Adam lived over 800 yrs, Mathusalem lived 969 yrs, Moses lived120yrs?

Question

as well as others, as stated in the bible.
What calendar did they use to backup these claims?

Answer 1

There is nothing to back it up. There is much allegory and metaphor in the Bible. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, i.e. a long time. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for 400 years, i.e. a VERY long time. The numbers aren't really specific -- they just represent periods of time.

There were many miraculous births in the Bible. Was Sarah really 90? No, but she was probably beyond the normal child-bearing years.
.

Answer 2

Schneb -- There are all kinds of theory about about this but it is wrong to make stories out of thin air.


According to scheb Maybe in the biblical times previous to the Flood a special layer might have been in the atmosphere that protected against something or another and was lost during the Flood.

That's a bit off-the-wall for me.

rosa q -- 1000 years/one day! So Methos live for five days.
Hardly worth being born.

kevin -- kevin's view 1000 years = 1 month
so Methos lived for 5 months ?

Mr. Bad Day -- I agree for the most part that years must be wrong for whatever reasons. However, I would think that these figures must be very significant or else they would not be included in the OT. Then these numbers being agreed upon as in error I must assume that much of the OT may be wrong also.

Old Truth Traveler--

A year is a year is a year. The months were of the Lunar calender. and further break downs are arbitrary. I believe the calender was made of 10 months back then -- don't quote on this - but the educated of the time had a good handle on celestial observations.

There is nothing in the Bible that tells a reason for these 800+ lifetimes. Today it is all conjecture. So, if these figures are relevant enough to be included in the OT one must ask why these are not explained. If there were a major event between the long years and the short years. Then it (whatever it may have been) would surely be recorded in some ancient documents.

I don't know how I can reconcile the Bible and history--
Evolution
Flat Earth
Cosmos
Quantum Theory
Man exsisting for thousands of years
Other histories going back much farther in time
etc.

Answer 3

The record we have is a record kept by the old Testament Patriarchs. The first five books are attributed to Moses and he got his information from the patriarchs of his time, probably Jethro, his father in law, the high priest of Median, who was also a decendent of Abraham. Abraham's record would have been derived from people like Melchizedek and even Seth. Seth would have received his information from his father, Noah, who had the records from Adam down to his own time. Thus, wether their calendar was the same as ours or not, we may not know, but they recorded it as it was and handed down that information to us.
On another topic, what made the difference between the long lives of the pre-flood people versus the lives of the post-flood people. According to the Bible, the antediluvians were 800-900 years old and the postdiluvians began to go down. I think Noah still made it to about 900, but Seth didn't and neither did any of the other descendants. Abraham's father was about 225. Abraham was about 165. Joseph was only 110. Moses was 120 and so forth. There is speculation that the flood did something to the environment causing a less healthy situation. Perhaps, the decaying life brought more bacteria and diseases into existence. I don't know but there is a definite break point in longevity before and after the flood.

Answer 4

You'd be better off assuming that the stories are not to be taken literally. Many of the previous answers assuming some quasi-scientific explanation, but the Bible doesn't make any attempt to explain it. Which probably means that the Bible writers don't consider it to be very important.

Also, I would point out that there is very little importance placed upon the ages of these people. most religions and denominations view their ages as a curious footnote, and not the point of their stories. I've never heard a sermon on how old Methuselah was.

Personally, I figure that the extended years are a result of various translation errors, and folkloric influences.

Answer 5

In other words, you're asking if they counted their years the same as we do today? We need to know then whether or not the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians and Hebrews use a calendar of three hundred and sixty five days in their year?
In the book of Genesis, the Bible routinely records human lifespans which seem outrageously different from our short 70 year lifespans of today. Adam, as you mentioned lived to 930 years; while Noah lived even longer, to 950 years! These long lifespans are not haphazardly distributed; they are systematically greater before the Flood of Noah, and decline sharply afterwards, and there's a good reason for this shortening of the lifespans of the ancient ones. The lifespans recorded in the Bible, begin with the pre-Flood patriarchs like Adam, Seth, and Noah, plotted from the time of their date of birth.
Notice the tremendous drop in lifetimes following the Flood. This is evidence for something very dramatic happening in world history! These great ages are not presented in the Bible as if they are in any way extraordinary for their times, let alone miraculous. Many people are quick to scoff at such ages, claiming they are 'biologically impossible'. Today, even if they avoid all fatal diseases, humans will generally die of old age before they reach much past 100. Even the very exceptional cases don't make it much past 120 years!
Now here's why the lifespans shortened so greatly after the flood and it has nothing to do with the ancient calendar they used to mark their days, weeks, months or years!!!
The Bible presents "one day" as a 24 hour period of time. Both the Hebrew (Old Testament) and the Greek (New Testament) words for day indicate a 24 hour period of time. The Hebrew word "yowm" used in Genesis refers to a 24 hour period. Similarly "one year" is viewed as 365 days. Ancient calendars though not exactly like ours considered "one year" to be approximately 365 days. How do we know for a fact that pre-flood Bible characters lived to great ages? I believe the answer is 2 Cor. 5:7. "We walk by faith and not by sight." Romans 10:17 says that "faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God." I may not be able to understand how, but I can accept as fact the statements found in the Scriptures. Today the Bible gives us this information:

Psalm 90:10
10* As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.
Now look at this statement:
The Bible is not alone in claiming great age for ancient man. there are many other ancient civilizations that recorded extremely long lifespans! Berosus, a Babylonian historian of 300 B.C., named a list of 10 long-lived kings who reigned before the flood. Persian, Egyptians, Hindoos and Greeks all have traditions of great longevity for their early ancestors. I believe these "traditions" are derived from the Scriptures.
So there you have it. What I offer as PROOF that ancient Adamites until the days after Noah, lived to be in their seven-hundreds, eight -hundreds and even nine-hundreds!!!

Answer 6

More interestingly, God eventually says in the Torah that man will never again live to be more than 120.

However, at least one human has been properly documented and reported to have been 123 years old at the time of her death.

Oops.

Answer 7

My best friend's great-gram didn't have a clue how old she was, and she was born in Europe sometime in the late 1800s. If she had lived many centuries ago instead of in modern times, she could have claimed to be 700 years old — and her name would be in the bible now.

Totally ludicrous to actually believe that any man lived to be hundreds of years old.

Answer 8

About one of the answers:
"More interestingly, God eventually says in the Torah that man will never again live to be more than 120."
Where did you buy that Bible ?? It doesn't say that in any one that I saw !!
I guess "oops " on you.

Answer 9

Diseases and genetic defects had not evolved as far then. You'll notice that the average life span gets shorter and shorter as history progresses throughout the Bible. Even now, with all of our medicine, we are unable to do anything but stall this trend.

Answer 10

Methos lived over 5000 years, as stated in Highlander.