Jedi Mind Trick

One interesting thing that is often overlooked in a discussion about this is that not only did they live long but they waited until they were around 80+ or so to have children... The only thing I have read that gives an answer to this is found here:
http://www.flood-myth.com/

This author says:

Roland

If the numbers are wrong, wouldn't that place the flood a couple hundred years after Adam, thereby making the world a mere 4000 years old instead of 6,000?

Jedi Mind Trick

The point of the book, it seems, is that Noah was borrowed and embellished from a sumerian epic. The actual event as reconstructed in the book, was an unusually sever flooding of the Euphrates(?) River. So this reconstruction is not concerned with bible chronology so much.

Vorkosigan

First, recall that the analysis of bones takes place as part of the development of a picture of the entire context of a culture's existence. Analysis of bone materials can show not only lifespan, but also diet, many types of repeated activities (from typical wear patterns), and ornamentation, medical, and other skills. That material is then looked at in conjunction with other finds.

No, it means they must be rejected as well. No evidence indicates that such long lives were ever lived by humans. Nothing in the past regarding dietary habits or disease patterns suggests that it was possible, let alone that it actually occurred. Remember, long lives would be reflected in numerous other aspects of social organization.

I am not the least bit interested in what doctors say, as doctors are technicians trained in handling the human body. I am only interested in what researchers trained in cell biology, aging, and archaeological techniques report. It is a good idea when trying understand something to make sure that one asks the right experts. Doctors are not "experts" in the sense that they have only mastered a body of knowledge, not a body of research methodologies or research results that the real experts know.

The species H. sapiens is known to have at most a lifespan of 125 years. No specimans of this animal are known by medical science to have exceeded average lifespan of 70-80 years by a factor of 10. Known facts of cellular biology make this an impossibility. I suggest that you read this article from the Merck Manual on aging and cell biology. There is a physical limit that limits human lifespan. Since this physical limit is known, you will have to submit powerful evidence that things were different in the past. And claims made in ancient chronicles won't cut it. Only a large mass of physical evidence will make the grade.

Vorkosigan

Chili

No problem but we do know that our intuition is the memory of our soul which is incarnate upon us from our ancestors for many generations into the past (just the reverse of "the sins of our forefathers"). Add to this that if the reign of God is already in our midst it must be contained in our soul from where it is easy to conclude that the Thousand Year Reign is equal to the possible memory that is retained in our soul and therefore I conclude that after our Beatific vision we can see into our own soul for up to one thousand years.

Be reminded here that in the New Heaven and the New Earth there is no soul left because it has become rational knowledge to those who reside in this thousand year reign (Rev.21:1, "the sea was no longer" means that the soul was no longer because it has become rational nowledge).

cajela

I dimly recall a suggestion that the numbers given as years are really supposed to be lunar months. Do any of the actual scholars here know if that's reasonable?

Amlodhi

Hello cajela,

I don't know if I'm an actual scholar but, no, it doesn't seem reasonable. Basically, you would be taking the age of a partriarch/matriarch and dividing by 12.

This leads to such dubious results as Enoch being c. 5 1/2 yrs. old when he has his son Methuselah.


Amlodhi

spin

Be nice and accept the fact the book mightn't stimulate your obsessions for realism.


spin

Sven

Don't you find the topic "Has the Bible been changed?" interesting any longer?

Chili

There you go! If Methuselah was Enoch's son and if Enoch walked with God Methuselah was Enoch's "Thousand Year Reign" of God.