How do the creation stories and flood stories differ from each other?
I think the biggest difference in the Hebrew and Babylonian creation stories are in why the creation took place. In the Babylonian story the gods exist as part of nature and do not have complete control over the creation. On the other hand, God exist outside of nature and has absolute complete control over the creation. The Babylonian gods create man to be there slaves. Whereas God created man in his image to so that they could live together and love each other. The Babylonian and Hebrew flood stories seem to be more alike then they are different. Both floods are decreed by God/gods but the Babylonian flood is shown to Utnapishtism in a dream, not directly spoken for God as in the story of Noah. The Babylonian story calls for all kinds of animals. The Hebrew story calls for two of each animal. A slight difference. It rains for only 6 days in the Babylonian story and for 40 days and nights in the story of Noah. In the Bible, 40 seems to represent a time of cleansing. Utnapishtism sends
