After completing the assigned Genesis reading and reviewing the other posts that people have left I have developed some questions. First off, I, like Alex, consider myself a religious person; I too have grow up with these stories and I am relatively familiar with everything that we have read so far.
When reading the text there was one passage on page 28 that really stuck with me. It read "And the Lord regretted having made the human on earth and was grieved in the heart." This statement contradicts everything I have ever been taught about Christianity. The passage does not follow with the context of the rest of the reading nor does it make much sense. Even when God made the Flood happen he did not say such things. I don't know if it was just the translation (because there was such a long introduction dealing specifically with the translation) or what, but that really stuck out to me. I think we should possible discuss how the translation of an ancient text can alter the meanings of the original manuscript because this point is relevant with all texts we will read in this class.
There were also some very sharp similarities between Gilgamesh and Genesis. The most obvious one, to me at least, were the flood stories. The two stories were almost identical, down to the manner in which both men were warned of the coming floods. It is necessary to discuss these similarities within our discussions this week. Some of the other similarities that we should also look at are the similar creation between man and Enkidu, the cultural similarities between the two texts, and the role mortality/immortality play within the texts. What influences were there in both societies that made these texts so similar? What roles did other myths/legends play in the development of the stories we find in both texts? How can one text, which I personally believe in, be so similar to another that is considered fiction?
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