What narrative purpose does the Flood story fulfill?

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The narrative purpose of the flood account is actually quite simple. It reminds us of one simple truth of God's character: God is just.

To the Jew for whom this exact version of the narrative is written (I can leave aside Gilgamesh because it differs in thrust), there is one overwhelming truth- God will punish the wicked. In a world where the wicked often seem to prosper, this is too easily forgotten. To say, the Jews of the exile, this is actually a very comforting thought - that even though they may be temporarily defeated (and that happened a lot in Jewish history) God is simply "slow to anger" not completely silent or ineffectual on the matter.

In punishing the wicked, the righteous will be protected. To an enslaved and defeated people, this is good news indeed. There will be an accounting when God's wrath is complete. He is not slow in keeping his promises, as some count slowness to be. Neither is he unconcerned, nor is he Powerless.

Peter (who, it should be remembered, was a Jew) says

if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven other ... if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. (2 Peter 2:5,9)

For the Christian it holds a secondary meaning, namely that God may be love, but he is more than love. God is not just "nice," but he is also just. It is too easy to forget that because God is good, it doesn't mean he can't be powerful too.

Upvote:4

As Flimzy said your question seems argumentative so I will answer as concisely as possible.

First thing of note, stories and information did not travel back then as they do in this day and age. So while Gilgamesh is perhaps older (not saying it is we have no actual date on the writing of Genesis so it could in fact be older) its quite possible that the writer of Genesis had never even heard of the story before. The Jews were well known in their devout stages(when they actually followed the commandments of God) for not mingling with other societies which makes it even more likely that the writer had never heard the myth before.

Secondly, as Marc said the narrative is there to record events and therefore is not a myth. Whether you believe that or not depends on your interpretation of the bible but for most they take it as fact not myth that the Noah flood actually happened.

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First off, it's highly intellectually dishonest to claim that the story of Noah is a redacted version of the Utanapishtim myth found in the Epic of Gilgamesh. That notion was discredited at least half a century ago with the discovery and translation of the much older Sumerian Epic of Atra-Hasis. The Atra-Hasis tale contains a deluge myth that both differs from Gilgamesh and agrees with the Genesis account on many important points--including the cowardly character of the gods as mentioned in the question above--making it clear that the Utanapishtim story is the one that's been edited and changed from the original account. (see Hilprecht, The Earliest Version of the Babylonian Deluge Story and the Temple Library of Nippur, p. 61) It's hard to believe that people are still dredging up the Utanapishtim-Noah theory after all these years!

Having said that, the purpose of including the story of Noah and the Flood in Genesis is very simple: the author believed it! This is one of the interesting things about the ancient Israelites: almost uniquely among ancient cultures, they saw their stories handed down from older times still as literal history rather than mythology.

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