Does An Ancient Tablet Tell the Real Story of Noah’s Ark?

Wall Street Journal ^ | 03/27/2014 | By JAVIER ESPINOZA

[SeekAndFind]

As Darren Aronofsky and Russell Crowe unveil “Noah” in U.S. cinemas this week, British archaeologist Irving Finkel offers a new perspective on the story with his book “The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood.”

In his book, published in the U.S. by Doubleday, Finkel tells the story of how he managed to get his hands on a cuneiform tablet, which was part of the flood story. As a curator for the British Museum, he relies on members of the public bringing artifacts to him for inspection.

He was on duty one afternoon in 1985 when a man named Douglas Simmonds showed up “with a small collection of stuff. He poured it out on the table and asked me to have a look at it. It contained two or three pieces of cuneiform, lamps, coins, a few seals, a sort of miscellaneous group.”

There was also a virtually complete tablet, which Finkel assumed to be an ancient business letter. It was made of clay and about the size of a smartphone. “It turned out to be a piece of literature, which was obvious to be part of the floods story. It’s an important aspect of Mesopotamian literature and it circulates in more than one composition,” he said.

Think about it this way: Humans passing this story for hundreds of years and at some point in time an anonymous person putting it in writing and then other anonymous authors writing their own version of the story at different points in time.

“It would be something that would be copied and then recopied but the names of the contributors, the poets whose input was there was never recorded. All this literature is anonymous,” Mr. Finkel explains.

[US Navy Vet]

Sure does! It’s CALLED the KING JAMES HOLY BIBLE! See KJV Genesis Chap 5 through 11.

[El Cid]

LOL!
I agree (although one could default to the underlying Greek and Hebrew texts - if they need to). They've discovered ancient tablets from Assyria/Sumeria back in the late 19th Century. Tales of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim, and the like - that gave a Flood account. Sure, these tablets are older than any known Bible text - but all they confirm - along with the stories from over 100 cultures scattered across the world - is that there was a worldwide flood. If you want an accurate account, read the God-breathed Word.

[MrB]

Of course, using the phrase “the real story” implies what leftists believe anyway, that the Bible itself can’t be the “real” story,

because so much of what it says condemns them.

[ruesrose]

Thank you. I believe that too.

[RJS1950]

Wrong. KJV=King James Version. It relates the version approved by an English king and his advisors who decided which version among the many was the “correct” version.

Christians by definition follow the teachings of Christ but many among us spend an inordinate amount of time arguing about one or another version of the old testament. A little more attention to new testament teachings might serve everyone a bit better.

[BubbaJunebug]

The “GODpad”

[SeekAndFind]

RE: A little more attention to new testament teachings might serve everyone a bit better.

Jesus Christ AFFIRMS the Historical Truth of Noah as well.

37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 nFor as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24: 37-39)

The author of Hebrews says: “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of righteousness that comes by faith” (11:7).

The Apostle Peter says that only eight people were saved in the Ark (1 Peter 3:20): Noah and seven others (2 Peter 2:5). Absolutely everyone else was killed in the Flood (Luke 17:27).

[PIF]

Worldwide floods or what happens when two mile high glaciers covering most of the northern hemisphere and some of the southern suddenly decide to melt. -— abt 16,500 BC.

[SunkenCiv]

Here’s this topic and the preceding six:

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/coracle/index

[Uri’el-2012]

KING JAMES HOLY BIBLE! See KJV Genesis Chap 5 through 11.

That is derivative.

Bereishit is the source.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

[SunkenCiv]

[SeekAndFind]

So, they had global warming back then?

I wonder if the film portrays how those who got destroyed by the flood CAUSED this disaster....

[RJS1950]

An who was it who chose which writings were acceptable for the new testament from the many writings out there? Why it was a Holy Roman Emperor, and English King, and various denominational patriarchs who made the decision on what was true and what was not.

All of the stories of the flood including those which predate any written biblical narratives affirm that there was some catastrophic flood event. Which one is right? Well, that depends on what your particular belief/denomination is. Those ancient tablets are just one set of many that have been found or are yet to be found and many of the ancient texts tell the story differently. They are just another version, written down by a man.

Your quotes from KJV or any other version again are all touched and retouched by the hand of man over many centuries. The old testament is made up of teachings and related stories passed on and retold with varying degrees of accuracy over centuries; some of which carry some provable historical fact and some which are not.

If you go by what Christ told Peter, he instructed Peter to build his church. Which church was that? It was the Catholic church which makes all of those who strayed from the church that Christ turned over to Peter apostates, heretics, following the preferences of an English king.

Believe whatever version of Christ’s teachings you want, but don’t trash others about their beliefs because they don’t agree with your denominational beliefs or what your pastor says is true.

It’s a movie! Don’t go to see it and move on. There are many more pressing problems than this which are threatening our religious and all the rest of our freedoms which too many do not take seriously enough.

[Yosemitest]

In my opinion, “Jewish atheist” Dr Irving Finkel created this "FAKE" tablet to make fun of the religion he despises.

From the article The tablet that altered the story of Noah's Ark:

" The story of Noah’s Ark has always captivated the minds of children. Many have walked animal miniatures two-by-two into toy boats, as they imagine the vessel that saved believers from 40 rainy days and nights of flood.

But it is a story that does not hold water with Dr Irving Finkel, the British Museum curator in charge of cuneiform inscriptions on tablets of clay from ancient Mesopotamia. Dr Finkel has decoded a 4,000-year-old terracotta-coloured tablet that purports to give the exact measurements of the Ark — long before the biblical account was written.

This “ark” is circular, like a coracle boat, takes up half a football pitch and is enclosed in a length of rope that would reach from London to Edinburgh. “It didn’t have to go in any direction, it just had to float and survive the flood,” he says pointing to the cuneiform marks, as if I was able to read the ancient language.

...Finkel, who describes himself as a “Jewish atheist”, says he does not believe the Ark existed, despite remains apparently being found at Mount Ararat in Turkey. He believes that the Judeans, taken to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar II, incorporated Babylonian mythology into the Torah, but gave the stories a new, moral dimension. ... "

[Billthedrill]

I dunno. He looks like he might have been an eyewitness.

[ForYourChildren]

“Humans passing this story for hundreds of years and at some point in time an anonymous person putting it in writing and then other anonymous authors writing their own version of the story at different points in time.”

In almost every civilization there is a flood story with a boat and a family. Interesting that WSJ seems to say that “this story” may come from one actual event; whereas current culture says the Bible is wrong and that all flood stories are referring to some local event.

[aimhigh]

Nothing looks more ridiculous than a 70 year old, long hair hippy.

[Yosemitest]

I agree.

Check out Noah's Ark" has been found in Turkey, April 27, 2010.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

but all they confirm - along with the stories from over 100 cultures scattered across the world - is that there was a worldwide flood.

I'm not sure they confirm a world-wide flood, but they do confirm that every culture that recounts the tale of the flood had a common origin.

Genesis 11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.