How come every old man in the bible is like 600 years old or sommat?

Question

OK.. so what did they have that we don't have? Demographics show that we are living longer and we put that down to better hygeine and health and less manual labour.... or sommat... but seems in the bible what with famine, and plagues and being flogged and stoned for an assortment of minor misdemeaners.. those old bastards described in the bible lived for like .... hundreds of years!

So what's so special about them ol' timers and those times? Has no-one been worthy of a couple a hundred years of age over the last couple of thousand years of recorded history?

See I can appreciate that we are watered down versions of the original perfect man... so we should all be dying younger and younger... but that isn't right.... not even in the last three generations... or is that an anomoly of some kind, caused by ~ free love or sommat?

Despite Genesis 6:3, Sara apparently lived to 127 years [Gen 23:1]; Abraham 175 years [Gen 25:7]; Ishmael 137 years [Gen 25:17]..... and so on......

Answer 1

This was before modern medicine informed mankind that virtually everything was bad for them and that virtually everything could and would kill them. In their ignorance, then, they just lived on and on.....

Answer 2

Gazza, the answer is so simple.

Before Noah, God had a longer life-span intended for humans...but when He/She saw how violent they had become, He/She shortened that lifespan.

Genesis 6:3:
3 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."

If we live a perfectly healthy life, we should live to be 120 years old. Unfortunately, that isn't possible because of the toxins we have inflicted upon ourselves. However, some people do come very close to the 120 years.

I didn't see any other Christian post this, and to be honest, I am flabbergasted. What's up with that, peeps?

EDIT TO REPLY:
Gazza, I have given you the best Biblical answer yet, and you can't deny the sudden change in lifespan happened, according to the Bible, when I said it did. Perhaps God blessed Abraham with a few extra years, since he was the first to be obedient, and therefore the Father of the chosen Jewish people. The fact remains, that is where the drastic change occurred.

Now, if you aren't really looking for an answer, and just wanting to joust with Christians or poke holes in the Bible, by all means, ignore this answer.

Touche, my friend.

Answer 3

My husband and I have two different schools of thought on this idea. His was that the atmosphere had more oxygen than normal and the land was not polluted like it is now so they lived abnormally longer then we do now.

My idea is they might be going by lunar cycles as years. If it was 600 lunar cycles than that would be 50 years which was a long time since the average age during that time would have been 32 years. Because life was hard and they did not necessarily cook meat, they had nasty parasites and diseases so more than likely they were going by Lunar cycles which makes more sense, but I think they messed up on the translation.

Answer 4

Since Adam was Perfect and had he not sinned, he would still be alive today, but once he sinned he passed on Imperfection to the Human Race, Adam lived over 900 years, it makes sense that his direct offspring would also clock into the Hundreds of years. None though loved over 1000 years. Gradually as Mankind moved further and further away from the Original Perfect Humans... Our Lifespan decreased.

Answer 5

That is a good question and I have asked myself that too many times. The only conclusion I am getting in my mind is that back then people were closer to God. They had no environmental pollution, no TV, no internet, and they did not sin as much as people do today and then God probably was able to bless them with longer lifes. Then as people started to sin more and more it showed in their lifespan as that began to shrink until the time when Jesus was born. At that time the Bible don't really tell us how long people lived then. Of course Jesus was only in his 30's but as we know he did not die of natural causes.
If you look in the Old Testament of the Bible you can see that in Old Testament times people started to sin badly beginning in Genesis already. Really the Old Testament goes to show how people act without Jesus giving the good example. I guess God got tired of having bad people around for 400 plus years so their life expectancy shrunk after God got tired of their badnesses.

Answer 6

You mean the first 10 men mentioned in the Bible?
The ages are symbolic. Enoch, for example, was 365 years old. That number should sound familiar - it's the number of days in a solar year.

Answer 7

Well at least it wasn't as absurd as the first dynasty Sumerian kings who ruled for tens of thousands of years. In the second dynasty it went down to hundreds of years. It is just another example of the Hebrews borrowing concepts from earlier cultures.

Alulim of Eridu(g): 8 sars (28800 years)
Alalgar of Eridug: 10 sars (36000 years)
En-Men-Lu-Ana of Bad-Tibira: 12 sars (43200 years)
En-Men-Ana 1, 2
En-Men-Gal-Ana of Bad-Tibira: 8 sars (28800 years)
Dumuzi of Bad-Tibira, the shepherd: 10 sars (36000 years)
En-Sipad-Zid-Ana of Larag: 8 sars (28800 years)
En-Men-Dur-Ana of Zimbir: 5 sars and 5 ners (21000 years)
Ubara-Tutu of Shuruppag: 5 sars and 1 ner (18600 years)

Answer 8

That is a great scientific question. One I would love all health nutritionists and others to pursue. But I read in the Bible that the would happen again.

Answer 9

The consequences of sin gained slowly on earth. Men lived longer back then because the consequences had little affect. Later as the consequences grew, there were more diseases.

Answer 10

The cosmos is custom-made for life and consciousness. Our minds, which invent mathematics, conform to the reality of the cosmos.