The origin of Genesis Noah and the Flood, ultimately derived from the Sumerian sources, where the flood hero was named Ziusudra (eg Eridu Genesis, the Death of Bilgames), via from Old Babylonian period (eg Epic of Atrahasis, Epic of Gilgamesh), to the Middle Babylonian period (eg Epic of Gilgamesh), and to the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian (eg, again Epic of Gilgamesh), which were contemporary to the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
The Jews wrote their own version, during their captivity in Babylonia, adapting the Assyrian-Babylonian story of Utnapishtim (from the Epic of Gilgamesh) when they started Noah’s story for Hebrew readers or audience.
Before the Babylonian Exile period, there are no Hebrew story of Noah, and definitely not in the Middle Babylonian period (the 2nd Babylonian dynasty, or the Kassite dynasty of Babylon, 1595 - 1160 BCE), which was when the story of Gilgamesh and Utnapishtim,
- spread east (eg fragments of Epic of Gilgamesh were found in Susa, Elam),
- and west (eg Megiddo in Canaan, Ugarit in northwest Syria, Hattusa in the Hittite kingdom, Amarna in Egypt).
So the Late Bronze Age Canaanites would have known about Babylonian story of Utnapishtim and the Flood, since damaged clay tablets were found in the Bronze Age archives of palace in Megiddo.
There are hundreds of other tablets, along with the Epic of Gilgamesh, dated between 15th and 14th centuries BCE. There are no contemporary Hebrew Genesis or the Exodus in this period, a supposed time of when the Israelites have already settled in Canaan, according to the books of Joshua and Judges.
This tell me, no exodus from Egypt (eg Exodus), and no invasion of Canaan, nor the Battle of Jericho (eg Joshua)...which mean there are no Hebrew writings existing in the Late Bronze Age (1550 - 1050 BCE), hence no Moses and no Joshua.
As to the historicity of the Genesis Flood.
There are not only no geological evidence for global flood pointing to single date, where there should be every continents in the world, there are no consistent archaeological evidence that destruction of cities by flood water pointing to the single date of the alleged flood.
For instances, the cities of Uruk (Erich in Genesis 10), Ur, and Kish, Nineveh, Assur, etc, in Mesopotamia, Susa in Elam, Memphis, Abydos, Nekhen in Egypt, Harappa in Pakistan (one of the most important sites of the Indus Valley Civilization) - they all predated 2340 BCE (the proposed date of Genesis Flood), and none of showed flood evidence pointing a single date (eg 2340 BCE).
If the global flood did happen, then these Bronze Age cities would have evidence of flood.
The crazy creationists think floods remove all trace of evidence, which are the exact opposite in science: destruction from floods actually create evidence, especially in cities.
For instance, in the Sumerian city of Shuruppak, they found evidence that flood occurred in Shuruppak, because of flood deposits, which dated to 2900 BCE. Euphrates flooded the city, that was more devastating than previous flooding that occurred almost annually.
Flooding on the Euphrates and Tigris occurred annually, which Sumerians knew how to take advantages of, because it provide water that irrigated their farmlands, and erosions from the rainfalls among the Anatolian and Armenian highlands, brought fertile loams (soils for farming) into the Mesopotamia. But the flood around 2900 BCE was more destructive than usual.
What occurred in Shuruppak, became the source of the legend of Ziusudra. Ziusudra would become Atrahasis and Utnapishtim in the next millennium. The Old Babylonian Epic of Atrahasis, narrated a river flood, not a global flood. But by the time, of Genesis composition in the 6th century BCE, the river flood became global flood, and the 7 days of rainfalls became 40 days. Genesis Flood is a perfect example of embellishing previous legends into massive mythological distortion.
