How should we understand the long lives in Genesis 5

*see 9:28-29

There is a repeated formula in this genealogy

• A lived x years, and the fathered B
• A lived y years after he fatherd B, fathering more children
• A's whole life lasted x+y years; then he died

This formula is modified only four times, marked by a border in the chart above

Questions regarding this genealogy

Can this genealogy be used to calculate the age of the earth? No

·         Archbishop Ussher of Ireland (1650) claimed to calculate the creation of the earth as 4004 BC, based on a literal reading of biblical chronologies, however…

·         Genealogies sometimes contain gaps. “Father of” can sometimes mean “ancestor of” and “son” can mean “descendant”

Did they really live that long? Probably not

• It is hard to imagine human beings living that long. We are right to question
• In the Ancient Near Eastern culture, numbers were sometimes used numerically, as we do, but sometimes used numerologically (with a non-numeric meaning)
• The numbers contained in this list are not random, as we would expect from a factual account of their lifespans. All the numbers end with 0, 2, 5, 7, or 9 . This means that half of the potential numbers are eliminated. The chance of this happening randomly is 1 in 100 million.[1]
• All the numbers in this list can be generated with combinations of 60, 5 (60 months), and 7. The number 60 was culturally significant in the ancient near east because it was the basis for their mathematics (base 60).

• The numbers 777 and 365 could be significant as symbols of completion or perfection
• Based on these numbers, all Noah's ancestors died before the flood. Methuselah died in the same year as the flood. This was certainly intentional by the author.

Conclusion: The numbers probably meant something symbolic in the original culture, but we are unsure what it was.

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