Longevity in the early books of the Bible?

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I'm new to the bible and am very confused about the characters in the early books of the Bible living for hundreds and in some cases over a thousand years. Someone explained to me that in those days people were closer to God and therefore lived longer. Please can someone give me a better explanation? It's really bothering me. Thanks.

Uneducated early iron age people couldnt count? In all fairness, I think their religious leaders oratory skills were stronger than their math.

I have heard different reasonings. The notes in the Catholic Bible I was readingactually said not to take the ages listed at face value. On a program on the History Channel a person who took a more literally interpretation said that perhaps God decide that it was not good for people to live so long. I realize that might sound absurd to allot of people (I'm an agnostic, and I don't buy into a literally interpretation anyway), but I still found the explanation interesting. Although I find biblical interpretations discussions curious.

it's all myth, it doesn't matter.

Wrong. Regardless of what you personally believe, billions of people have theologically beliefs, so it is a good idea to pay attention to those beliefs.

so? religion was just an evolution in the brain as a coping mechanism. does too good of a job sometimes...


"My children, Michael and Alex, are with our Heavenly Father now, and I know that they will never be hurt again. As a mom, that means more than words could ever say. . . My children deserve to have the best, and now they will. . . I have put my total faith in God, and he will take care of me."
[Susan Smith, who drowned her two children, in her confession letter, Nov. 1994]

What I heard is something called the canopy theory... That is...before the great flood, all the water that rained on earth was up in the air forming a canopy for the earth. It kept ultra violet light from reaching earth, and created a favorable environment on it... The hypothesis is that people owed their longevity to the canopy around earth...

well i cant really believe in what the bible says because it blatently ripped of the sumerians storys&myths. i'm sure its all fabricated hogwash anyways like someone living 900 years or something, yeah right

Translate those figures to months would make more sense actually, and I speculate that's what those ages could actually mean. Either that or those people were not human.

So even at 1000, translate the number to months instead of presuming years, and they'll be 83.3 years old. But there's one problem still, even living as old as 83 was a milestone in itself; as considering it was a time where humans lacked advanced medical technologies and knowledge to live that long.

Either they weren't all that good at keeping track of time, God really was influending the situation, or people made it up. I'm venturing to guess that because humans wrote the Bible, it has human error.

Not meaning to hijack the thread, so ignore this as a random aside please, but has anyone noticed a slight mismatch between this topic and Creationist theory? I think that if you add up all the lifespans and the ages at which the protagonists in Genesis had their children, that the Creationist view of the world being however many (few) thousand years old can be discounted by the very evidence they use to back up their claim.

Can anyone (be bothered to) confirm this?

Bedlam, that is a novel idea! Add them up for us?

Well, as I mentioned above, hopefully with the italics, i only believe that's the case. I'm not certain however, so give me a while for the alcohol to wear off, and I'll get the Bible out and see.

I sincerely hope that what I suspect, is true, because it would make me laugh SO much

yeah whats up with that. the earth is not 6,000 years old. civilization is about that though

It could be a mistranslation from the original Hebrew of the bible into Koine Greek into the English of the King James Bible. These people were not out to accurately report things, rather than tell a story. A lot of myth is based on real events, however they are told in a way to make a great story.

The first books of the bible seem to be written around the 8th century BCE, because the place names in it are the same place names that were used in the 8th century BCE.