Did people really live to be hundreds of years old in the “Biblical times” or was this mearly a misunderstanding due to our calendars being out of sync? (i.e. Methuselah lived to be 969 years old - How is that possible??)
Not possible. It is a story meant to teach something more important, and exaggerations are meant to drive home some sort of point.
Also, the idea of considering the ages expressed in months rather than years doesn’t work, because the passage also gives the age at fatherhood, which, when similarly divided by 12, gives an age of early childhood for some of the names.
Incidentally (in case you were wondering), dividing the age at death by twelve and leaving the age at fatherhood alone makes it so that some of the people listed became fathers long after they died.
There is zero archaelogical or biological evidence that ancient humans ever lived longer than our modern lifespans; in fact, the opposite is far more likely.
As for the Bible, well, treat it as the myth that it is and all is well. Maybe God is real, and maybe the Bible has something to communicate about the nature of God, but to insist that is must be a historical accurate document is ludicrous, and is in fact something the Bible doesn’t even claim for itself.
Chefurbo, you asked this same question a few days ago. What’s going on?
I was bored and scanning channels on a long drive a few weeks ago and came across a creationist preacher talking about this very issue. I laughed for 15 minutes straight. His theory was full of holes but went something like this:
Dinosaurs and humans coexisted in biblical times as proved by bohemoth.
Dinosaurs were just really big reptiles
Reptiles continue to grow as they get older
Dinosaurs started out fairly small and got really big
They must have lived for hundreds of years to get this big
This proves that things lived for longer times in those days
humans therefore could have lived longer in those days
The ignorance is staggering.
I think this is offensive to ignorants. Ignorance is not knowing something… this guy is making up stuff in order not to think… its much worse ! IMO.
Agreed!
Yeah the worst part about the whole thing is that somebody was listening to that going “I wondered how they could have lived 900+ years but now it all makes sense.” :dubious:
Thanks! Self-respecting ignoramuses around the world, myself included, applaud you.
[porgy & bess]
It ain’t necessarily so
It ain’t necessarily so
Them things that you liable
To read in the Bible
They ain’t necessarily so
Methusaleh lived nine hundred years
Methusaleh lived nine hundred years
But why call that livin’
When no gal will give in
To no man what’s nine hundred years?
[p&b]
