As yet the Babylonian and Assyrian records shed but little light on the question of the patriarchs of the early ages succeeding Adam, the details that are given concerning them, and their long lives. Upon this last point there is only one remark to be made, and that is, that the prehistoric kings of Babylonia likewise lived and reigned for abnormally long ages, according to the records that have come down to us. Unfortunately, there is nothing complete in the important original of the Canon of Berosus first published by the late G. Smith, and the beginning is especially mutilated.
The likeness between Enoch and the Akkadian name of the city of Erech, Unug, has already been pointed out, and it has been suggested that the two words are identical. This, however, can hardly be the case, for the Hebrew form of Enoch is Ḫanôḳ, the initial letter being the guttural ḫeth, which, notwithstanding the parallel ease of Hiddekel, the Akkadian Idigna (the Tigris), weakens the comparison. The principal argument against the identification, however, is the fact that, in the bilingual story of the Creation, the god Merodach is said to have built the city, and such was evidently the Babylonian belief.[6]
The name of Enoch's great-grandson, Methusael, finds, as has many times been pointed out, its counterpart in the Babylonian Mut-îli, with the same meaning (“man of God”).
Lower part of the obverse of a terra-cotta tablet from Nineveh, inscribed with the names of Babylonian kings in Sumerian and Semitic Babylonian. The 13th line (that running across two columns) has the statement, "These are the kings who were after the Flood. They are not written in their proper order." The names of Sargina (Sargon of Agadé) and Hammurabi (Amraphel) also occur. Found by Sir A. H. Layard and Hormuzd Rassam.
Chapter III. The Flood.
The Biblical account—Its circumstantial nature and its great length—The Babylonian account—The reason of the Flood and why Pir-napištim built the Ark—His devotion to the God Ea—Ea and Jah—Ea's antagonism to Bêl—The bloodless sacrifice—Ea's gift of immortality—Further observations—Appendix: The second version of the Flood-story.