Genesis asserts that "Noah found favor with the Lord . . . Noah was a righteous man; he was without blame in that age. Noah walked with God." The only other Patriarch who "walked with God" was Enoch who became deified in his lifetime. Although Noah was not deified or made divine in the religious literature, his Sumerian counterpart Utnapishtim was made immortal and sent to live with the gods. For some reason the Hebrew priesthood decided not to immortalize Noah. Like his neph