a few bible questions for knowledgable christians:?

Question

~How does Adam, Noah, and everyone live to be hundreds of years old?

~Why are there no physical descriptions of anyone in the bible? (not completely sure on this, maybe I missed them)

~Where did the wives that married Adam's sons come from if Eve was supposedly the first and only woman at that time?

~How does Noah fit thousands of species of animals onto a boat without having it sink because they had no supplies (hammers, nails, table saws, etc weren't invented yet) to built it to a good enough quality?


If you don't know the answer to one you can answer the ones you know, thanks in advance.

Answer 1

They are all methphors for the power of God. the bible is not literal but cultural.


EDIT: As a Christian and a student of Theology I am utterly appauled at the some of the answers that are being given here. Anything to justify a literal translation of something that was never meant to be literal. And they said the Protestant Reformation to have people interprate the bible for themselves, and Sola Scripture were good things. *shakes head*

They married their brothers and sisters??????????? That is no where in the bible instead it talks of Cain going to a different land. And if read the offspring it is physically impossible for them to have enough children male and female for this to happen. And if that were the case there would be not other genes it would still be that way today, even with marrying cousins there would still be no other gene pool one just would not appear in the constant inbreeding. So apparently you can take the bible literally and make up other stories to justify your interpretation even if it is unbiblical. But if anyone else interpretes it as a methaphor, which it was always thought to be, well they are unbiblical. That is rich.

Answer 2

~"How does Adam, Noah, and everyone live to be hundreds of years old?" - Mega-doses of vitamins.

~"Why are there no physical descriptions of anyone in the bible?" - Because people back then were REALLY UGLY!

~"Where did the wives that married Adam's sons come from if Eve was supposedly the first and only woman at that time?" - Cain apparently did the dirty with some of his sisters. For shame!!

~"How does Noah fit thousands of species of animals onto a boat without having it sink because they had no supplies (hammers, nails, table saws, etc weren't invented yet) to built it to a good enough quality?" - Norwegian Cruise Lines
.

Answer 3

I can answer a couple of those questions:

1) People have evolved since Noah's time; they probably just had better genes back then. Tons of new diseases have come into play since then, thus shortening the human lifespan. It's been fluctuating since humans have been on earth; cavemen only lived to be about 30, and now people are living into their early 100's!

2) God didn't introduce the incest laws until long after Adam and Eve were created; yes, that means that Cain and Able had sex with their sisters! Ew! lol Weird, but true! It was okay though because there was no law against incest at that time, and it was the only way to procreate.

3) God gave Noah extremely detailed instructions on how to build that arc (really boring to read! lol); so I have no doubt that it was built well enough to withstand a flood. As for the animals, I have no idea. Okay, I need to speak my mind here....and I KNOW that lots of other Christians are going to hate me for it....but I don't believe that the whole earth was ever flooded at one time. There is archaeological evidence to prove that there was a huge flood in the Mesopotamia area (where the Bible authors lived) around the time when this flood story was written. I believe that it just SEEMED like the whole earth was flooded to the author, so that's what he wrote. That would make sense with the amount of animals fitting into the arc, too, because it's not every single species in the world...just the Mesopotamian animals!

I hope this helped you. There are questions just like this and a lot more really tough ones that people ask that are answered at this website called: answersingenesis.com

Check out the website; it will answer tons of your toughest Bible questions!!

Answer 4

Adam Noah and everyone in the old testament lived more than a hundred because the earth was still young at the time. They were eating the very first fruits of the earth. There were no pollution, no harmful chemicals, the rays of the sun were not as severe, not global warming. It was the age where living life on earth was at its best. After all, the earth was just created, and it was declared good by God.

There were physical description in the Bible. Example of this is Sampson. He was describe as a tall man, strong, with long hair. Another is Esau brother of jacob. He was describe as being hairy all over his body and jacob as being smooth in his body which is the reason why he has to put some kind of animal hide in his body for the blind Abraham to recognize him as Esau when Abraham was to give his blessing.

As for the wives: Remember that Adam and eve had many sons and daughters. they all lived to be hundreds of years old. Cain wife is one of his younger sisters. Read Genesis chapter 4 and 5 you will see the answers there

for noah question: You are basically asking how did the ancient civilization able to build the pyramid? It is virtually impossible in our mind for people with no technology to build the pyramid and yet we have the pyramid still standing today as a testimony of how they were able to build it. If it is possible for a human to build a pyramid, how much more an ARC? If God is with you, nothing is impossible. Remember, the animals that was brought in could not be adults. some are 2 sets of eggs, or some are young animals. They were not all matured animals.

Answer 5

It was simply how God had arranged things at first. After the Flood, God decided it wasn't a good idea for mankind to live so long, so He shortened our lifespan to less than a hundred years in most cases.

There are some descriptions, like calling someone lovely or homely or saying a guy was handsome when it's important to a story. Specifics, naw. It just isn't that important. Truly.

Adam and Eve had boys and girls. Most scholars agree that the sons had to marry their sisters. Eeewwww. They weren't disobeying God because He had not yet given His law, of course, where incest was then prohibited.

God gave Noah instructions on how to construct the ark so it would hold up just fine. The bits and scraps of it they've found in the high mountains (Tibet or somewhere near there, I think) show that it was extremely well-constructed. They dovetailed joints and things like that and made them to last.

Hope this is helpful.

Answer 6

1-Many think the world was very different before the flood. There was no rain before the flood and we got water from dew-lots of dew. So many believe our world was a different environment than we have now, had more protection from the sun. Not as much radiation is healthier so people lived much longer.

2-Umm them men had beards and looked up Jewish? Bible says David was handsome, so was Satan. Jesus was not handsome nor was Moses.

3-Cain Able and the other kids either married sisters or nieces-yuk I know but work with me here.

4- Many think the animals were all babies, so smaller. The Ark was about the size of a football field. God gave Noah complete and very boring instructions on how to build the boat with a certain wood (I think Gofer) and pitch (glue stuff). God had a plan and he's way smart.

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Answer 7

1. Mankind had not as of that time had the billions of disease breeding organisms present that we have today so illness was less frequent. Most people died from old age.

2. Apparently physical descriptions were not important. Only male and female. Perhaps they did not have a word that meant beauty or long hair or golden hair or whatever.

3. Either Eve bore daughters who then conceived with the Sons or other women were present that are not mentioned in the Bible. Women were seldom mentioned as man's bloodline was the only one that counted at the time. In otherwords, I don't know.

4. At the time of the flood, there were fewer species of animals than there are today and do keep in mind that Noah only gathered those from his own area, not the entire world. As to the ark...I assume that because God had provided him with the plan that it would have been more than adequate.

Answer 8

I will answer without documentation because of so many questions. 1. good question , all i know is God said" I cannot abide this ( length of life), so he lowered it to around 120 yrs.
2. anothe great question, I don't recall God giving detailed descriptions,eccept John He called in the greek the equivlant of horse face.
3 Bare bones! genesis1v 27-31. says that man was created on the sixth day (actually 1,000 yrs) ( 2nd peter chapter 3 verse 8). Then it says on the seventh day he rested (another 1,000 yrs) . So man was created 2,000 yrs before adam and eve. Cain even whined to god that if God threw him out of eden that whoever finds him will kill him for the murder of abel! Who is this whoever, it is of course the 6th day created man!
4. again bare bones. Genesis 9 explains that the sons of God ( fallen angels) were on the earth at that time. and they thought the women of earth were hot. and "married any of them they chose". Then the lord said " My spirit will not contend with man forever,for he is mortal, his days will be a hundred and twenty years.The area got real violent and evil and lawless because the women were having babies by these sons of men. These offspring were called Gibbors and , men of renown, heros of old, etc. They were the target of the flood. So god flooded the area to kill the Gibbors. It sounds in the bible like a gobal flood. It says he would destroy "both them (gibbors) and the earth. but it means everything ON the earth in that area. So all that was taken in the ark was about a dozen people. and all the animals indiginous to the area, not the whole world. A ship only 450 ft long is not going to hold two of every species of the world. It just aint't gonna fly. think about it. And yes they were capable of building a ship capable of being sea worthy don'tkid yourself. I think people in other parts of the world had already been to sea. I think some atheist probably knows that off the top of his head if he/ her was willing to admit it. check me out tell me what you think.

Answer 9

I believe the Bible is literal and true. It is possible for God to perform miracles. We here about them all the time when those people die and come back and tell us they spoke with Jesus and now have a mission here.

As far as your questions here is the best I can do without giving you a thousand verses to back it up. Man and Woman were originally created to live forever. God created them and was so pleased with His creation. Unfortunately Adam and Eve sinned by breaking Gods command to not eat the fruit. As a result they died. God said in genesis that they would surely die if they did so. The interesting thing is they didn't die physically (right away) but died spiritually. What happened was sin messed things up between them. They chose death and as a result sin spread to all mankind (Romand 5). Ok, because of all this mankind was not able to live forever anymore on the earth and now the body decayed. Early on people lived for like 800 years and then died. As time moved on it grew shorter and shorter until God established that people would live no more than about 120 years old. I,m not sure why God chose 120 years but he's God and He knows whats best. You can find all this info in Genesis and Romans 5 which is cool!

Answer 10

Perfection started with Adam. Then the fan was unplugged from the source of life = God and the decent started.

People must understand the humans were supposed to live forever.........and would have, however, Adam helped postpone this eventuality for a few thousand years....thanks alot for the sickness and death and all that goes with it. No Resurrection for him....to be sure.

As the human race lived on the bodies broke down as they had all inherited: sin and death (Romans 6:23) however, they broke down slowly as noted in the ages of humans from Adam down to our day.

Adam and Eve had other Children and close to perfection (and without a law against incest) they married sisters that were born to Adam later proved to be the husbands for the sons born......people come up with these "problems" because they don't study or read the Bible....so study....and read.
Oh, here is the Scripture to back the claim:

"And the days of Adam after his fathering Seth came to be eight hundred years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters" -Genesis 5:4

As for the Ark..............there were supplies that cared for the 8 humans and all the animals. Noah was given very specific instructions on how this huge Ark was to be built. Here is just a bit of the info. Not all of it had to be recorded in the Bible. There are legends in all cultures to be sure, regarding this even in history.

"Make for yourself an ark out of wood of a resinous tree. You will make compartments in the ark, and you must cover it inside and outside with tar. 15 And this is how you will make it: three hundred cubits the length of the ark, fifty cubits its width, and thirty cubits its height. 16 You will make a tso′har [roof; or, window] for the ark, and you will complete it to the extent of a cubit upward, and the entrance of the ark you will put in its side; you will make it with a lower [story], a second [story] and a third [story]." Genesis 6:14-16

Jesus referred to "Noah's Day" so we can be sure that the event happened as he was looking down from Heaven in his prehuman existence, but that is another story..........

"“Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. 38 For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; 39 and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be"
-Matthew 24:36-39