Genesis 6:3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years."
I think this is pretty interesting even if you're not religious.
I think this is pretty interesting even if you're not religious.
It's interesting the a similar way that Eratosthenes calculating the dimensions of the earth was interesting.
Said more simply: If the 120 years bit popped up first in the King James version then yes, that's only 420 or so years old so it makes sense that their expectations for maximum life expectancy might be closer to ours.
But what if we have examples from 1000+ years back?
Why is the oral tradition part so important? Wouldn't transcribed versions of "the Bible" (or at least this fragment) that are millenia+ years old be just as valid?
Probably showing my Biblical ignorance here so apologies in advance if this is a poorly conceived question.
Also, there's some debate about whether that line means the obvious (maximum lifespan of around 120 years), or whether it's actually saying that people have 120 years left until the great flood comes. Most people (and me personally as well) think the former but the latter does make some sense as an interpretation in context. Well, except for the fact that it does mark a point in the Bible where people's reported lives stopped being ridiculously long.
When you fabricate its better if the fabrications concern things either long ago or far away and if the present situation is different from that described you have to explain why if you don't want your audience comparing present reality to prior and seeing through the hoax.
Example if you wanted to posit that insert legendary figure here was 30 feet tall and came from a village where most were 20' and up you can't set the story in the next village last year because someone has probably been there and noticed that people just aren't that tall.
If it was a thousand years prior across an ocean you can claim that people became less mighty as the years went by and lost touch with their gods which plays to people's tendency to filter the past through nostalgia.
If a 30 foot tall giant seems less likely than a 900 year old man then you may need to apply critical thinking skills.
Just because its still socially OK to believe nonsense doesn't mean its true.
Edit: I was wrong about the part below.
As for it being 120 years until the flood, if my memory serves me right, that passage is clearly after the flood (and as a reaction to the 'wickedness' before the flood).
I don't remember anyone living hundreds of years in the Bible after that proclamation (unless they were already alive, like Noah) but you might be right. I see Jacob was apparently 130 or older and that was later on. Is there anyone who lived a really long time that was born after Genesis 6:3? Seems like a good place to spot an obvious "plot hole".
Abraham lived for 175 years, Moses suspiciously lived for exactly 120 years, some medieval commentators claim the genesis verse is a reference to him (although there is no other proof).
Or, if we map 120 <== 969 that's ≃ a factor of 8 shorter life for other notables of that era.
That would, for example, put Methuselah at a much more plausible 80 years.
I think it is a fools errand to try to find rational explanations for implausibilities in mythology. After all, the length of lifespan is kind of the least problematic thing about the account of Adam, if you want to understand it as historical.