The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve: The Story That Created Us

by Stephen Greenblatt

Here at last, resurrected from a distant past, was overwhelmingly powerful evidence of the deep currents that linked ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the Hebrew scriptures. Smith had found a flood story considerably older than the date on which Moses was traditionally said to have received the Torah on Mt. Sinai. It is not simply that the clay tablets, which reach back astoundingly to 1800 BCE, gave an account of an immense, destructive deluge; they included many of the key elements that feature in the Noah story: the enraged god’s determination to eradicate all human life; lifesaving advice to one particular human who finds divine favor; the careful building and provisioning of the ark; the terrifying storm and rising waters; the ark coming to rest on a mountaintop; the release of birds to see if the waters had receded; the offering of a sweet-smelling sacrifice in gratitude for the recovery of dry land.