was the measurement of the year in the O.T. time the same with the current one?

Question

It is stated in the Book of Genesis that Adam died at the age of 930 years and Jared died at the age of 968 years. These days very few people live up to100 years. Could some body out there explain to me?

Answer 1

This is something that is widely debated. Assuming that it is true, some religious scholars believe that the earliest people often did live to very great ages. Some attribute this to the fact that they were obedient to God. As mankind became more sinful life spans decreased.

Others say that it is either a mistake in translation or that the years were measured differently. For example, the ancient Ethiopian calendar used a totally different format than the Julian calendar, with months being of varying lengths, and years measured according to religious or historical events.

The ancient Egyptians apparently used a calendar of 360 days and the Hebrews settled upon a lunar calendar of thirteen months of 28 days each, which was reasonably accurate.

Answer 2

If you read the Book as allegory, it could be that Adam represented generations of a particular story. I believe Shem survived the flood of about 2700 BCE and was still said to be around 700 years later to share the story with Abram. In this oral tradition perhaps the emphasis should be on the story, not the individual.

On the other hand, those numbers could be literally correct. Who knows. It seems the life expectancies decreased substantially once Joshua brought no-quarter warfare to the land. It wasn't just the massacre of every man, woman, child and animal of the vanquished it was also the siege mentality that would cause such things as plague.

Allegory or literal, it shouldn't really matter. These are the histories of the covenant of the one god and his people. Read them with the law and learn from whence we came.

Answer 3

The years were very similar to our own, I think it was 360 days. Then every few years they threw in an extra month to balance things up again.
The longevity is correct. Something happened just after the flood that reduced our life-span. Some people say that's when we started to eat meat. Some say God shortened our lives so no individual had time to learn too much evil. Imagine if Hitler had lived for 600 years!

Answer 4

Good question. I used to think that maybe they were counting months instead of years, that would make Adam 77 1/2.That kind of makes sense until you read: Enoch lived 65 years, and begot Methuselah. If they were really counting months, that would make Enoch less that 5 1/2 when he begot Methuselah. The fact is that The Israelites kept excellent records, and it was righteousness and divine intervention that sustained those old patriarchs to ripe old ages.