Board index ‹ Noah's Ark & the Flood

[Scape211]

Do scholars generally agree with the ages of people in the old testament? Are they literal or hyperbolic? Or do they use other dating methods that don't correlate to years in the same way they do for us (like days or seasons)? I have my suspicions about the true age of people back then, but am not sure where to go about checking on it properly.

[jimwalton]

Obviously for centuries people assumed the Bible spoke the truth, and so they accepted the ages of the pre-flood (antediluvian) people as fact. In recent years, as we know, people have become much more cynical, skeptical, and secular, and have said, "Hey, wait a minute, that's not even possible."

Enter the discovery of the Sumerian kings list. A cubiod was discovered in Sumer (southern part of Iraq) listing kings who reigned before the flood, with reigns recorded as long as 43,200 years. Scholars know that the Sumerians used the sexagesimal number system (a combination of base 6 and base 10), and when the numbers of the Sumerian king list are converted to decimal (our base-10 system), they are very much in the range of the age spans of the antediluvian genealogies in Genesis.

• Genesis 5
– Seth 912
– Enosh 905
– Kenan 910
– Mehalalel 895
– Jared 962
– Enoch 365 – and taken away
– Methuselah 969
– Lamech 777

• Sumerian King List
– Alulum 28,800
– Alalgar 36,000
– Enmenluanna 43,200
– Enmengalanna 28,800
– Dumuzi 36,000
– Ensipazianna 28,800
– Enmenduranna 21,000
– Uburtutu 18,600

When we do the math we end up with...

• Seth 912
• Enosh 905
• Kenan 910
• Mehalalel 895
• Jared 962
• Enoch 365
• Methuselah 969
• Lamech 777

Sumer:

Alulim 800
Alalgar 1000
Enmenluanna 1200
Enmengalanna 800
Dumuzi 1000
Ensipazianna 800
Enmenduranna 600
Uburtutu 500

How do we explain the possibility of lives this long?

• There are possible environmental factors. Perhaps the oxygen content (or the general chemical makeup) of the atmosphere was different that allowed for longer lives (as paleontologists claim for the dinosaurs). Some dinosaurs were thought to live up to hundreds of years. Even now a specie of tortoise can live to be 150.
• As we age, senescent, or damaged, cells build up in our tissues, possibly promoting age-related diseases. Scientists from the Netherlands developed a molecule that purges those cells. When tried on elderly mice, their fur regrew, their kidney function improved, and they could run twice as far as untreated mice. It didn’t reverse the aging process, but slowed it down. So is it possible that just slightly different physical attributes could allow longer lives?
• Geneticists can confirm quite a bit of genetic deterioration through the generations of humans throughout history. It's difficult to know what part this may have played, if any, in lifespans, but in mind it's another possible explanation.

We really don't know. The discovery of the Sumerian king list, combined with the age of dinosaurs taunts us with at least the possibility that such lifespans were possible, though 969 years old still sound so extreme to us. In our era of polluted environments and chemical diets, such ages are ridiculous. We think it's amazing (and it is) when someone lives past 100.

Still, I have reason to believe the Bible, though numbers are always tricky in the biblical accounts (so many numbers are symbolic or cultural). Even so, the decline of lifespans from the multiple hundreds down to 80 (Ps. 90.10) makes me think that the Bible expects us to take these ages at face value, which I do. Until more evidence arises to show us some credible symbolism in the numbers, I believe the ancients lived that long.

[Scape211]

Ah I did know of the Sumerian findings and how they also show longer life spans around the same time. However, I didnt see much on the sexagesimal number system and how it converts. Very interesting stuff!