Did our ancestors really live for hundreds of years? (page 3)

LongHairGal

I always wondered about this. But what I could not really swallow was that the earth's population became what it is today (several billion) over 6000 years from only two people (then 8 after the flood).

People would have had to live very very long. Men would have had to father over 100 children and women would have had to bear several dozen (not to mention multiple births).

???

doogie

LHG:

I always wondered about this. But what I could not really swallow was that the earth's population became what it is today (several billion) over 6000 years from only two people (then 8 after the flood).

People would have had to live very very long. Men would have had to father over 100 children and women would have had to bear several dozen (not to mention multiple births).

shoot...you should check out "Is It God's Word?" by Joseph Wheless (try google. you can read it for free online). he talks about this very thing (especially regarding how much abraham and the israelites would have had to...well, you know...to establish the nation of israel. his conclusion was that every woman would have to, on average, produce something like one baby every 4 or 5 months.)

IronGland

Thanks for pointing that out, Alan. Lots of people believe that an avg. lifespan of say 40 in 1900 meant that most people dropped dead by age 40 or that in Roman times everyone died by age 20.

hibiscusfire

How old is the earth?

hibiscusfire

Many of the oldest things in the world is somewhat less than 4,400 years old.

BluesBrother

(to reach his age, methusaleh would have had to live through the flood although he was not on the ark)

Interesting comment that had me reaching for my trusty "Aid Book" from the WTS... They say that Methuselah was born 3339 bce, lived 969 years and died 2370bce. That happened to be the year of Noahs flood but they say he died co incidentally and not as a flood victim.

if there is any other information out there i would be pleased to see it.

Further to Alan's point about life expectancy,

"(Psalm 90:9-10) 9

For all our days have come to their decline in your fury; We have finished our years just like a whisper. 10 In themselves the days of our years are seventy years; And if because of special mightiness they are eighty years, Yet their insistence is on trouble and hurtful things; For it must quickly pass by, and away we fly. "

Not much changes......

doogie

BB:

i actually didn't know that the watchtower had commented on that. thanks. this is from the same book i mentioned earlier (Is It God's Word?):

A mystery of the ages in connection with the Flood is how
Noah's venerable grandfather Methuselah survived the universal
cataclysm which destroyed all life except the Noah menage and
menagerie in the ark. Methuselah did not die until a year or more
after the Flood -- fourteen years after according to the
Septuagint. It is recorded that Methuselah was 187 years old when
his son Lamech was born (Gen. v, 25), and he lived for 787 years
afterwards, dying at the ripe age of 969 years (v, 26, 27). Lamech
was 182 years old when his son Noah was born (v, 28, 29). When the
Flood began, Noah was in his six hundredth year, or, to be exact,
he was 599 years, one month, and seventeen days old (vii, 11); and
Noah lived for 350 years after the Flood, and was 950 years old
when he died (ix, 28, 29). Methuselah was alive when the Flood
began and when it ended, if the Bible record is true: 1. From the
birth of Lamech to the beginning of the Flood was (182 plus 599)
781 years; and from the birth of Lamech to the end of the Flood was
782 years. If Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech 782 years he
survived the Flood. Or, again:
  2. From the birth of Methuselah to the beginning of the Flood
was (187 plus 182 plus 599 years) 968 years; the Flood ended a year
later, when Methuselah was 969, and he died at that good old age.
Or again: 3. From the birth of Methuselah to the death of Noah was
(187 plus 182 plus 950 years) 1319 years. As Noah died 350 years
after the Flood, from the birth of Methuselah to the end of the
Flood was (1319 minus 350 years) 969 years, the age of Methuselah
at his death, after the Flood.

BluesBrother

If we were to challenge the WTS on that, It is my guess that they would say that the difference had to to with whether we were looking at ordinal or cardinal numbers. But no matter.

I have long since given up needing to prove the literal understanding of the book of Genesis, so it is rather acedemic.. Good info though

seedy3

I once read that even the Sumerians dated their rulers in hundreds of years. Saragon for example was suppose to have lived for hundred of years according to what they have found written abut him.The theory behind this (If I remember correctly) may be that they did not count years as we do, but perhaps by seasons instead. So a person living 50 years would infact be 200 seasons old.

Seedy

doogie

so it is rather acedemic

i hear ya. i have way too many books on my "to-read" list to worry too much about methusaleh.

Did our ancestors really live for hundreds of years?

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