Assignment

Select the Activity you wish to respond to. Make a copy of the question to begin your Activity. Post your Activity to the Activity 2: Gilgamesh and Hebrew Bible Forum in Blackboard. Please title your entry "Activity 2." I will comment on your work on the Forum, and send your grade to you privately, by email. Note that some Activities offer the potential for double credit. If so, you will see this at the end of the question: "This Activity is worth up to 100 points if very well done." If you choose to submit a double credit Activity, indicate that on your essay. It will have to be very well developed to earn double credit. A double credit Activity should be at least 500 words in length; it may be more.

The chili peppers indicate the degree of difficulty of each Activity. One chili pepper is pretty easy. Two chili peppers are more difficult. Three chili peppers indicate a challenging Activity. However, your grade does not depend on the number of chili peppers, but on how well you deal with the Activity you select.

1. Watch the 2014 film Noah about the biblical flood. Consider the reasons given for the flood in the film and Noah's response to the flood and compare those to the reasons and responses to the great floods in Gilgamesh (by Utnapishtim) and in Genesis (by Noah). This Activity is worth up to 100 points if very well done.

2. Job is a story of a man who suffers terribly because God allows him to be tested by Satan. Job passes every test, but in the process he loses everything dear to him, including his family. God rewards him in the end by giving him new property and a new family. Compare this conception of divine power with that of the gods in Gilgamesh, who decide to destroy all humanity for no clear reason. What kind of "progress," if any, can you see in the idea of the divine as "caring" for human beings? You might look at the nature of Utnapishtim's reward in the end, and of Job's. Be sure to support your argument with reference to specific examples from both stories.

3. Read the story of Abraham in any Hebrew Bible. Abraham left Sumeria to begin the trek that eventually ended in Israel. He became accepted as the ancestor of the Hebrews, the Christians and the Muslims. Can you see any connections between the world described in Gilgamesh and the world described in the story of Abraham or any other selection of your choice from the Hebrew Bible? Give specific examples to support your ideas.

4. Job's God is incomprehensible total power; there is no society of other gods to compete with him for control of the universe. Compare this to the quarreling family of gods in Gilgamesh. Are there any similarities? What are the most interesting differences? Use specific examples to support your ideas.

5. Human suffering is a major theme in the Hebrew Bible and in Gilgamesh. Through suffering, human beings can learn about the nature of reality and their place in it. Compare Job and Gilgamesh as suffering heroes, as they search for understanding, and come to accept the limits of their human condition.