Doesn't seem like you could beat the odds for that long with the withdrawl method.
2006-12-13 04:35:04 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
There is no biblical answer for this, but considering that they lived for eight to nine hundred years, it could be that fertility did not begin until they were around one hundred years old. The appoximate life span now is 75 and we become fertile around 12-13.
2006-12-13 05:58:20 · answer #1 · answered by Freedom 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would think that they wanted to wait that they do not start to have sex and kids with the wrong person. That stuff is so tricky business, you get wiser in time...I guess. It would not be wise to have kids with the stupid man...and sex part is not too inviting either : )
But in a serious note. Some have suggested that these "years" - you know some of them lived 900 years - are really months, which could reduce 900 years to normal life span of 80 years. But in the other hand there are precendents in the Hebrew OT for taking the word "year" to mean a month.
And some other tricky thoughts...snce Mahalel had children when he was onlt 65 ( Gen 5:15 ), and Cainan had children when he was 70 ( Gen 5:12 ), this would mean they were less than six years old-which is not biologically possible.
Anyhow, it seems best to take these as yers ( though they were lunar years of 12x30+360 days ) for seveal reasons.
The first of all, life was shortened to 120 years as a punishment form God ( Gen 6:3 ). And then also life span decreased gradually after the flood from the 900s( Gen 5 ) to the 600s Shem11:10-11 ), to 400s ( Salah 11:14-15) , to the 200s ( Rue 11:20-21 ). Biologically, there is no reason humans could not live hundreds of years. Scientists are more baffled by aging and death than by longivity. Remember, the Bible is not alone in speaking of hundreds of years life spans among ancients. There are also records from ancient Greek and Egyptian times that speak of humans living hunderds of years.
2006-12-13 13:05:31 · answer #2 · answered by SeeTheLight 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Symbolic number
2006-12-13 13:02:16 · answer #3 · answered by ishootpix 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They were patient back then, get married at 12, wait untill 200 to have kids
2006-12-13 12:39:53 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋