Posted on 02/17/2017 7:30:35 AM PST by Salvation
I occasionally get questions about the remarkably long lives of the patriarchs who lived before the great flood. Consider the ages at which these figures purportedly died:
How should we understand these references? Many theories have been proposed to explain the claimed longevity. Some use a mathematical corrective, but this leads to other pitfalls such as certain patriarchs apparently begetting children while still children themselves. Another theory proposes that the purported life spans of the patriarchs are just indications of their influence or family line, but then things don’t add up chronologically with eras and family trees.
Personally, I think we need to take the stated life spans of the patriarchs at face value and just accept it as a mystery: for some reason, the ancient patriarchs lived far longer than we do in the modern era. I cannot prove that they actually lived that long, but neither is there strong evidence that they did not. Frankly, I have little stake in insisting that they did in fact live to be that old. But if you ask me, I think it is best just to accept that they did.
This solution, when I articulate it, causes many to scoff. They almost seem to be offended. The reply usually sounds something like this: “That’s crazy. There’s no way they lived that long. The texts must be wrong.” To which I generally reply, “Why do you think it’s crazy or impossible?” The answers usually range from the glib to the more serious, but here are some common replies:
So I think we’re back to where we started: just taking the long life spans of the early patriarchs at face value.
There is perhaps a theological truth hidden in the shrinking lifespans of the Old Testament. The Scriptures link sin and death. Adam and Eve were warned that the day they ate of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they would die (Gen 2:17), but they did not drop dead immediately. Although they died spiritually in an instant, the clock of death for their bodies wound down much later. As the age listing above shows, as sin increased, lifespans dropped precipitously, especially after the flood.
Prior to the flood, lifespans remained in the vicinity of 900 years, but right afterward they dropped by about a third (Shem only lived to 600), and then the numbers plummeted even further. Neither Abraham nor Moses even reached 200, and by the time of King David, he would write, Our years are seventy, or eighty for those who are strong (Ps 90:10).
Scripture says, For the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). Indeed they are, especially in terms of lifespan. Perhaps that is why I am not too anxious to try to disprove the long life spans of the patriarchs, for what we know theologically is borne out in our human experience: sin is life-destroying. This truth is surely made clear by the declining lifespan of the human family.
Does this prove that Adam actually lived to be more than 900 years old? No, it only shows that declining life spans are something we fittingly discover in a world of sin. God teaches that sin brings death, so why should we be shocked that our life span has decreased from 900 years to about 85? It is what it is. It’s a sad truth about which God warned us. Thanks be to God our Father, who in Jesus now offers us eternal life, if we will have faith and obey His Son!
How or even whether the patriarchs lived to such advanced ages is not clear, but what is theologically clear is that we don’t live that long today because of the collective effect of sin upon us.
You apparently have no idea how telling that comment is...
Much like professional athletes today that constantly stress their bodies beyond the breaking point, people of that era were old by the time they turned 30.
A story?
Is that what you called scripture which is inspired by the Holy Spirit?
Winner!
Amen on that last sentence.
And always remember the power of God.
Good post, BTW.
So this is likely untrue as well???
Mat 28:6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
Ya figure the disciples rolled the stone away and stole the body??? Or was there even a body???
950/12 = 79 and a bit.
More than likely, they were counting months (’moons’) as years.
How could the year be the same, we must have been in a really fast orbit around the sun.
For a person of faith, a whole lot of things just fall into place if you just accept what is written as factual at face value, meaning literally. Yes, there are huge conflicts with science as it currently stands. Science has changed and will continue to change, however. In my five decades on this planet, I’ve watched catastrophism go from ridicule to mainstream, which favors the Biblical account. This will continue, as there is much that we do not understand.
This world was not created as a clock. Lifespans have changed within our own lifespans, so why is it such an incredible thing, to accept that human beings once lived far longer lives? Modern science now posits that telomeres can be “turned off,” leading to greatly lengthened lifespan. It’s all sitting there right in front of their faces, but they’re very resistant. Why? A deep-seated fear of proving anything Biblical to be right.
The bias and ignorance that those outside of Christianity love to accuse Christian Biblical literalists of suffering is quite evidently present among certain scientists themselves. For instance, Edwin Hubble, seeking to avoid the “horror” of appearing to confirm anything Biblical, or attacking geocentrists even though Albert Einstein himself said it’s all a matter of frame of reference, that the point is moot, whether we’re in motion or the universe is in motion around us, it’s all relative. But no, the screeching and wailing that commences because that might mean that Earth is special and in turn we are special.
Can’t have that, oh no.
The speed of rotation and the orbit period are independent. If the days were shorter, there would have been more of them in a year but it would still take the same amount of time to circle the sun.
365 days in a year is just a rough approximation, some years there are 366. If the earth were spinning twice as fast, there would be would be more than 700 days in a year but the year would still the same length of time and you would age one year, not two or 1/2.
Stepping back from the purely religious aspect of the Biblical account, it’s fairly obvious that the flood account describes some sort of cataclysmic impact to me, to have “opened up the fountains of the great deep” as it was described. Such an impact could very well have altered the orbit of this planet, couldn’t it? The rate of spin could have been reduced as well. There are a number of ways this planet could have been flooded as described but it’s dismissed as impossible by people who know better. A large icy comet? There’s a possibility. I recall reading recently that there is a great deal more water contained within the crust of Earth and I believe under fairly high pressure, am I recalling this incorrectly? What would a large extraterrestrial object such as a comet or asteroid cause, in light of this, and how would an ancient have described it? As opening up the fountains of the great deep, maybe?
“So this is likely untrue as well???”
No...
I see no mystery in the longevity of those cited in Genesis. Man was created to live forever. Sin brought in death. We see in Scripture that at various points lifespans are shortened.
Enoch did not die, but was translated. As kids we had a familiar riddle, “Who was the oldest man who ever lived, but died before his father?” The answer of course is Methuselah.
If we use the generations of Adam in Genesis Chapter 5 we can calculate the year of Noah’s flood. And if we do that we find that Methuselah died the year of the flood, 1656 years from the creation of Adam.
[[Did Noah Really Live to Be 950?]]
All that to determine God actually told the truth?
Simple Question “Does God Lie?” The answer is no of course- and since the word of God is Christ- - then the answer is Yes- they did live that long
Coriolis "force." Everything would slide off the table, you couldn't walk straight lines easily.
Rotation is not an inertial reference frame; it's one of constant centripetal acceleration.
Then again, we don't notice the rotational acceleration of the earth now--it's too mild. Come to think of it, 12 times as quick wouldn't likely be noticeable, either.
I’m in your camp. Keep your printed photos in the dark, and they keep their color. Put them in sunlight, and the UV fades them fast.
Many have theorized that these verses describe a hollow globe of water around the planet, (and not just clouds):
Gen 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
If that’s true, it could be that a great amount of UV light did not make it to the surface - less sunburn, less corruption.
Or, God could have just decided to change things! I can live with that. I believe it was Charles Stanley who said, “When you know who God is, you don’t have to worry about what He does.”
There was once a funny argument in the paper by a local columnist. “Why are there always mosquitoes flying around in the rain in my backyard? They must be dodging the raindrops.”
I won’t go into all the theories why people wrote in that the bugs never got hit by raindrops, but it went on for DAYS. It ended abruptly when some smart fellow pointed out that you won’t see the ones who DID get hit.
All those accident victims who lived in Noah’s time never got written about. Have a nice weekend.
Sorry - forgot to copy you!
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