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My first thought too - maybe it's just wishful thinking, but the bible does talk about people who lived for thousands of years. We're prone to dismiss this as

My first thought too - maybe it's just wishful thinking, but the bible does talk about people who lived for thousands of years. We're prone to dismiss this as hyperbole from uneducated ancients, but maybe they actually did exist and this sort of thing was why.

jjoonathan 7y ago
"Someone slipped up the distinction between years and generations and a legend was born" still seems enormously more probable than anomalous longevity existing but somehow never making it into the wider gene pool.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  Do you (they) mean "distinction between years and months"? That would be between solar cycles and lunar cycles: seems enticing. That would make Methuselah 80yo when he reportedly died; but there are problems still as Seth (for example) became a father at 105, which if it were months would be 8¾ years. Another possibility is that when it says Methuselah it just means "Methuselah's blood line" or "Methuselah the tribe"; it's a Hebraic thing (elsewhere in the OT) to refer to a tribe as if referring to the founding person. Or, the person writing down the numbers used a different system, through error or otherwise.
  - jjoonathan 7y ago
    Yeah, they would both account for being off by a factor of 10-20. As would any of a dozen other simple mistakes or embellishments, in all likelihood. IIRC the Skeptic's Annotated Bible has a bunch of direct numerical self-inconsistencies if one needs proof that this sort of slipup is possible, which one shouldn't, because of course it is.
holtalanm 7y ago
> the bible does talk about people who lived for thousands of years I don't remember anyone mentioned living for _thousands_ of years. There are plenty of characters that live for hundreds, though. It is believed that Abraham lived to the age of 175, while I believe there was one character that lived into the 300's, but I do not recall their name. It has been a while since I delved into the old testament.
- lm28469 7y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah > Said to have died at the age of 969, he lived the longest of all figures mentioned in the Bible.
  - holtalanm 7y ago
    that name rings a bell now that I see it. thanks! edit: Found it on the wikipedia page you linked. I was thinking about Enoch, Methuselah's father, who lived to be 365 years old according to the bible.
  - twodave 7y ago
    Interestingly, Methuselah died the same year that the Flood happened, so you might assume he would have lived longer had his grandson not been instructed to build a party boat that he wasn't invited to...
  - Cactus2018 7y ago
    Nota bene, lunar year vs solar year
  - Unknown_Unknown 7y ago
    I believe in Islam Noah is believed to have lived 950 years. It took him a long time to build the arch. The other story mentioned in the Quran is about a group of people and their dog who slept in a cave for 309 years and woke up afterwards. I believe they died shortly after. There is an actual chapter in the quran about this called the cave[1]. [1] https://www.clearquran.com/018.html https://www.clearquran.com/018.html

jjoonathan 7y ago

"Someone slipped up the distinction between years and generations and a legend was born" still seems enormously more probable than anomalous longevity existing but somehow never making it into the wider gene pool.

pbhjpbhj 7y ago
Do you (they) mean "distinction between years and months"? That would be between solar cycles and lunar cycles: seems enticing. That would make Methuselah 80yo when he reportedly died; but there are problems still as Seth (for example) became a father at 105, which if it were months would be 8¾ years. Another possibility is that when it says Methuselah it just means "Methuselah's blood line" or "Methuselah the tribe"; it's a Hebraic thing (elsewhere in the OT) to refer to a tribe as if referring to the founding person. Or, the person writing down the numbers used a different system, through error or otherwise.
- jjoonathan 7y ago
  Yeah, they would both account for being off by a factor of 10-20. As would any of a dozen other simple mistakes or embellishments, in all likelihood. IIRC the Skeptic's Annotated Bible has a bunch of direct numerical self-inconsistencies if one needs proof that this sort of slipup is possible, which one shouldn't, because of course it is.

holtalanm 7y ago

> the bible does talk about people who lived for thousands of years I don't remember anyone mentioned living for _thousands_ of years. There are plenty of characters that live for hundreds, though. It is believed that Abraham lived to the age of 175, while I believe there was one character that lived into the 300's, but I do not recall their name. It has been a while since I delved into the old testament.

lm28469 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah > Said to have died at the age of 969, he lived the longest of all figures mentioned in the Bible.
- holtalanm 7y ago
  that name rings a bell now that I see it. thanks! edit: Found it on the wikipedia page you linked. I was thinking about Enoch, Methuselah's father, who lived to be 365 years old according to the bible.
- twodave 7y ago
  Interestingly, Methuselah died the same year that the Flood happened, so you might assume he would have lived longer had his grandson not been instructed to build a party boat that he wasn't invited to...
- Cactus2018 7y ago
  Nota bene, lunar year vs solar year
- Unknown_Unknown 7y ago
  I believe in Islam Noah is believed to have lived 950 years. It took him a long time to build the arch. The other story mentioned in the Quran is about a group of people and their dog who slept in a cave for 309 years and woke up afterwards. I believe they died shortly after. There is an actual chapter in the quran about this called the cave[1]. [1] https://www.clearquran.com/018.html https://www.clearquran.com/018.html