Genesis 5

969 years.

If you were Methuselah's age, here is a small sampling of what you would have witnessed in your lifetime

• 11th Century: The Norman Conquest of England and the start of the Crusades.
• 12th Century: The flourishing of Gothic architecture and the Magna Carta.
• 13th Century: The Mongol Empire's vast expansion across Eurasia.
• 14th Century: The Black Death pandemic
• 15th Century: The Age of Exploration, including Columbus' voyages to the Americas
• 16th Century: The Protestant Reformation and the rise of major European powers
• 17th Century: The Scientific Revolution with figures like Galileo and Newton; Transatlantic Slave Trade
• 18th Century: The American Revolution and the French Revolution
• 19th Century: The Industrial Revolution and the rise of Imperialism
• 20th Century: World War I, World War II, and the development of nuclear weapons

Can you even imagine?

How do Christians explain the extraordinary ages of people in Genesis?

What if I told you Christians aren't the only people to believe this.

I encourage you to research this for yourself but what I find so interesting is that there are numerous ancient cultures that describe incredibly long life spans prior that began to decline specifically around a specific point in time (HINT: we'll discuss this event next week).

The Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archeology points this out by saying:


By those standards, the Biblical ages are actually quite young! But now the question is how?

Again, do your own research but here are a couple theories explored by a variety of scientists, summarized here by Google AI:

Water vapor canopy   

• A water vapor canopy may have surrounded the Earth, creating a greenhouse effect that shielded the Earth from harmful radiation.
• This canopy may have also created a more stable climate.

Gene Pool

• The human gene pool may have been relatively free of mutations and genetic disorders in the first few generations after creation.
• As time passed, the gene pool may have become more diversified and contaminated with mutations, leading to shorter lifespans.

Climate

• The climate may have been nearly perfect, with little to no disease.
• The climate may have been more stable, with a worldwide greenhouse effect

 
What's interesting is that the more research you do, the more you'll realize this is not much of a biblical issue. Many cultures believe that people lived much longer once before and there is scientific evidence to support this idea. So the issue is not with the Bible's accounting but, like so many other things in our understanding of scripture, it's our limited paradigm that is the issue.

A modern example of this is how Generation Alpha, (born after 2010), will never understand a world before the internet. So many things we do today are dependent upon the internet, yet so many generations living today remember a wold before such a thing ruled our lives. So that limited perspective makes it hard to believe some things that are simply fact about a world before many of the technological advancements we've experienced over the last 30 years.

Today, take time to reflect on how our limited perspective impacts how we read the Bible. Ask God to reveal to you His truth and equip you with the evidence to support it for both yourself, and for others you know.

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