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In Gilgamesh’s epic, a snake steals a plant that restores youth, gaining the immortality it denies to humans. Genesis transforms this mythological serpent into a cursed creature, stripped of its limbs and condemned to crawl on its belly.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Epic of Gilgamesh XI
Ancient Near East
Urshanabi, this plant is a plant against decay by which a man can attain his survival. I will bring it to Uruk-Haven, and have an old man eat the plant to test it. The plants name is The Old Man Becomes a Young Man. Then I will eat it and return to the condition of my youth. At twenty leagues they broke for some food, at thirty leagues they stopped for the night. Seeing a spring and how cool its waters were, Gilgamesh went down and was bathing in the water. A snake smelled the fragrance of the plant, silently came up and carried off the plant. While going back it sloughed off its casing. At that point Gilgamesh sat down, weeping, his tears streaming over the side of his nose. Counsel me, O ferryman Urshanabi!
Date: 2100 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Genesis 3:14
Hebrew Bible
1 Now the serpent was shrewder than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard; 3 but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, 5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
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Notes and References
“… The immortal serpent as the source of life plays a role in the mythologies of the ancient Near East. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, for example (tablet 11, lines 289–301), the snake steals from Gilgamesh a special plant that has the power to reinvigorate, to retain one’s youth, and so gains what he denies humankind: immortality. Perhaps this belief developed out of snakes’ regular shedding of their skin and their re-emergence as though reborn. …”
Shinan, Avigdor and Yair Zakovitch
From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths and Legends
(p. 24) The Jewish Publication Society, 2012
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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