How long did people like Methuselah really live?

dubstepped

I was working today and my brain was working in circles like it often does and I started wondering about what I was always told about people like Methuselah in Bible times, and their incredibly claims of longevity. I've tried researching things but have a hard time getting through all of the Bible thumpers to some real evidence, and figured that some here may be more informed or have done the research previously.

So, did people really live longer way back when? I doubt it, like I doubt many of the stories in the Bible, but I figured there has to be some sort of records of some of this. Did Bible characters really live for hundreds of years? Is there anything that corroborates this? What about other societies that existed in similar times? Do they have any verified records of such longevity?

From what I could find, there are theories that perhaps they counted years in shorter durations than the current calendar, but some point to similar lengths of months, though maybe not as many months per year. Does anyone really know? Obviously, people living to 900 years old sounds about as likely as a flood covering the entirety of the earth up to the highest peak, but I'm wondering if there are any records in existence other than so called "holy books" that are filled with lots of things that don't add up. Is there even a record of these people living at all other than in the books themselves?

schnell

The genealogy in Genesis doesn't need to be taken seriously, particularly when certain characters have names of gods.

There are other religious traditions where men are said to live for thousands of years, so 969 is somehow modest. I have wondered, though, if there is some weird symbolism about these numbers (in which case it is all the more foolish to add them up and calculate the year of Adam's creation). That, I have not yet looked into.

Diogenesister

Snell there is so much numerical symbolism in the Bible generally ( usually relating to the stars and astrology) that I wouldn't be surprised if you were right about Methuseleh etc

Btw the number 12 ( relating to the signs of the zodiac) is a common one. Don't know how the Watchtower's " "bible scholar's" haven't figured out their 144000 isn't a multiple of the astrological perfect 12.

naja

Noah was 500 years old when he had his first son

punkofnice

It makes me wonder if they lived at all.

waton

it is claimed that some of these old time counters did not grasp the "0" concept, well here they added one, 96.9 years is not far fetched, what is a zero among friends anyway?,

Crazyguy

If memory serves me well he was part of the list of patriarchs. This list was also the Sumerian or Babylonian kings list. If one compares the names they are different do to the different language but the meaning atributed to each name is the same. So what I'm saying is the names of the patriarchs in the Bible from Adam to Noah are the same as this kings list.

never a jw

Assyrians scribes are well known for assigning long, long reigns to their kings the farther they went into the past. Considering that writing was a relatively late invention, scribes had to rely on oral traditions containing lots of gaps that were filled by exaggeration, myths and legend. Of course, the Watchtower uses this fact to say that Assyrian chronologies are unreliable, especially when used to prove historical dates such as the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 bce. However, Assyrian records are unreliable only for a much earlier period, not for the first millennium bce. The inconsistency is that the Watchtower considers the myth and legend of Genesis as literal. It's a double standard. "The Assyrians exaggerate longevity in the distant past, but... well... Hebrews... they provide accurate accounts"

Onager

I think it was the Sumerians who carved on their monuments that king such and such reigned for 1,000 years and king so and so reigned for 5,000 years. Basically it was one-upmanship bragging. So when the bible writers were making up their list of patriarchs they had to get in on the action otherwise their patriarchs would seem lame in comparison.

There was a chap on the James Randi forums that explained it all. I think his forum name was Marduk. you can still read those forums although they've moved.

John_Mann

It's called poetic license.

How long did people like Methuselah really live?

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