The Epic of Gilgamesh is considered the oldest written text discovered by humanity. Written copies of the work are dated to the early Mesopotamian Empire. The story concerns King Gilgamesh and his search for immortality. Throughout the play, gods and divinity are emphasized, and for this reason many historians point out that the text has religious significance. About a millennium later, Judaism was founded and Moses wrote the beginnings of their religious scriptures, Genesis and Exodus, the first two parts of the Bible. Although set in different times, by different authors, for different beliefs and cultures, there are many obvious parallels between The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible. The Bible borrowed many stories from the Epic of Gilgamesh to explain the events of the time before it was written. The well-known story of Adam and Eve has similarities to the epic. God creates Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It allows them to live happily and do what they want. God's only rule for them is that they are not permitted to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Then, a snake approaches Eve and tempts her to eat the fruit. Eve hands the fruit to Adam and he eats it. The Bible says: “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will certainly not die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable for making one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (English Standard Gen. 4:7). God finds out soon after and punishes all three of them. Similar to Adam...... middle of paper ...... our only one is Enlil and he was talking to Shamash. More research and attention should be devoted to finding connections between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible since these similarities shed new light on parts of Judaism and Christianity. The moral surrounding the power of God and His children in the Bible could have been derived from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Details of ancient Mesopotamian mythology influenced the writers of the Bible, and every little detail of it has affected the modern world. Work Cited Coogan, Michael David, et al. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version: With the Apocrypha: An Ecumenical Study Bible. Oxford[England]: Oxford UP, 2010. Print. Foster, Benjamin R., Douglas Frayne, and Gary M. Beckman. The Epic of Gilgamesh: a new translation, analogies, criticism. New York: Norton, 2001. Print.