Why did people in the bible live so long?

we all know that people living to be about 80 years old, that their skin seems to be almost dead, even if they stay out of the sun for most of their lives. so how could a man that lived 900 years keep healthy endurance?

Originally posted by Byrd

There's no evidence of a global flood. In fact, to the contrary, there is plenty of geological and archaeological and written evidence that there was NO flood.



No global sedimentation, distribution of material, burial, distribution of old bones, etc -- no proof of an ancient flood covering the world. We know what it would look like, because we have evidences of local floods at different times and different places... and some yearly floods (like the Nile.)

Formation of Sedimentary Rock

Sediments form sedimentary rock by compaction and cementation of the particles. Thus, coarse sediments become conglomerates; sands become sandstone; and muds become shale. Sedimentary rocks make up only about 5% of all rocks of the earth's crust, yet they cover 75% of the land area in a veneer that averages 2.26 km (1.4 mi) in thickness, ranging from 0 to 12.9 km (0–8 mi)


www.answers.com...




.... A logical argument... "no global sesidementation".... Concise


ansd seemingly based by "fact"....\\\


...Yet www.answers.com states///


Sedimentary rocks make up only about 5% of all rocks of the earth's crust, yet they cover 75% of the land area in a veneer that averages 2.26 km (1.4 mi) in thickness, ranging from 0 to 12.9 km (0–8 mi).



...And I must admit...Even I am surprise...!






Obviously, Some people have a vested interest in debunking the Bible...

.... I wonder what would happen if they ever used their formidable

intellect.. to try to support the Bible...

The reason why is because mutations in mitochondrial DNA are responsible for aging. Recent scientific studies have proven an indirect relation between the number of mutations and the lifespan of the specimen. All mitochondrial DNA can be traced back to a single mitochondrion, known as mitochondrial eve.

During human reproduction, the mitochondrial DNA is given only by the mother. Before God flooded the earth all the mitochondrial DNA went back to Eve, and some strains were less mutated than others, which accounts for why not everyone lived to 950 years like Noah did. Now although Noah lived a long life, he can't physically pass this trait on to his three sons. Only his wife can pass on that.

Shem, Noah's son, only lived to 600. Judging since Noah outlived Adam in years, Noah's mitochondrial DNA was not predisposed to mutate, however Since Shem, his three sons, and everyone else in history lived shorter lives, it is logical to deduce that Noah's wife had mitochondrial DNA predisposed to mutation.

Genesis 6:12-13 God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.

The word flesh in these passages comes from basar which means body, kin, and even pudenda (genital organs of women)

By having all of the women on the ark have mitochondrial DNA predisposed to mutate, the pure lineage of mitochondria that Noah had was lost forever, and God has ensured that our flesh does not linger on earth, but instead slowly degrades from the moment we are born.

So before you scoff at the idea of people living for 900 years realize that there is a legitimate biological reason we die, and scientists are actually working on reversing it so that God willing, one day we can live to that age again.

To summarize for the idiots: mitochondria= energy, without energy you die. Our mitochondria become defective and stop working by the time we are 120.

To refute for intellectuals: yes you can create energy through glycolysis instead of ATP synthase, but the heart runs purely off ATP synthase so you still die.

I don't feel like reading 20 pages of opinions before giving my own on the matter, so if this has already been said, disregard it. Pollution. The air and water (among other things) were cleaner at one point in time. When people weren't too fat and lazy to survive without driving a car from place to place. When staying in some sort of good physical shape was necessary. Maybe when your average man/woman starts to actually care about his/her physical health and appearance (and I'm not talking about getting hussied up, or becoming a muscle head, with nothing in mind, other than impressing the opposite sex), and stop trashing the planet, we will slowly rise our average life span.

How did they live so long , Its a FICTIONAL story.. pretty simple .. its all fiction.. and so is everything that has been established around it.

because thats just how it was, but then man was so disobedient God caused a flood and flooded the Earth and nearly all it's inhabitants. He then said no one shall live past 120. their ages decreased from Adam's 900ish to Abraham's 130ish to now 120.

People lived so long because god is the man. But after we messed with him he went ape s*** and said " aight yall are gonna pay for diz " and here we are.
Silly, people lived long in the bible cause in a story ppl can live as long as the people who wright the paper want them to live.

Originally posted by GriBiT
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?

Humans started out as perfect. Sin causes death. I believe we have grown closer to imperfection.

I think scientists say our cells get replaced every seven years, then suddenly stop, and they don't know why.

reply to post by GriBiT


They were closer to the original blueprint.

Because, they were the "people" not humans that created us, the bible has been re- written so many times, so it is convoluted to say the least, the dead sea scrolls are under lock and key for a reason, yes Noah, yes Enki, yes Enlil, Yes Moses got radiation burns when he went up that mountain to get the ten commandments, and then they flew him off to where? They were master geneticists who created us many thousands of years ago, before the flood, did you know the pyramids still bear the high water mark inside? do any of you know why they where built and how? the bible is a story book granted about , he who from heaven came and to heaven returned, this story is in all of the indiginous peoples verbal histories all over the planet, prior to the written word, there are structures all over the world that we cannot duplicate to this day, there is also our missing dna, there is also the flaw built into every human being, that constricts the spinal chord thus preventing us from being them, it was intentional. Why were the Adama and the Eve ashamed in eden? because they were being watched by thier creators, why else, because Enki and Enlil were clothed. sorry for another long post. Oh and when the time came for the flood, the flyby of the 10th planet, 2012? that celestial object that is getting closer, Enki and Enlil had a chat, i forget who said what to whom, he said i am not going to come back here again and do all this genetic engineering again, so i am not sure but i think Enki instructed Noah or perhaps Enki was Noah so he built a submersible vehicle, put all of his genitic samples in it and parked it atop mt arrarat, twin peaks you can see from space just like the Giza plateau, the guides to the space port in lebenon, ever wonder what the who ha is all about between isreal and lebanon ? the space port is still there in lebenon to this day and there is also eveidence of other things including thermo nuclear weapons being used at some point in time , pre flood of course. no it's not all sitchens stuff, i was there. debunk that! and i am here once again. Waiting to go home.

reply to post by E-ville


this. this. this.

I got here trying to find the answer about a sighting I had, when I was woken up, while sleeping near the entrance to the B P Reasearch center it eats at me that there is a connection.

I'll admit I haven't read more than the first page of replies, so this may have already been put forward, but I was just thinking about this a few days ago.

If Adam and Eve are the two first human beings, then in order to build up the human population, one way would be to let people live longer so that they have time to have lots of kids. As the population gets bigger, the need for this gets smaller. The only catch with this theory is that it places the entire premise upon what is basically God's direct influence upon the lifespan of man, which is unlikely to satisfy most people as an explanation. Still, for something conceived of in a few moments of my spare time, I suppose it's as good as any.

reply to post by DragonsDemesne


Hey DD

Good idea but a far easier one is: No Adam and Eve and the various writters just made up the ages.

I would say if you restart your calendar with every new ruler\leader that takes power then your written time measurement maybe a little off. Also I think there a few different cultures in the the book. Who's calendar are you using?

I haven't read the entire thread but the old testament is really intriguing and interesting if you read it from a different angle.

One thing that always got me thinking is the part where it says Eve was created from Adams hip, something which in my opinion could very well be taken as genetic manipulation.

Add that with all the average age described plus the whole ark and flood story and you can start to create something that makes more sense than reading it by the letter.

If we rethink birth and death and the propose of our bodies and different sex genres we might well see our bodies as suites that were created to hold the spirit ("light" beings or whatever you want to call it) so they could inhabit this specific planet.

It's at least interesting to imagine these things.


Anyway... probably we will never know the truth about it. It could be anything, this crazy idea, by the letter or just a bored Tolkien from that time that decided to write some crazy ideas to entertain people.

Obviously because they were aliens, akk the ancient gods were... makes more sense then one figure ruling an entire glaxy infinetly large and focusing all his time and attention on this one speck.

God told Adam and Eve they could eat of the tree of life but not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They rebelled and ate the fruit of the knowldge of good and evil. God told them that if they ate of that tree
in the same day they would surely die. Why didn't they die that day?
Because the Bible also says that to God, a day is as a thousand years,
and a thousand years is as a day. None of them lived to be a thousand
years old.
Befor the flood, there was a canopy surrounding the earth which protected
life from the harmful ultra-violet rays of the sun. During the flood,
this canopy was nearly depleted and life spans began to shorten dramatically.

Sorry, if I am repeating anything, I don't have time to read through all the threads.

I have always been told it is because they considered one season or a month a year.

Think about it.... 900 years is 80 years times 12 months.

Like PP said, they had a different method of time keeping.


edited to add, sorry posted wrong.




[edit on 16-2-2009 by nixie_nox]