“The Babylonian narratives are both polytheistic, while the corresponding biblical narratives (Genesis 1 and 6-9) are made the vehicle of a pure and exalted monotheism; but in spite of this fundamental difference, and also variations in detail, the resemblances are such as to leave no doubt that the Hebrew cosmogony and the Hebrew story of the Deluge are both derived ultimately from the same original as the Babylonian narratives, only transformed by the magic touch of Israel's religion, and infused by it with a new spirit.”— Samuel Driver (1908), Modern Research as Illustrating the Bible
“The Babylonian account of the Deluge, which was discovered by George Smith in 1872 on [700BC] tablets from the Royal Library at Nineveh, is, as you know, embedded in a long epic of twelve Books recounting the adventures of the Old Babylonian hero Gilgamesh. Towards the end of this composite tale, Gilgamesh, desiring immortality, crosses the Waters of Death in order to beg the secret from his ancestor Ut-napishtim, who in the past had escaped the Deluge and had been granted immortality by the gods. The Eleventh Tablet, or Book, of the epic contains the account of the Deluge which Ut-napishtim related to his kinsman Gilgamesh. The close correspondence of this Babylonian story with that contained in Genesis is recognized by everyone and need not detain us. You will remember that in some passages the accounts tally even in minute details, such, for example, as the device of sending out birds to test the abatement of the waters. It is true that in the Babylonian version a dove, a swallow, and a raven are sent forth in that order, instead of a raven and the dove three times. But such slight discrepancies only emphasize the general resemblance of the narratives. In any comparison it is usually admitted that two accounts have been combined in the Hebrew narrative.”
“The Hebrew redactors used Egyptian myths to make the biblical stories; which, from time to time, had Babylonian myths grafted onto earlier texts or replaced portions of the original stories.”— Gary Greenberg (2000), 101 Myths of the Bible (pg. 7)