Something in the Bible that confuses me

[Case Closed]

It's been a while since I read this so if I get it wrong gimme a break. But when I was first reading the bible in the begining all of the people seemed to have extremely long life spans. It never made any sense to me. There has to be some reason for this.

[Hopey]

The lord works in mysterious ways. Also, evolution is hogwash.

[Matt R.]

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The lord works in mysterious ways. Also, evolution is hogwash.

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Nice analysis.

The ages in the Bible refer to number of lunar cycles, not solar ones. This is what I have learned in the past at least. There could be other interpretations that I'm unaware of.

[mostsmooth]

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The lord works in mysterious ways. Also, evolution is hogwash.

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Nice analysis.

The ages in the Bible refer to number of lunar cycles, not solar ones. This is what I have learned in the past at least. There could be other interpretations that I'm unaware of.

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i asked this very question of a jehovahs(sp?) witness. apparently he was one of the higher ups or something. he told me it was because those people were more pure, less/no sins. as humans became more unpure, the lifespans decreased.
im not saying i believe it either way, just letting you in on a different explanation

[guesswest]

It's because there were less 'toxins' in the air back then....

[Lestat]

The bad beat had not yet been invented.

Less frustration = longer lifespan.

[purnell]

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The bad beat had not yet been invented.

Less frustration = longer lifespan.

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Job took the worst beat ever. I'm not sure what length of lifespan we were supposed to be down to at that point, though.

[theweatherman]

I heard once that these extremely long lifespans were really the length of that person's particular dynasty. As in Noah's family existed distinctly for X thousands of years.

[bills217]

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The ages in the Bible refer to number of lunar cycles, not solar ones. This is what I have learned in the past at least. There could be other interpretations that I'm unaware of.

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Seems very unlikely in light of Genesis 6:3:

Then the Lord said, "I will not allow people to live forever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than 120 years."

[Hopey]

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The ages in the Bible refer to number of lunar cycles, not solar ones. This is what I have learned in the past at least. There could be other interpretations that I'm unaware of.

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Seems very unlikely in light of Genesis 6:3:

Then the Lord said, "I will not allow people to live forever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than 120 years."

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I guess the Lord went back on his word: Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment)

[bills217]

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I guess the Lord went back on his word: Link

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Irrelevant; the Bible records several individuals living longer than 120 years shortly after that very verse.

The 120-year life span limit does seem strangely accurate considering when it was written, no? How could people in that age have that sort of knowledge if it was not handed down to them by God? Coincidence?

As for God going back on His Word, if you call God expanding His mercy even beyond what He promised "going back on His Word," then yes, I suppose He did.

[TomBrooks]

If I'm not mistaken and I might be, the Bible attributes super-long lifespans to hero characters. This literary licence would probably be taken to enhance their status to the reader.

[mostsmooth]

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The ages in the Bible refer to number of lunar cycles, not solar ones. This is what I have learned in the past at least. There could be other interpretations that I'm unaware of.

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Seems very unlikely in light of Genesis 6:3:

Then the Lord said, "I will not allow people to live forever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than 120 years."

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I guess the Lord went back on his word: Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment)

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owned:
"In 1965, with no living heirs, Jeanne Calment signed a deal, common in France, to sell her condominium apartment en viager to lawyer François Raffray, then 47.
Raffray agreed to pay a monthly sum until she passed away, an agreement sometimes called a "reverse mortgage". She was then 90, and the value of the apartment was equal to ten years of payments. Unfortunately for Raffray, not only did she survive more than thirty years, but he died first, in December 1995, of cancer, at the age of 77. His widow had to continue the payments."

[bills217]

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If I'm not mistaken and I might be, the Bible attributes super-long lifespans to hero characters.

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Mistaken.

[DougShrapnel]

Surely this is close enough, science estimates that the longest lifespan due to the number of times a cell can split and rejuvienate is 121 yrs.
Arking, R. 1998. The Biology of Aging, 2nd Ed. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.

[vhawk01]

Yeah, so God was off by a percent or so. Nobody's perfect, right?

[DougShrapnel]

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Yeah, so God was off by a percent or so. Nobody's perfect, right?

[/ QUOTE ] What did you expect someone to die on their 120th bday? Seems a bit nitpicky to me, to require god to say "human life is limited to 122 yrs 326 days 6 hours 6 minutes, 6 seconds, 54 milliseconds.......

The method that god used to limit human lifespan is what is important.

[vhawk01]

Well, that was mostly tongue-in-cheek.

But no, it does NOT seem nitpicky to me. If God says people will not live past 120, but then they do, isnt that a crack in the whole omniscience characteristic? Unless you would have us believe that the recording in the Bible is human and therefore fallacious.

Can opened....worms.....everywhere.

[DougShrapnel]

"Well, that was mostly tongue-in-cheek."
I know, I found it amusing.

"If God says people will not live past 120, but then they do, isnt that a crack in the whole omniscience characteristic?" Certainly we have to draw the line some where Lets say both the Hundreds and tens are significant. But not the 1's.

Or lets say the the method used to determine the maximum life span should end up putting the maximim life span at 120, Individual results may vary.

Yes if science was to show that the maximum lifespan was 140 we would have 1 more piece of evidence that the bible is in error.

[BluffTHIS!]

I am going to give a Catholic answer, which is not a literalist one some fundamentalists might give (although they are really only selectively literal).

In a footnote to a passage of Gensis in the New American Bible, a catholic edition, it says:

The long lifespans attributed to these ten antediluvian patriarchs have a symbolic rather than a historical value. Babylonian tradition also recorded ten kings with fantastically high ages who reigned successively before the flood.


Thus the Book of Genesis is not necessarily 100% historical in matters which do not have a doctrinal point that necessitates a literal interpretation. Same with calculations that might lead some literalists to deny science and say the earth is only 5000 years old. The doctrinal fact that God created the earth and all else including humanity is the important thing, rather than the means he used to do it (evolution) or the actual amount of time involved (billions of years).

[hmkpoker]

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The lord works in mysterious ways. Also, evolution is hogwash.

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Nice analysis.

The ages in the Bible refer to number of lunar cycles, not solar ones. This is what I have learned in the past at least. There could be other interpretations that I'm unaware of.

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That does kind of make sense, actually

[BluffTHIS!]

Do the math and it won't. Lunar cycles only make for a shorter lunar year, and one not short enough to double someone's lifespan calculated in solar years.

[hmkpoker]

What I meant was if Noah lived to be 900 lunar years, that translates into about 75 solar years, which, from a scientific standpoint, makes sense.

[BluffTHIS!]

There is no reason to believe a lunar cycle would mean lifespans calculated in lunar months rather than lunar years.

[Vincent]

I was doing some research on Noah, and found this.
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Did people live to be more than 900 years before the flood?

No. That was an ancient mistranslation of archaic numbers. Noah lived to be 83.

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I've heard this before from some other Christians, whose minds I have respect for, so that sounds good to me.

[hmkpoker]

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There is no reason to believe a lunar cycle would mean lifespans calculated in lunar months rather than lunar years.

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A lunar cycle is the time it takes the moon to circle around the body creating its orbit, just as a solar year is the time it takes for the earth to revolve around the sun. A lunar cycle (which is the equivalent of a year, or revolution) is about one month.

"Months" are arbitrary time designations, like weeks. I suspect rather strongly that they exist due to the lunar cycle.

[BluffTHIS!]

hmk,

Why would Moses and the other redactors who wrote Genesis use one system of denoting years for the times/lifespans before the flood and another one for the times/lifespans after?

[thekiller]

you'll do best goihng through life following the crowd. baa.

[pstripling]

From the website: gotquestions.org

Question: "Why did people in Genisis live such long lives?"



Answer: Why people in early chapters of Genesis lived long lives is somewhat of a mystery. There are many theories by Biblical scholars and scientists. The genealogy in Genesis 5 records the line of godly descendants of Adam – the line that would eventually produce the Messiah. God possibly blessed this line with especially long life as a result of its godliness and obedience. While this is a possible explanation, the Bible nowhere specifically limits the long life-spans to the individuals mention in Genesis chapter 5. Further, other than Enoch, Genesis 5 does not identify any of the individuals as being especially godly. It is likely that everyone at that time period lived several hundred years. Several factors probably contributed to this.

Genesis 1:6-7 mentions “waters above,” a “canopy” of water that surrounded the earth. Such a “water canopy” would have created a “greenhouse effect” on the entire earth, and would have blocked much of the radiation that now hits the earth. This would have resulted in ideal living conditions on the earth. This seems especially so considering how quickly the lifespans began to shrink after the Flood. Genesis 7:11 likely indicates that, in the Flood, the “water canopy” was poured out on the earth, ending the ideal living conditions. Compare the ages before the Flood (Genesis 5:1-32) with the ages after the Flood (Genesis 11:10-32). Immediately have the Flood, the ages decreased dramatically.

Another factor to consider is that in the first few generations after Creation, the human genetic code had not developed many defects. Adam and Eve were created perfect. They were surely highly resistant to diseases and illnesses. Their descendants would have inherited these advantages, albeit to lesser degrees. Over time, though, as a result of sin, the human genetic code became increasingly corrupted, and human beings became more and more susceptible to death and disease. This would have resulted in a drastically reduced lifespan.

Recommended Resource: The Answers Book by Ken Ham.

Question: "Is there an age limit to how long we can live?"



Answer: There is no Biblical limit for how long a person can live. Genesis 6:3 tells us, "Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." Genesis 6:3 is stating that, as a general rule, people will no longer live past 120 years of age. After the Flood, you will notice that the life spans began to shrink dramatically (compare Genesis 5 with Genesis 11) and eventually shrunk to below 120 (Genesis 11:24). Since that time, very few people (if any) have lived to be 120 years old. Several hundred years after the Flood Moses declared, “The length of our days is seventy years — or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10).

[bills217]

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Did people live to be more than 900 years before the flood?

No. That was an ancient mistranslation of archaic numbers. Noah lived to be 83.

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Vincent,

Where did you find that? Never heard it before, would like to at least look into it.

[Andrew Karpinski]

They lived that long because they were pro-life.

[Silent A]

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The lord works in mysterious ways. Also, evolution is hogwash.

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Nice analysis.

The ages in the Bible refer to number of lunar cycles, not solar ones. This is what I have learned in the past at least. There could be other interpretations that I'm unaware of.

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That does kind of make sense, actually

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The problem with this approach is that the very same passages talk of men having childern at the age of 65 years. If 1 bible year = 1 lunar cycle then they had kids before their 6th birthday.

It would also compress the history of the world from the fall to Exodus to something like three hundred years.

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Genesis 5
From Adam to Noah
1 This is the written account of Adam's line.
When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them "man."

3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5 Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.

6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. 7 And after he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Altogether, Seth lived 912 years, and then he died.

9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. 10 And after he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Altogether, Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died.

12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13 And after he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Altogether, Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died.

15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. 16 And after he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 Altogether, Mahalalel lived 895 years, and then he died.

18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. 19 And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Altogether, Jared lived 962 years, and then he died.

21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. 26 And after he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Altogether, Methuselah lived 969 years, and then he died.

28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah and said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed." 30 After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Altogether, Lamech lived 777 years, and then he died.

32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

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And then there's this:

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Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

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If one bible year = a lunar cycle, what does "the 17th day of the 2nd month" mean?