Why do people not live to 120?

Question

In the bible it states "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." GENESIS 6:3, so why do we only live to be around 80?

Answer 1

Great question. Actually, there are some folks who have lived to the promised 120 years, but you are mostly right that the clear majority don't make it. I think the eating habits of a culture make a great difference. There is a passage in the Bible somewhere that further limits the life of man to three score (60) and ten years of life.

I do know this: numbers in the Bible are greatly symbolic, especially that number 120. It first appeared in Genesis 6 when God shortedn the lifespan of man. It also appears in 2 Chron. 5:11-14, I believe it was the age of Moses when he died at the end of Exodus, and it was the number of people in the upper room in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit came.

This number symbolically speaks of "The end of life in the flesh and the beginning of life in the Spirit." In each instance, whether it is a physical death or a spiritual change, the number shows either a person or a group moving from living in their flesh to living in their spirit and a greater presence of God. Man, I love the Word of God!

Answer 2

Here is an excerpts from the Nei Ching, the world’s oldest known book on medicine. This begins with the Su Wen, a transcript of conversations between Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor of China circa B.C. 3000, and Ch’i Po, his master physician:

"I have heard that in ancient times, the people lived to be over one hundred years old, and yet remained active and did not become decrepit in their activities. But in our time, they only reach half that age and become weak and failing. Is it that mankind is degenerating through the ages and is losing his original vigor and vitality?"
"In ancient times, the people understood the Tao, the great principle of the universe. They patterned themselves upon the laws of Yin and Yang, were sober and led regular simple lives in harmony with Nature. For these reasons, they were healthy in mind and body, and could live to a ripe old age. In our time, they drink alcohol as if it were water, seek all manner of physical pleasure and abandon themselves to intemperance. Their passions exhaust their vital forces, their cravings dissipate their true essence, they do not know how to find contentment within themselves. They are not skilled in the control of their spirits and devote all their attention to the amusement of the mind. For these reasons they degenerate and do not live beyond the age of fifty. The sage teaches us to lead a simple and peaceful life; keeping energy in reserve prevents attack by illness; guarding against desires, the heart will be at peace; so while the body may fatigue, the mind does not. In this way one may still reach the age of one hundred. Yin in the interior is the guardian of Yang; Yang in the exterior motivates Yin."

Answer 3

Psalms 90: "for the days of man are 70 years, of with strenth 80 years".
Evidently the bible doesn't think that 120 (or 70 or 80) are numbers set in stone. It probably has a variety of factors involved.
(Though I think that 120 is seen as the upper end of the scale.)

Answer 4

First, you have to think of the context which they were thinking. They lived in eastern Asia and they 'clocked' the seasons by the rise and fall of tides, not the celestical calendar; that was perfected by the Arabians much later. If you stated that the year was as long as a complete phase of the moon, then you would be 390 years old in 30-years, which should tie to the average lifespan of people during that age.

W.

Answer 5

Maybe this passage was metaphorical for the age of humanity..like 120 years that G od would be present with mankind until a significant event or it could be 120 thousand or million years.
Other than that, if I were 120+ years old, I would expect my children to put me out of my misery.

Answer 6

I think that when He says "yet his days she be an hundred and twenty years" I think it would mean in our modern common language "even if he lives to be 120." I don't know if that's the case for sure, though.

I think we don't live to be 120 because of pollution, bad diet and bad lifestyle, smoking, drinking, laziness, and yes, cheeseburgers and blizzards(I know they'll be the death of me). If we lived exactly the way God wanted us to in every respect, I'm sure 120 would still be young.

Answer 7

There are several exmaples when ppl still lives pass 120, look at the book of records.
GOD just picked a random number. He probably was tired to watch ppl worshipping him for 900+ years. Plus he was lonely with angels ( robots) in his own build heaven so he wanted to get ppl out there as fast as possible.
Therefore GOD limit out free will to 120.

Answer 8

The study notes in my Bible say that the 120 years "is probably the time God would still let men live on earth before destroying them with the flood, rather than the maximum span of life God would allot to individual men in the future."

Others believe that it is a verse that's not meant to be taken literally in chronological terms -- the verse is simply meant to convey the general idea that our time on this earth is limited, and that when we get old, we die.

Answer 9

We don't live that long because of our lifestyles. We abuse our bodies with smoke alcohol, pollution and that's without even going to what really drags us down, the stressful lives we burden ourselves with.
If we always ate properly, and really treated our bodies like temples from being as young as possible I expect there'd be many more surviving to 120 or close to it.

Answer 10

A very small number has I think. In China and France. But the extreme ages of the patriarchs in the OT are PURE MYTHS.