Biblical longevity

Biblical longevity refers to the claimed biologically-impossible life spans of some Biblical characters, which were often hundreds of years long. Some characters in the Bible simply live too long (in terms of hundreds of years[1]) despite God's command after the flood which puts an upper bound on human life at 120 years. This divine decree is a problem for many literal interpretations of the Bible, not least because Jeanne CalmentFile:Wikipedia's W.svg lived to be 122, but also because some Biblical characters subvert the decree, leading to a quite a hefty contradiction in scripture.

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The scriptures

After God has seen how wicked humanity is, He decrees an upper limit to the age of humans after the flood.

Genesis 6:3
And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

If this statement is true, we should not expect anyone to have a life longer than 120 years after the flood. However, in later passages of the Bible there are people who blatantly defy this command and live far more than 120 years.

This viewpoint is based on a faulty understanding of the grammatical flow of the passage of Genesis 6, as explained by the Verse By Verse ministry (https://www.versebyverseministry.org/bible-answers/are-people-limited-to-120-years-of-life).

Examples
  • Abraham lived to the ripe, old age of 175 years old (with the physical prowess to father a child at 100 years of age, no less!)
  • Sarah, Abraham's wife, had her numbers come up at a comparatively low 127 years of age (though she did give birth to Abraham's child when she was 90 years old!)
  • Noah lived for 950[2] years (That's longer than Adam!)
    • It's 350 years even if you don't count the years he lived before the flood.[3]
    • Although the rule might not have been retroactively applied (he might have been grandfathered).
  • Methuselah, of course, is famous for living longer than any other person mentioned in the Bible (given that women's ages weren't mentioned), reaching the age of 969. However his longevity wasn't as remarkable as it's often made out to be, since many others (including Noah, as mentioned) are said to have lived well into their 900s.
  • Shem lived for something like 600[4] years, so he pretty much got grandfathered in as well.
    • It's not clear why Japheth is not grandfathered in as well (Ham probably did not get grandfathered in due to the Curse of Ham)
  • Pretty much every one of Shem's firstborn descendants[5] (all the way to Jacob![6])
  • Moses's father, Amram, lived for 137 years and Moses' grandfather, Kohath, lived for 133 years. Moses himself reached the 120 years (he led the Exodus when he was 80 [7], with the travel towards the Promised Land lasting 40 years).

Possible explanations

Far and way the most likely explanation is that it simply didn't happen and it's just a story.

However, those looking for other explanations have suggested:

  • Some suggested that free will enables an individual to defy God's commands, and the reduction of human lifespan is no exception.
  • Sin and sinful lifestyles cause ageing and we were originally meant to live forever.[8][9] This doesn't stand up to statistical analysis. Was Methuselah less sinful than Moses?
  • An environment change that gradually lowered the life span. This might have had something to do with the Great Flood, according to Answers in Genesis.[8] All the water hanging around in the Firmament prior to the Great Flood might have been involved?[10] Although there is no obvious mechanism for this to prolong lives. This is getting very desperate. It remains unclear how the discontinuities of life span between the descendants of Jacob and the ancestors of Moses are allowed unchecked.
  • By "year" the Bible actually means "month", although this is contradicted by the times the Bible uses days, months, and years together.[11]
  • Records on the naturalistic explanations for the difference in life expectancy was eaten by the goats, and the Bible is patched subsequently to accommodate that.
  • The Bible is not an accurate source concerning human longevity.
gollark: ++data set hi test
gollark: ++remind 1m apiobees
gollark: ?star show 747506885019697332
gollark: ?star show 753361090145943573
gollark: ?star show 704444401975296131

See also

References
  1. That's before we count
    • 2 Peter 3:8
      But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
    and other time-dilation/expansion events/techniques.
  2. Genesis 9:29
  3. Genesis 9:28
    And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
  4. Genesis 11:10-11
    These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
    And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
  5. Genesis 11:12-32
  6. After Terah they are:
    • Abraham: Genesis 25:7
    • Isaac: Genesis 35:28
    • Jacob: Genesis 47:28
  7. Exodus 7:7
    And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.
  8. Did People Like Adam and Noah Really Live Over 900 Years of Age?, Georgia Purdom and David Menton, Chapter 16, The New Answers Book 2, Answers in Genesis, May 27, 2010
  9. How and Why Did People in the Bible Live So Long?, Jack Wellman, What Christians Want To Know
  10. Why Did the People Live So Long before the Flood?, Don Stewart, Blue Letter Bible
  11. Did People in Bible Times Really Live So Long?, The Watchtower, Jehovah's Witnesses, 2010
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