Christopher Gilchrist
Professor Ms. Alyse W. Jones
World Literature I - English 2111
October 7, 2012

The Universal Truths on ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh & The Hebrew Bible’

The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Hebrew Bible are considered by their audiences’ as two of the greatest literary works of ancient literature. The universal truths on The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Hebrew Bible, are most fundamental when viewed from both the contemporary and traditional audiences. Fundamentally, both audiences develop their own universal truths during the time in which the events transpired or by reading the scenic events from an anthology or other literary works.
Most importantly, both literary works have sought the attention of their perspective audiences by their ancient texts, which also brought about spiritual interpretations from a religious point of view. These ancient literatures were written and re-written by numerous authors with their spiritual interpretations as their main thesis. Thus, the audiences’ philosophical interpretations create the thread that sews these two literary works to their universal truths.
There are several scenes in both literatures that have similar spiritual interpretations. For example, in The Epic of Gilgamesh, “Your clothes should be clean, Your head should be washed, You should bathe in water, (Sec. 10, 77 – 79).” In this epic scene, Gilgamesh embraces the notion of cleansing himself from the darkness that was bestowed upon him. Gilgamesh’s cleansing of both his garments and his body symbolizes his rebirth. In The Hebrew Bible, darkness and evil amongst the earth equated to death in God’s authority. God cleansed the earth by creating a huge flood, better known as The Great Flood. From a spiritual interpretation, God’s cleansing of the earth, also symbolizes rebirth.
As works of literature, there are viable lessons that