How did people in the bible live to be so old hundreds and hundreds of years?

1. 64

   SportsBetterposted 12 years ago

   How did people in the bible live to be so old hundreds and hundreds of years?

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2. 0

   JThomp42posted 12 years ago

   Because of the favor of God. They were Godly people so he rewarded them with a longer life. The Bible says..... For the wages of sin is death..... This is why all die in the flesh.

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   Attikosposted 12 years ago

   I don't believe they did. What we Christians call the Old Testament was written following the Babylonian Captivity on the basis of oral traditions and perhaps some surviving textual fragments. At the time, the Jews were trying to figure out how they went so far wrong and how they could get back into the good graces of God. They had no distinction between institutionalized religion and the state, no concept of modern secular government, and those stories of their past were both shaded  for political purposes and embellished for inspirational ones. Living long, especially incredibly long, was a sign of the favor of God, and so the life spans of their historical heroes were stretched beyond all reason in order to get the attention of the commoners.
   
   Or so I read it. I'm not a literalist, of course, so YMMV.

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      lone77starposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      An interesting take, @Attikos. My research shows that there is far more to the figures used. And there is a pattern which leads to the Jewish Kabbalah embedded in 2 chapters of Genesis.

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4. 68

   libby1970posted 12 years ago

   Because it's a scientifically known fact that in those days oxygen was more concetrated in the air than in today's time. This could me a major factor in living longer.

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5. 73

   lone77starposted 12 years ago

   They didn't.
   
   Don't take the Bible so literally. Some parts were not meant to be taken literally at all. The ages of the early patriarchs is one such aspect.
   
   I discuss this in detail in a series of hubs on Genesis: Bible Commentary.
   
   One clue I'll give you here: Genesis 5:2. Adam in this passage isn't an individual, but a tribe -- all of early humanity.
   
   Another clue is that science tells us quite vividly that Homo sapiens have been around for at least 200,000 years. The ages of those early patriarchs need to add up to something at least equaling this figure. Those ages are too short! And I found the factors needed to peg the real age of Homo sapiens all the way back to the beginning of the Adam tribe.

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