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.

Using such lanagage, (shaking head) and around children

But it is believed that because man was closer to creation, and closer to Adam, he was more physcially pure and perfect ( not perfect) but better than we are today.

So he could live longer. After the flood, I believe the life span was to be set at about 125 but I am not sure where that is.

So man today does not live to 125 today ( more today but because of science not because of mans real better health)

No one knows for sure how long Adam lived ( we have an idea after he was out of the garden, but no one knows how long he was in the garden)

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Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

using such lanagage, (shaking head) and around children

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LOL. Thanks Fr Chuck.

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. :p

Sorry to go off track,but as a side note,at the time of Jesus,the average Roman soldier,25 years service,numerous battles,full health care,pension... yes... even that... had a life average of 35-40 years maximum.Apparently it did not help that lead was widely used in a lot of their products.
It is interesting that Bible characters seemed to live to be "odd ages".Maybe the translation was lost,or how it should be interpreted.Noone could possibly live to be 950 years old,as the human bodies cell decay rate,would prohibit such a happening.However there is more than enough evidence,to suggest that these people existed,and were not simply figments of some spiritual teachers imagination.

The books of the Old Testament have many different styles: poetry, parables, proverbs, history, legal, symbolic, etc.

It is not always easy to tell what is what... especially in Genesis and Exodus.

We just do not know whether those ages are to be taken literal or not.

Hi, Orange,
Another opinion.
Roman Soldiers were not Christians, in the sense that they were Baptized, and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. They did not have the Grace of God.
So, I believe the ages, because I am a believer in Christ.

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?

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Originally Posted by fredg

Hi, Orange,
Another opinion.
Roman Soldiers were not Christians, in the sense that they were Baptized, and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. They did not have the Grace of God.
So, I believe the ages, because I am a believer in Christ.

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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.

My two sisters are not christians,nor is my father.Only me,my wife,and my mother are baptists.My six year old son,some weeks he comes to church,sometimes he does not,and stays with either myself or Sally at home.He has not been baptised.That choice is his when he is older,and able to understand.If he "grows out of church",so be it.
So that makes him,my two sisters,and my father,like the Roman soldiers then,and all will only live to be 35-40?
Er... my father is 68.

Wow... thanks for all the comments.

I also don't think that people live longer or shorter lives because of their beliefs. And as Scott mentioned, I'm speaking of the Old Testament here, before Christ. If you look at Genesis 5, everyone lived an extremely long time, whether they were good or bad. And at the time of Jesus, I don't think the Romans were dying off early and Jesus' followers were living way longer. If that was the case, the Romans probably wouldn't have been able to occupy and conquer all the countries that they did. Everyone had shorter lifespans in those days.

My grandmother lived to be 96, and she was a Jewish communist and staunch atheist. She got pregnant with her first child before she was married (a huge scandal in those days!) and ran off with a gentile man who was fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Her brother, who was a very devout religious Jew, so devout that he was opposed to the creation of the State of Israel without the Messiah, died in his early 40s. Was G-d punishing my great uncle for being so devout and rewarding my grandmother for not believing in Him and living so freely?? That doesn't make much sense. Have any of you read the book, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" by Rabbi Harold Kushner? It's a really excellent book which explains, in Kushner's opinion, why people suffer in the world. Basically, even though he believes in G-d, he thinks bad things are random and can happen to anyone. And I agree with that.

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

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.

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If I were a 16 year old gamer I would say here that he was p0wn3d!

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Originally Posted by orange

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)?

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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 because 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?

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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 believe that God does heal people.

Thanks for your input, jduke!

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Originally Posted by jduke44

Wow, this ended up being a loaded question?

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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 because I don't have proof of it. Maybe someone else can expand on that.

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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.

Hello Orange,

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 something's. 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 calendars 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.

Excellent Questions again. I really do enjoy them.

Joe

Thanks Joe, I'm glad you like the questions. I really enjoy reading everyone's responses, while the kids are at karate! :p

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 times. 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 with 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 because I had no proof. That is actually 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!

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Originally Posted by orange

LOL. Thanks Fr Chuck.

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. :p

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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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Originally Posted by Style

personally I think it's a different calendar system

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I'm inclined to go along with that. The calendars that we use today were not in existence at that time. So who is to say what constituted a year?