 My goal is to discuss and come to a theory of why the Story of the Flood found in Gilgamesh similarly compares to the Biblical Noah account. 
	The Noah account of the flood can be found in Genesis 6:9-9:28 of the Old Testament.  Herbert Wolf, author of An Introduction to the Old Testament Pentateuch, writes, “The first section [chapters 1-11] deals quickly with the origin of the universe and the creation of man, tracing the fall of Adam and the rapid growth of sin.  Following a detailed account of devastation brought by the flood, Moses [said to be author of Genesis] shows how the descendants of Noah’s three sons repopulated the world.” (pg. 80)  I asked myself, “how can two pieces of literature be so different and yet so similar?”  They are similar in the fact that they both make an account of a human God, or gods, wanting to destroy mankind by sending a flood.  And they both make an account of how one man builds a boat and rescues creatures and kin in order to survive the flood.  They are also similar in the way that Noah and Utnapishtim exit the boat.
	Noah’s account is about God needing to destroy the wickedness that has overcome mankind, seeing Noah’s faith and fervor, God spares him by instructing Noah to build an ark, or, a boat and put on it 2 of every kind of animal.  In this way Noah, the animals, and Noah’s kin are spared.  I first observed that although the two different literary works have a different purpose, their stories are very similar in nature.   But there is a problem, Gilgamesh is said to have been written circa 2000 B.C. and the biblical account of Noah, or for that matter, the book of Genesis wasn’t written until circa 1446-1406 B.C.  In Nelson’s Complete Book of Bible Maps & Charts it states that Moses would have used, “older written sources and oral traditions…wisdom of the Egyptians…all available records, manuscripts, and oral narratives” (pg. 4) in order to write the book of Genesis.
So how could two literary works, written 600 years apart be so similar?  I believe the answer lies in oral tradition.  The flood is known to have happened at some time before the Patriarch period of the Old Testament, circa 2090 B.C. (Nelson, 1).  So, if it is true that Gilgamesh is dated at 2000 B.C. that means for those 90 years the story was most likely passed around by word of mouth.  Also, until Moses wrote down the accounts of Genesis the account of Noah was most likely passed by word of mouth.  Is it possible that the two are similar because the oral traditions followed two separate lines?  
The ‘lines’ I am speaking of are generational and cultural. 