noah
...at, the release of a dove and a raven at the end of the flood, the landing on a mountain, and the subsequent sacrificing. In Noah’s ark, God sent out a flood to destroy the earth because of man’s evil. Since Noah was good in the eyes of God, God instructed Noah to build an ark so Noah and his family would be able to live through the flood. In the construction of the ark as told in the Bible, God tells Noah to “build an ark of gopher wood, the length shall be three hundred cubit, its width fifty cubits, and it’s height thirty cubits” (Gen 6:14-15.) Noah is also ordered to bring two of every animal, male and female, onto the ark with him. In the story of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim, forewarned by one of the Gods, managed to survive the flood by building a great ship. Utnapishtim was instructed by Ea to build a boat out of his house and bring all living things aboard it. The boat was to be equal in height and width, so Utnapishtim built it 10 dozen cubits by 10 dozen cubits. In both stories, the boats came to rest on mountains. Noah’s ark came to rest on Mount Ararat and Utnapishtim’s boat came to a halt on Mount Nisir. At the end of the flood, Noah first released a raven to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. When the raven had come back, he waited and then sent a dove that never came back. This is how Noah knew that there was no more water on the earth. In th...