Buster Daily

Jeanne Calment was, to the best of my knowledge, well documented. There is currently someone alive that is 116 (if I'm not mistaken). In the near future we might regularly see people living a bit past 120 although it would still be extremely rare.

Buster Daily

If the timeline works out, that would make way more sense than saying, "no one born after today will live more than 120 years," although saying that provides an explanation for the reader as to why the early biblical characters lived so long when clearly the intended readers of Genesis did not.

I was, BTW, joking with my comments about renouncing faith based on someone living longer. 120 is one of those nice round numbers that is most likely not meant to be taken literally as 120. Lots of fundies DO think all numbers should be taken literally, though. As mdarus said it isn't clear what the verse says anyway.

Johnnyboy

I am only confused, because 120 fits quite well into the highest age that a human ever reached (That french chick was 122 when she died).

John Kesler

The explanation is not correct. Genesis 5:32 says that Noah was 500 years old and sired Shem, Ham, and Japheth. These sons were already born at the time that God told Noah about the flood (6:10,18), and Noah was 600 years old when the flood came (7:6), so at best, 100 years elapsed between the promise of the flood and the flood.

Johnnyboy

But I wonder, how could the people of these days know how old a human being can be (at max)?

pharoah

As others have pointed out, this was most likely a flood prediction, not an age prediction. It's wrong on both counts. John Kesler has already shown how if fails as a flood prediction. If it's an age prediction, it's literally saying that mankind, which is everyone, would live 120 years. Obviously that's a non-starter, so let's be generous and say that it's saying the maximum age of a human would be 120 years. Since some modern humans have been known to have lived longer than that, it has failed on that front also. Note that Genesis 25:7 claims that Abraham lived 175 years, Genesis 47:28 claims that Jacob lived 147 years, and Genesis 35:28 claims that Isaac lived for 180 years, so that "prophecy" was broken by the bible itself.

rjf

I have actually heard that the ages mentioned for the pre-floodites are actually indications of the months they had lived (Hebrews being on a lunar calendar as they were). This would have them living far more reasonable times, but wouldn't seem to work with the 120 years thing. As for how they could have 'known' that that is the longest a person can live...who says it's the longest a person can live? It's about the longest a person has lived, but who's to say that people next century won't be living two or three hundred years? I doubt greatly that anyone at the time had lived that long, so maybe it's just a made-up number that happens to be accurate right now.

Solo

The record for biblical longevity is Methuselah; he lived 969 years. (Gen 5:27).

Jiri

pharoah

He and the rest of the 900+ club are pre-flooders, so I don't know that the prophecy would apply to them.

Dave Reed

I have always thought of the "120" as the years left, before
the flood, but I can understand the life span interpretation.
Needless to say, a median, or average value of 120 years
is a bit high, even in David's time.

Psalms 90:10
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by
reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their
strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly
away.

Coincidently, this value is just about what the current experts
quote as the average life span in a developed country.