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At synagogue recently there was a reading from the Torah about the age of Noah when he died. It said that he lived to be 950 years old. Afterwards I read some other passages from Genesis and lots of other people had super long lives, too.
So:
Did people just live longer then? or,
Did they use a different calendar for years? or,
Was it not meant to be taken literally? or,
Was it maybe even gematriya (code)?
I realize there are probably a lot of differing opinions but I'm very interested to hear about this, thanks.
Err the Board has censored the Hebrew name for Genesis, Bere****, LOL!! It's spelled B-e-r-e-s-h-i-t, and roughly pronounced as "bear-ray-sheet", in case anyone is interested.
First, this is just another example of intolerance. To state that a non Christian would not live as long as a Christian even in those days, is ridiculous.
Second, the ages referred to are listed in the OLD TESTAMENT (Genesis to be exact). So what does a belief in Christ have to do with believing those ages? By the time of Christ, life spans were much, much shorter for all peoples.
If I were a 16 year old gamer I would say here that he was p0wn3d!
Did people just live longer then? or,
Did they use a different calendar for years? or,
Was it not meant to be taken literally? or,
Was it maybe even gematriya (code)?
1) yes, I believe so
2) possibly
3) I don't believe so
4) I doubt it
Wow, this ended up being a loaded question?
I think that possibly the air was cleaner and they didn't have the crap that we have today. Everything was pure back then (except the water) and they ate more purer foods and their diets were more nutritious as a whole. I amnot sure of the drastic change in ages from almost 1000 to being only 100-150 yrs old. This did seem to happen after the flood. I have ideas but don't care to get into that right now bc I don't have proof of it. Maybe someone else can expand on that.
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Fred, are you saying that because they weren't christian there didn't live as long? Like some sort of punishment? Do all christian people feel this way?
Need, I don't necessarily believe this way. However, I do believe that some people's lives could be cut short for one reason or another. I also do beleive that God does heal people.
Yeah no kidding!!! I thought it was a pretty straightforward non-controversial question actually lol.
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I think that possibly the air was cleaner and they didn't have the crap that we have today. Everything was pure back then (except the water) and they ate more purer foods and their diets were more nutritious as a whole. I amnot sure of the drastic change in ages from almost 1000 to being only 100-150 yrs old. This did seem to happen after the flood. I have ideas but don't care to get into that right now bc I don't have proof of it. Maybe someone else can expand on that.
Yeah that's a good theory. Also the earth was much more sparsely populated, and people didn't travel far, so there wasn't the spread of infectious diseases that there is today. And no global warming, climate change, or depletion of the ozone, etc. And who knows, maybe the water was even purer back then. It wouldn't have any pollutants, anyhow.
The reason I was wondering about the code was, I was thinking of 666 in the New Testament, which a lot of people consider to be gematriya or code. But then later on I realized duh that was a name not an age...
I did a little more research on my own, and also asked the rabbi at the synagogue about the long lives, and it seems that traditionally, Christians, Jews and Muslims all believe that people lived longer then. Of course there are more modern theories I'm assuming (although no one has elaborated on them yet, and I can't find anything online, either!). But it's interesting that all three religions basically share the same traditional belief about this.
Very interesting. There are some who believe that giants existed in the bible days. Or some people consider them other gods. As far as living to 900 and somethings. That is hard for me to grasp and always was hard for me to grasp. Although since creation just started and there were not as many people, no pollution, more pure creation then I guess those things contributed to a long life. Although, I do believe that it is possible that calenders and years and months were counted differently. I do believe that the months and years were shorter and that would explain a record of a higher year life. That explanation makes more sense to me.
Now a days we are lucky to live to our nineties, and not many people hit that 100 mark even with all the medical advancement and so called better living conditions.
I have a suggestion, which most people know it is not in the number but how you live your daily life to the fullest, but humans have always wanted to record, days, months, hours, minutes and years and so forth. I think if it benefits our spirit, mind and body. May I suggest to the government we shorten the months, shorten the years and then if we do that we all could start living until we are 900 years old. Whoo hooo, solutions. Although I always said I do not want to live past 100 because I would rather die and see what the next life has to offer!!! Wink Wink.
Excellant Questions again. I really do enjoy them.
Thanks Joe, I'm glad you like the questions. I really enjoy reading everyone's responses, while the kids are at karate!
Someone suggested to me that another explanation of the long lives was, that it was an ancient way to show what a good life the person had led, by saying that they lived so long. At least that's a popular theory apparently. And Cain, who was supposed to be the "bad" son of Adam... his age is not mentioned at all, so that seems to work with the theory.
I will have to look it up for the resource, but I am sure I can find it. My brother used to have a set of videos that went into a deep study of these time periods. I believe part of their explanation as to how man was able to live so much longer had to do with the ozone.
Aparently, before the floods iwth Noah, there was quite a different chemical makeup of the ozone. I remember them saying something about a thin layer of Au, which is Gold. Sounds a little strange but they had actually done some extensive scientifical research. Anyway, this blocked out a lot of UVs I guess and really slowed the wear and tear on the human body.
I'll have to ask my brother and find out who these guys were or where we can find their studies.
DrJizzle, I am glad you brought that out. That was the thing I decided to leave bc I had no proof. That is actualy what I was alluding to when I said "cleaner air". I heard something about that but was going to sound to wacky of answer to explain without having the proof. If you do get a chance please let us know. I think that is an interesting and even probable reason.
Oh thanks to you too then, jduke! I thought you just meant the air was less polluted. That gold theory sounds very very cool. Like sci fi cool, haha. Lots of science fiction has eventually turned into science fact. And yes Dr. Jizzle please post more about this if you are able to. Whether one believes in it or not, it sounds fascinating!
That's actually a pretty cool explanation. It makes sense too, in the sense that when I read further, I noticed that Abraham only lived 175 years. So by that time people were living shorter lives. The immortality or closeness to G-d or whatever was wearing off. I'm not sure if I believe it or not, but I think it's neat that people could live that long, kind of reminds me of the Elves in the Lord of the Rings.
personally I think it's a different calendar system,because I believe we live in a more immoral society today,yet due to increases in medicine and such we have much longer lives than say 100 years ago
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