Gilgamesh Human Suffering

Suffering: Job v. Gilgamesh Human suffering is a major theme in Hebrew Bible and in Gilgamesh. Through suffering, human beings can learn about the nature of reality and their place in it. Compare Job and Gilgamesh as suffering heroes, as they search for understanding, and come to accept the limits of their human condition. Use specific examples from both stories to support your ideas

In order to compare the suffering of Job and Gilgamesh, one must have a complete understanding of what suffering is, which I don’t. The dictionary says suffering is pain: physical or psychological or a painful experience. (Bing.com) The Bible says that suffering comes from one’s own foolishness. “We reap what we sow” (Gal. 6:7-9), which means that we have to suffer for the things that we do. Another reason in the Bible for suffering is to determine if your faith is strong in GOD and if you are loyal to his word. To me suffering is GOD teaching us a lesson, and testing us to see if we will do the right things in life as he has commanded. So as we can see there are many different reasons that one must suffer which bring me to the sufferings of two heroes’ in history. First I want to discuss Job, a man in the Bible who suffered because he was faithful and loyal to GOD. Job was a God-fearing man who did everything right. Job suffering began because Satan felt that Job would not be faithful to GOD if he didn’t have so much, so GOD let Satan take everything that Job had to prove to him that even in his time of suffering that Job would still be faithful. During this time Satan stripped Job of all of his possessions and he was one of the wealthiest men, Satan stripped him of his wife and kids and left him with nothing just to see if he would still serve GOD. Once stripped of everything Job still remained faithful and loyal but through all of his suffering GOD rewarded him with his family and twice as much as he had already had. So when you look at Job story you have to realize that the suffering that he endured and he still stayed loyal to GOD was actually worth it. Next we will talk about Gilgamesh who “was in the course of the epic, changes from an arrogant, oppressive ruler, whose people complain to the gods to a person who has experienced friendship, love, and loss and who has been humbled by grief and the fear of death.” (Gilgamesh pg16) In this story Gilgamesh suffers for a different reason than Job, he suffers because he is being taught a lifelong lesson. This was a king who mistreated people and used and abused people and his power. The people complained about him so much until the gods created a twin that was supposed to be as strong as he was and that would divert his attention away from the people and eventually save him, but that was not the way it worked. They had a brawl and after that they became companions (friends). Enkidu tells Gilgamesh about a great monster Humbaba and they set out to destroy him and they did together. Next there is Ishter who wants to marry Gilgamesh and he turns her down so she tells her father and he sends a beast that kills hundreds of men and tries to kill Enkidu and Gilgamesh but was not successful and wound up being killed. Next is where the suffering comes in for Gilgamesh because after they kill the beast Enkidu suffers and then dies which leaves Gilgamesh suffering because his friend is dead and then that is where he realizes that he is afraid of death and starts to search for immortality. Gilgamesh suffered because once he learned to love and have a friend, because of the way he had treated his people that was stripped away from him leaving him suffering emotionally. His was not a test of faith like Jobs was but let a act of suffering from you own foolishness. So therefore in conclusion to my text, I am a firm believer of all the theories of suffering, because everyday your faith is tested whether we want to believe it or not and it’s definitely true that what you reap you will sow. Sometimes I wonder when people die and their loved ones say what did I do to deserve this, do they actually sit back and think about what they really did to deserve that. It’s all a part of suffering. You never know what way you will suffer so live life according.

Works cited
Lawall, Thalmann, Lee Patterson, Heather James, and Patricia Spacks, The Norton Anthology
Western Literature, Eighth Edition London: W W Norton & Company.( 2006.) http://www.class.uidaho.edu/
http://www.executableoutlines.com/gal/ga6_7.htm