Why did people in the bible live so long?

I've always been intersted in the long life spans spoke about in the bible. Life spans of 100's of years. Over 900 in the case of Adam. Then they slowly decrease over time. After "Noas flood" they decreased even more until they reached the average age that we have now (70 years give or take). Whenever I think of this I recall a book by Irwin Ginsburgh, Ph.D. and his book "First, Man. Then Adam!". He reviews Genisis from a different perspective. Implying that travelers (with long life spans) crashed and were marooned here and mixed with humans here on Earth, then over time the "Alien" age span decreased as it was diluted over the many generations until modern times. He also goes into other aspects of Genesis like that when God said l"let there be light" it may have refered to the big bang. Also passages such as something refering to old scripture saying Adam came to the third planet from the sun, as if from outside out solar system. My excerpts don't do his thesis justice, but you get the general idea.

Wanted to get this started while I continued research on this.

This link shows a chart of ages in the bible as a start.
On this site they have a different hypothethis, but I don't fully agree with it. They talk about the age dropping after "Noas flood" but it took quite a while for the life span to slowly decrease. I really added this link just to show a visual of the life spans in the bible in a chart.

Bible Life Span Chart

I really want to find something online to link to about the book "First, Man. Then, Adam!" I'll keep searching. In the mean time....Your thoughts?

That theory you speak of also relates to the hollow earth theory -- apparently the sun was detrimental to the aging of the aliens so some left and some stayed.

In my opinion, maybe they believed in their own immortality to such a great extent, and some how lost this idea over the ages as people died.

...........because there was no War in Iraq to kill them

I really wanted serious replies.

I think because God just started, and since he lives forever, he didnt think having them live that long was too long. However, after having seen them and how they act, he decided that men were living too long, and that his "years should be 120"

And to my knowledge, no man has ever lived more than that since (however, there is a woman recorded in Guinness to have lived 122 years)

I find that hard to believe. If the age dropped suddenly from 100's of years to 120 then your theory would make sense. But the life spans didn't drop "all at once" or at a specific point. What would cause the life spans to decrease over time? Why don't we live to be that old now? If it is a simple gene anomaly (such as there are some people who live now up tp 120) that can activate in some, but has become dormant in almost everyone?

Because the stories in the bible are not accurate.

No, but many of them are allegorical, and if you look at Genesis the creation events outlined happen in almost exactly the same order as accepted by science today (just over a much shorter timescale!) which indicates to me that the ancients knew more than we give them credit for.

I don't know about the longevity issue. Given the above, I don't think we should discount the truth behind many of the stories in the Bible, but perhaps we should discount the timescales given.

i've heard the flood happened cuz of the watchers interbreeding with humanity. perhaps that's why they would live so long? then now we end up with regular folk. just a thought.

the only 2 theorys i know about this topic are:

1- in the old "testement", each time we see a reference to a "person", that did not represent a single one but a kind of "group" or a complete generation of people from the same blood.so Adam and eve had been a representation for the 2 primal group of mans and womans!


2- when the "aliens" putt us here for the first time, we was indeed much more tall(like 2-3 meters tall), and because our body was not prepeared to the "phisic laws" of this planets yet, we usualy lived for 300 to 1500 years. after so many generations we are shorter and have less life time, because our bodys had to accustomed to the "new" gravity/sun magnetism/light, and so on.

this is the only theorys i haver have read about this subject!

I think, the history of time, history of light was diffrent then. They kept track in a diffrent way.

Kent Hovind has a theory about this which I find pretty interesting, however dubious I am of his credibility. He (and others, actually) believes that prior to the flood the earth was covered by a mantle of water high in the atmosphere. The temperature was always a certain degree, and the earth was protected from solar radiation. The atmophere was more dense as well, and everything had a tendancy to grow larger and live longer.

He says that humans grew to be at least 12 feet tall and that lizards would grow into dinosaurs.

After the flood, the mantle was gone (the mantle was part of the water God used in the flood, the rest came from underground resevoirs) and its protection lost. Man began to live shorter and shorter lifespans.

If you're interested, you can download the MP3s from his Creation seminar here. You'll want to download number six, the "Hovind Theory".

I don't know how credible the guy is, but he's at least entertaining and he's got some neat ideas.

The reason they lived so long is due to the earth being more stable than it currently is. The earth is losing it's magnetic field in which all living organizisms use for life itself. When astronauts go to space the space engineers are trying to find away to prevent celluar break down. NASA has been working on this for the purpose of space travel. There are cases where living life forms have been placed in a compression chamber with coiled wire inside in tune to mimic the magentic field. The scientist increased the magentic field by more than what we currently live off of and for example fruit flys were used for the experiment since they have a life span of a week in a natural setting lived in this chamber for 60 days and grew twice as large in size. Think how much more brain power you'd have if you increase the engery level of the magnetic field and increase the atmospheric pressure for oxygen. The body could heal itself more rapidly. This also helps explain a few things for me like how dinosaurs grew so big with such little brains and how giants like the ones from the Incas grew to be 9 feet tall.

Cheers,
Gilded Hammer

Thats a neat Idea, I had never heard it. Back then I could see them think it was god flooding them. If they had the knowlage, that we have now.

Who knows, maybe there would be no god.

Is this a fact? If so, could you provide a link, so I can read up on it?

www.creationevidence.org...

Here you go.

GildedHammer

May-be they lived so long b/c it is "FICTION"

Well, I knew that the field protected us from rays. But it does not prove this," field in which all living organizisms use for life itself."

Somewhere in Gensis God says that although man is flesh like he is (very interesting alone..that God also has some form of "flesh") he will not strive with him forever ..and cuts mans life to three score and ten. This was around the flood time period. Before God did this men supposedly lived for hundreds of years. So thats the biblical view. King James bible seems to have alot more of this than modern versions, especially the bit about man being flesh like God...image and likeness anybody? Either the KJV is a fake bible, or it is the real deal because every other bible either changes the translation or totally leaves out entire passages.

I don't know if this helps but in the Old Testament prophets would often write using the names of those that came before them. Does this help?
Other then that maybe aliens? Seriously there are theories out there that say that is a reason, Zithchin and the guy who wrote the Gods of Eden. Though I do like the damn war in Iraq as an answer....didn't mean to cross post