Posted on 08/12/2015 7:23:42 AM PDT by Salvation
I sometimes get questions about the remarkably long lives of the patriarchs who lived before the great flood. Consider some of their reported ages when they died:
How to understand these references? There are many theories that have tried to explain the claimed longevity. Some try to introduce a mathematical corrective, but this leads to other pitfalls such as certain patriarchs apparently begetting children while they are still children themselves. Another approach is to say that the “ages” of the patriarchs are actually 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 ages of the patriarchs at face value and just accept it as a mystery: for some reason, the ancient patriarchs lived far longer 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 that long. 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 is 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, and though they died spiritually in an instant, the clock of death for their bodies wound down much later. As the chart 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 (Noah and 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. And perhaps that is why I am not too anxious to try to disprove the long lifespans of the patriarchs. For what we know theologically is borne out in our human experience: sin is life-destroying. And this truth is surely writ large in 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 lifespans are something we fittingly discover in a world of sin. Since God teaches that sin brings death, why should we be shocked that our lifespan has decreased from 900 to 85 years? It is what it is. It’s a sad truth that God warned us about. Thanks be to God our Father who in Jesus now offers us eternal life, if we will have faith and obey His Son!
So how or even whether the patriarchs lived past 900 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.
Looking at our modern day families — in the woman dies in her 70s, but the man lives to be 100 — is there sin mixed in with that? Or is it all genetic?
“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.””
We are a faith who believes that God Himself came down, lived amongst us as a man, was killed, and rose from the dead. If people are going to scoff at someone living a few hundred years, then I doubt they will ever truly accept the really radical propositions of the faith.
It is my understanding that if we go back not too far the average lifespan was something like 30 or maybe 40 years but improved medicine, nutrition and sanitation has pushed it to about 80 now at least in developed countries. Whatever number of years we live however it is short and we should make the best of what we have been given.
**Whatever number of years we live however it is short and we should make the best of what we have been given.**
Adding to your statement.
Whatever number of years we live however it is short and we should make the best of what we have been given for eternal life meets us at the end of our earthly days.
Genesis 6:3 comes to mind.
Yes indeed
In Genesis 6:3, God set a limit for man’s days at 120 years. Despite our best efforts, it holds true to today.
They did, in fact, physically die "that day"; and none lived more than "a day", though some came close to living a full day.
2 Pet 3:8 (KJV
King James Bible 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.
We are to test all things. Some things are a great mystery and make for great explorations. There's no reason to get all snippy.
Very interesting! Thanks!
I believe it had to do with the fact that the heavens opened to allow the rain. Before the Great Flood, there had never even been rain before. When the heavens opened the protective layer disappeared that previously had been the reason for long life spans.
The number of our days are in His hands for His purposes. Job suffered mightily, but not due to his sin. There was a cosmic war going on behind the scenes he knew nothing of. Many wicked people live long lives while Christians are cut off suddenly at a young age. Why? Some things are not for us to know. All I know for sure is that God is absolutely sovereign.
It actually is. I actually got a chance to talk to the author and he had changed his opinion since the book was written about which planet it was. Oh, and the ice (and 40 days of rain) came from an “ice moon” that accompanied this rogue planet and basically got close enough to the earth to reach its “rouche limit”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_limit
His argument is that much of it fell to earth on our poles, instantly creating catastrophic tides and giving us the sea level we now enjoy. He gets into the history of the wooly mammoth and the condition in which we find them today - and how they probably died.
The bible is not really a science book, but when it does touch on the subject it does it in such a way that even with our knowledge of science today (and it is formidable), the bible is not contradicted. Books like The Origin of Species do not fare as well.
Here is another fun one: Back in the middle 20th century, “non-Christian” science was uniformitarian while Those that believed in the bible account of genesis were catastrophists. We’ve learned a lot since then. Everyone is catastrophist now. Who had to change? ;-)
Actually, my question is this. GIVEN that man once lived up to 900 years and more. WHEN in his chronological life did he become old, as in feeble and not physically productive? Assuming the women were also long-lived, when did women go through the change of life?
Dr. Huge Ross...
Well stated!
See tag-line.
FReegards!
Great thoughts from Msgr. Pope...this has been on my mind a great deal.
Adam and Eve were in perfect harmony with the will of God.
This has enormous implications for genetics. God, who knows all things, would certainly know which two people should mate and when. He knows everything about our makeup right down to the base pairs of the DNA and what exactly they will result in through the process of meiosis and then fertilization.
So as long as we were in God’s grace and doing His will, we were plugged into that minute knowledge. We had the infallible Hand of the Creator guiding us through the minefield of genetics.
The minute we departed from that, well, then the whole thing unraveled. Adam and Eve no longer came together in peace and tranquility but now you had lust causing them to mate at times that were never intended. Then you had Abel’s genetic information completely destroyed. Then people married whoever they wanted to, for lust or money or any other sinful reason, there was rape, there was fornication, there was murder and everything else. Unions that were never directly intended. Genes never meant to be lost.
The eugenicists could well have diagnosed the problem of “bad genetics”, but of course they are complete idiots about the solution. Mankind cannot fix it. Because mankind has only limited knowledge about the minutiae of genetics and no knowledge of the future. Only God’s omniscience can restore what was lost...and that can only happen when we submit to His will.
The Patriarchs could well have been the last gasp of that divinely ordered strain through Seth...eventually itself becoming whittled down to nothing by sin.
In the book I mentioned in an earlier post, he posits that before the great flood the trade winds moved north to south rather than east to west. He makes the argument that the temerature variation from equator to pole was no more than a few degrees Fahrenheit.
It does explain a few things. Forests in the Sahara, the type of animal carcassas found at extreme northern locations, etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.