Despite the enormous amount of critical attention focused on the Epic of Gilgamesh since the 19th Century, redaction criticism, that is, isolating and exploring the ideas motivating the creation of a particular recension of a text through the careful scrutiny of its extant language and literary form, remains an under-utilized critical tool in its study. In this paper, I will employ J. Tigay’s diachronic observations of the Epic’s textual development (The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982]) and T. Abusch’s example of close reading—utilizing both diachronic and synchronic perspectives as exemplified in his “Ishtar’s Proposal and Gilgamesh’s Refusal: An Interpretation of The Gilgamesh Epic, Tablet 6, Lines 10–79” (History of Religions 26 [1986]: 143–187)—to uncover some of the redactional motivations behind the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. Specifically, I will show how the well-known wisdom orientation of the SB redaction of the Epic and its employment of language from the semantic domain of “proscribed knowledge” provide insight into the roles of Gilgamesh, Uta-Napishti, and Ea in the Epic. I will also suggest that my analysis reveals the influence of the traditional author’s sociological background on the SB redaction of the Epic.