Age of People in the Bible
People in the Old Testament lived to be very old. So old as to defy our understanding of human life expectancy and human life spans. Without using self-referential justification, the reported ages are nonsensical. Consider the following individuals, whose ages exceed 900 years before they died:
Enosh, 905 [Genesis 5:11]
Kenan, 910 [Genesis 5:14]
Seth, 912 [Genesis 5:8]
Adam, 930 [Genesis 5:5]
Jared, 962 [Genesis 5:20]
Methuselah, 969 [Genesis 5:27]
The winner, Methuselah, lived to be very close to 1,000 years old. This goes against everything we know about human biology, let alone the biology of most animals on Earth. There is nothing in the fossil records that indicate humans have ever lived to be the ages described above. We think it remarkable, today, with all of our medicine and technology, when a person breaches the century marker. A person approaching nearly a millennium is something out of fantasy, not reality.
RESPONSE: God changed the life expectancy and life span of humans at multiple points in the Bible (from 900 to 120, and then finally to 70-80). The ages of the Old Testament individuals is consistent with this.
-This is self-referential justification. It is the same as saying “the Bible is right because it says it’s right”, and in no way provides evidence or credibility to the claims made therein.
RESPONSE: There is no theoretical limit to human life span, we simply succumb to disease or violence. The individuals in the Old Testament were free from disease and war, allowing them to live to be the indicated ages.
-Fossil evidence shows that bacteria, viruses, and other maladies have been around since long before humans arrived on the scene. There is no indication that humans were free from all afflictions in the time of Methuselah, unless we accept the Bible as self-referentially justifying (which we should not, as nothing can be justified in this manner). Lastly, and to be quite frank, this response (though supported, in part, by current biological studies) is backwards. It attempts to suggest that people were healthier 2,000 plus years ago than they are now, with all of our advances in science and medicine. This is not only unlikely, but counter to what our entire culture is structured around (the process of advancement).
According to the 'Hayflick limit' cells can only divide so many times before the DNA cant be replicated anymore. There are a few immortal creatures, one species of jellyfish for example. I remember reading once that there were ancient Greeks that lived over 80 years old which makes biological sense. I also wonder, if one were to somehow live to be 900 years though godly magic would they spend 800 of that as a broken old man?
ReplyDeleteAs for your last question, I am not sure. Noah worked on the Ark when he was about 500-600 years old, and other individuals are still producing offspring into their 3rd century.
ReplyDeleteI would much prefer Highlander immortality, to be honest.