian texts as well as Babylonian mathematics.
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