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Q: Dear Rabbi Marc, the ancient Sumerians tell a story of the great flood (Eridu Genesis), which is strikingly similar to our story of Noah's ark. It is with great respect that I ask how does theology account for this? It would seem that the Old Testament is only an adapted Sumerian tale. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us. God bless you! – (B from Annville)

A: Thank you, dear B, for your interest in stories that are more than 7,000 years old. The Hebrew Bible adapted the stories of their neighboring cultures in crafting its own unique vision of how the world was created and how early peoples settled in.

The Gilgamesh epic, called Enuma Elish, tells the story of Utnapishtim, a man who survived a worldwide flood. This follows a war between two gods, Tiamat and Apsu. The storm god, Marduk, defeated Tiamat and divided her body forming the vault of heaven and the earth. This myth was clearly known and copied by the Hebrew Bible.

Tiamat is the same as the Hebrew word tehom which is the unformed and void primal ocean referred to in Genesis (“and darkness was upon the face of the deep – tehom”).

The name Marduk becomes the Hebrew word Mordecai. This myth was copied because seven millennia ago it was the highest form of science. However, even then the unique biblical belief in the unity of one creator God comes through. In the Genesis account of creation there is no battle of the gods. God is alone and unique and creates the world by just the force of God’s utterance, “Let there be light.” Furthermore, people are created in the Babylonian account to serve the gods while in the biblical creation account people are made in the image of God as sacred beings. A single God eliminates mythology in the Bible and sacred human beings give us divine permission to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. There is one more interesting point about the flood. For those who are interested in discovering natural phenomena behind the supernatural miracles of the Bible, the flood offers an opportunity. Because of the plethora of flood stories around the Mediterranean basin (the Bible, Babylonia, Atlantis) some archeologists believe that the Mediterranean was once a lake but then the boundary was breached forming the strait of Gibraltar and causing a massive flood surge that buried cities along the coast and might have been the actual event that caused all these flood epics to emerge.

I asked you for funny clergy stories and…

I am not of the clergy, but this story is too good not to share. It comes from a mutual acquaintance of ours, Rob Bartlett, and I laughed out loud when he told it to me.

A young comedian, who was a contemporary of Rob’s when they were working the Long Island comedy club circuit, passed away at a very young age. His pall bearers were all his fellow comedians, and when the service was over, they escorted the coffin from the altar to the back of the church where the priest was waiting for them. The priest raised the aspergillum and was about to sprinkle the coffin with holy water when Rob admonished him, “Hey! No spray wax!” – (From R)

Here’s a pretty funny church story I was reminded of by the beatification of the now Blessed Fulton Sheen and the display of his relic – his jawbone – during the ceremony. I don’t quite get the whole relics business, probably because I’m an Italian Methodist. We’re more into potluck than pieces, I guess.

Years ago I designed a project for a church in the Diocese of Joliet. The facility manager took me back to their relics room to show me a statue they wanted to incorporate into the project. The room was full of people-parts. Bruce beamed while I admired their collection. “We’ve almost got enough pieces in here to build an entire guy!” he cried. There was also a throne-like chair in the center of the room, with a keyboard in front of it. My mind boggled briefly as I tried to imagine what kind of ritualistic musical ceremony was performed in a Catholic relics room – “When the Saint-bits come marching in?” –

(From F)

Thanks. Send me more.

Happy Sukkot.

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.)

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