In Genesis 6:3 the Lord declared "their days will be a hundred and twenty years". in Genesis 10, we get the lineage from Shem to Abram, and these people lived hundreds of years.
Am I misinterpreting Genesis 6:3?
Why is our life expectancy so short now comparatively?
Mortality
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Tom Tighe
- Posts: 245
- Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2021 8:27 pm
Re: Mortality
I have the heard Gen 6:3 interpreted in 2 ways.
One is that God is giving notice that the flood will occur in 120 years.
The second is a significantly shorter lifespan, which is the heart of your question. The only explanation I've heard for this is that there was less disease. Presumably sin brings things like disease. More sin, more disease.
I have heard speculation that years were measured differently, I don't know how that would work. Time is most easily measured by lunar cycles. The Jewish (and Muslim) calendars use 28 day (lunar) months, but that wouldn't explain hundreds of years.
I have also heard speculation along the Nephilim theory that there was some mixed angel DNA. That's pretty science fictionish and couldn't account for the first 3 generations or anything after Noah
This is another place anti-theists attack the credibility of the Bible claiming that no-one could live that long. I wish I had a better answer. I only know the world was much different then and all food was organic
One is that God is giving notice that the flood will occur in 120 years.
The second is a significantly shorter lifespan, which is the heart of your question. The only explanation I've heard for this is that there was less disease. Presumably sin brings things like disease. More sin, more disease.
I have heard speculation that years were measured differently, I don't know how that would work. Time is most easily measured by lunar cycles. The Jewish (and Muslim) calendars use 28 day (lunar) months, but that wouldn't explain hundreds of years.
I have also heard speculation along the Nephilim theory that there was some mixed angel DNA. That's pretty science fictionish and couldn't account for the first 3 generations or anything after Noah
This is another place anti-theists attack the credibility of the Bible claiming that no-one could live that long. I wish I had a better answer. I only know the world was much different then and all food was organic