Biblical Flood

Differences

Various theological concepts between Babylonian mythology and the biblical account are quite obvious:

Hebrew: One true God (monotheism)
Babylonian: Many gods (polytheism)

Hebrew: A Holy God
Babylonian: The gods quarrel and disagree crouching in fear "like swarms of flies"

Hebrew: God saw that all of mankind had become corrupt and evil in all their ways.
Babylonian: There is confusion as to why the flood came.

Hebrew: The Creator and sustainer of all executed His judgment upon His creation.
Babylonian: Adad brought thunder, Ninurta brought winds, Annunaki brought lightning.

Explanation

It is nearly impossible to give an explanation without some sort of bias or presupposition. The likely explanation is that though the Babylonian account is older than Moses and the Biblical account, both the accounts go back to a common source of fact, which originated in an actual occurrence. The flood occurred long before the time of Abraham or Hammurapi. The memory of this awesome event passed on through tradition and somehow it was or became corrupted through various cultures. It is my view that the Bible records it as it actually happened, and as it was spoken by God, through the Holy Spirit to meet special needs in the history of redemption.