Did biblical characters really live hundreds of years?

[LeMaverick]

Moses reportedly lived 900 years and Noah supposedly built the largest wooden ship ever known and collected a pair of every species of animals on Earth when he was 600 years old.

If a person had children during normal child bearing years, beginning at say 20 years of age, a generation could be taken to be about 1/5 of a century. In six centuries that would constitute 30 generations. If the ancestor was still living he would be the great, great, great – repeated twenty more times – grandfather of children being born of his offspring late in life.

This longevity supposedly occurred when human lifespan was relatively short due to prevalence of disease and lack of medical knowledge. Of course, the people were said to be “blessed by god” (and modern people evidently are not – no matter how pious).

Doesn’t it seem more likely that the legends and fables exaggerated the lifespan of ancient characters to impress people with the power of certain beliefs and certain gods?

 

[joeboonda]

Things were different in the beginning and before the Great Flood of Noah. Genes were purer, sin had not corrupted things to the point they are now. After a certain point God said that men would live to only 70, and longer if they were blessed or whatnot. But the main thing, is that the Bible is a love story, God loves us so much that He provided a way, a totally free gift, so we may REALLY live, forever, with Him. As mankind is fallen; sinners and not holy like God, He paid for all our sins and gives us His holiness, His righteousness in place of our own, so we may be fit to live in His presence. By simply believing in, trusting in what Christ did on the cross for us, and that He rose from the grave, we are saved, our sins paid for and forgotten, and Christs' righteousness, like a robe is imputed, put on us.

 

[Bishka]

Doesn’t it seem more likely that the legends and fables exaggerated the lifespan of ancient characters to impress people with the power of certain beliefs and certain gods?

With my belief; absolutley not.

 

[Colabomb]

IF we can believe that God Created the World from Nothing, that God Became Man for our Salvation and was raised on the third day, 1000 year lifespanse aren't that much of a stretch.

 

[Onan]

There is no doubt in my mind that long life and promises of living forever came about because the average life span was so short back then.

People to this day still dream of living forever, and finding that fountain of youth.

 

[LeMaverick]

People to this day still dream of living forever, and finding that fountain of youth.

Are those people typically known as religionists?

 

[Onan]

Are those people typically known as religionists?

I think it go's for anyone.

I would love to be alive when we find out the answer to the question "is there life anywhere besides earth"

I know I will be long gone before we know this answer and it ticks me off.

 

[Papersock]

Doesn’t it seem more likely that the legends and fables exaggerated the lifespan of ancient characters to impress people with the power of certain beliefs and certain gods?

Maybe. Although the people who wrote the Old Testament did not generally make the characters very impressive. Quite the opposite, actually. They are all imperfect, fallible, mortal human beings, who often disobeyed their God.

 

[LeMaverick]

IF we can believe that God Created the World from Nothing, that God Became Man for our Salvation and was raised on the third day, 1000 year lifespanse aren't that much of a stretch.

I agree. Claiming that people lived 1000 years isn’t a stretch at all if one believes all the other nature-defying feats claimed in the bible.

Also, if we can believe in biblical tales we can just as well believe in leprechauns and we can believe politicians statements. If we learn to set aside reason to believe things we are told that do not fit with what we understand of nature, we may be dissuaded from thinking critically about all manner of claims that are made.

When we learn to make our decisions based on emotion rather than evidence, we set a precedent for making poor decisions. Wanting to believe something is different from searching for truth. Basing life decisions largely on emotion is not likely to produce positive results.

Having an agenda to fulfill or trying to prove or support a pre-conceived notion distorts what one discovers – because they are determined to learn what they already believe. An actual search for truth requires examination of facts -- what really existed or happened based on evidence from impartial sources -- not mere tales of nature-defying events told by people who benefit from selling the belief.

 

[Onan]

Maybe. Although the people who wrote the Old Testament did not generally make the characters very impressive. Quite the opposite, actually. They are all imperfect, fallible, mortal human beings, who often disobeyed their God.

Thats because it wasn't the characters that were supposed to be impressive, it was their God. Anyone who done anything impressive did so with Gods power.

 

[Papersock]

Thats because it wasn't the characters that were supposed to be impressive, it was their God. Anyone who done anything impressive did so with Gods power.

True. To show how great and perfect your god is you could show how crappy everything and everyone else is.

 

[fullyveiled muslimah]

I don't think a long life-span is that big of a stretch. People nowadays who have a very pure a holistic way of life can live 100 years or more without any serious health problems, that are usually associated with being old. I have read about chinese king-fu masters who lived for many years beyond what we consider a normal life span, without the aid of medicines and so forth. This is within the last decade or so. He was said to have been quite able bodied, and not feeble at all. My own grandfather was 92 years old when he died in 1992. He was extremely healthy and mobile. He did not suffer from senility, failed organs, loss of eyesight, or loss of anything for that matter. He died of leukemia, but it was given to him through a bad blood transfusion once when he got sick. He wasn't sick very often, so you could imagine his anger at contracting a deadly disease.

I believe that a long time ago, people didn't have half the health issues that kill us today. We need medicine because every week a new disease has cropped up, and they are usually a by-product of the lives we lead. For lack of technological advancements it was difficult to lead a sedentary life-style. You had to work for your living, your food, your housing. You couldn't go to the store all the time, there were no cars so you could drive where you wanted to go. You walked if you had no horse and so on. They exercised and ate what came out of the ground, free from chemical side effects. I think living like that for the most part could lead one to a longer life span. If we were healthier all around today we'd live longer too.

 

[des]

I dont' think there is ANY reason to believe that someone lived an unusual life span back then. Perhaps it was used as a way to say this person was really old (like 60!). Although many people had very common flaws, righteous people tended to be described in better ways, and often longevity was a factor.

Although we now have heart disease and cancer, these are diseases of aging and not of youth. People tend to hang on with these illnesses. We don't have the incidences of infectious diseases that would have been the scourge back when. Even pre-pennicillin, there was nothing to help someone with common infectious illnesses.

I doubt the diet was better. Although they didn't have the common artificial ingredients: flavorings, colorings, or the quantity of sugar or fat, they did have scarcity. When times were good, they no doubt ate fairly well. When times were not they starved. There was no refrigeration, and the only very common preservation method was drying and salting. There is no reason to believe they "balanced" their diets either, so they ate what they had. If it was dates and olives they ate that. If it was goat they ate that.

Yes, I think that how you view this makes a difference whether this would describe to you literal events or mythic events.

--des

 

[zenzero]

Friends,
It is possible that humans of those times lived much much longer.
Reasons are very scientific.
the human body requires OXYGEN to survive.
We breathe in Oxygen and take out nitrogen.
If any study is done it will be found that todays humans do not breathe fully.
If you yourself watch your own breathing you may notice that the capacity of your lings to breathe in is hardly utilised. Breathing is very shallow.
Which means the amount of oxygen required by the body is not received.
The Oxygen we breathe goes into our blood stream and reaches every cell of our body to regenerate them and keep them healthy. And tsimilarl;y the exhalation. We do not exhale the complete nitrogen in the body. to drive out all toxics.
This is mainly because of our living in the mind and so not living in harmony.
When humans lived in harmoiny with nature they breathed fully which in turn sent the oxygen to each cell and drove out all nitrogen and toxins by breathing them out fully.
This is the same reason YOPGA teaches Pranayam to learn to breath fully. One of the present Yoga teacher in India gurantees a live of 400 years for every human even today if he can live in harmony.
Tai Chi excercises too follows deep breathing for the same reason whihch eventually is meditation.
Love & rgds

 

[The Seeker]

I don't believe it (like many things in the OT). God limited the age of all human beings to 120 years but the oldest woman to ever lived died at age 122. So much for God's word.

 

[zenzero]

There is only one evil - ignorance."
Socrates
You have answered that one yourself.
The other is that the past is no more the future one does not know anycase what difference it makes if one lived 120 years or 400 or 600?
Time is immemorial. Life has no beginging or end. Science is just ones mind which itself is a part of the sum.
Love & rgds

 

[OneoftheLost]

Hmm. I think I will try to give several very, very far off explanations as far as I see them.

1. ) Now, lets say that its not the actual truth, or exagerated truth, but a mistake in translation?

What I'm trying to say here is that the bible has been translated, litterally thousands of times.

The original language of the documents and texts that make up the old testement where written in in Aramaic and Hebrew. It is well known that Aramaic uses the same sumbols that make up their 22 word alphabet as their number system. Again this is doubtful, but what if its true?

2.) Or what if 600 years to god means something entirely different to us.

Kind of like that court case where they said that 7 days to god could be 7,000000 years to us.... (they made a book out of it, but I cannot for the life of me remember the name...)

Again, these are pretty far-fetched, but I would like to throw it out there.

 

[zenzero]

Friends,
do you see you mind vacillating in all this.
Once that is at rest truth will automatically appear.
Love & rgds

 

[LeMaverick]

This is the same reason YOPGA teaches Pranayam to learn to breath fully. One of the present Yoga teacher in India gurantees a live of 400 years for every human even today if he can live in harmony.
Tai Chi excercises too follows deep breathing for the same reason whihch eventually is meditation.

Is there any reliable record of any of the people you mention actually living for anything over 150 years? Or are the claims of longevity unsupported?


The truth is that the claims are not supported -- just like the biblical claims of long life are unsupported. Neither modern nor ancient unsupported claims can be taken as being true. They cannot be shown to be anything more than mere assertions, stories, fables, untruths or whatever.


A person can breathe deeply as much as they wish without gaining any ability to live to advanced (or biblical) ages. Perhaps it is an appealing fairytale for those who do not care about truth.


The modern and ancient claims may represent mistakes of one kind or another or they may represent deliberate fraud by those who would profit by having their unsupported claims accepted.

 

[LogDog]

Doesn't rationalizing the impossible ever become tiresome?