God commanding Noah to build an Ark
The story of an ark surviving a cataclysmic flood appears in the earliest chapters of history from a variety of cultures. Sumerian mythology tells of Gilgamesh, whom the Gods forewarned of an impending flood and guided him to survive it by his building an Ark. Hinduism tells of the sage Manu, whom Vishnu assisted to survive a similar deluge so that the Vedas, the Hindu books of ancient wisdom, be preserved. Greek mythology tells of Deucalion, who, by virtue of his piety, was spared from Zeus’ rage over mankind, and was saved from its flooding by boarding an Ark. The Old Testament prophet Noah was elected to build an Ark so that the sinful world could be repopulated after its demise by flooding.
The similarity of these myths and their diversity of origin suggest that a geological cataclysm might have actually occurred back in prehistory, one that scattered the members of a single clan throughout various parts of the Earth. These scattered people formed new cultures, each of which produced its own, albeit similar, version of the historic cataclysm. The mythical abode of Atlantis, referred to by Plato and repeated throughout later history, lends further credence to such a possibility.
Read on: A New Approach to the Ark Myth