Genesis and the age of man (Gospel, testimony, Messiah, believe)

[doss1]

I was recently re-reading something in the first chapters of Genesis when something hit me like a brick. In Genesis 6:30, on the age limit of humanity, the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."

Well, if it's true, then lets look it up in the Guiness Book of Records. Lo and behold, no one has ever lived past 122. Only one person lived at 122, the rest never got past 120, exactly as stated in Genesis from documents over 3,500 years old.

[Oakback]

Originally Posted by TexasNick

I was recently re-reading something in the first chapters of Genesis when something hit me like a brick. In Genesis 6:30, on the age limit of humanity, the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."

Well, if it's true, then lets look it up in the Guiness Book of Records. Lo and behold, no one has ever lived past 122. Only one person lived at 122, the rest never got past 120, exactly as stated in Genesis from documents over 3,500 years old.

Genesis 6:30? you sure?

[GCSTroop]

Originally Posted by TexasNick

I was recently re-reading something in the first chapters of Genesis when something hit me like a brick. In Genesis 6:30, on the age limit of humanity, the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."

Well, if it's true, then lets look it up in the Guiness Book of Records. Lo and behold, no one has ever lived past 122. Only one person lived at 122, the rest never got past 120, exactly as stated in Genesis from documents over 3,500 years old.

Sorry to be a stickler for details, but why allow the one exception???

[doss1]

Originally Posted by Oakback

Genesis 6:30? you sure?

Sorry, Genesis 6:3

[MomtoFour]

But it says in Gen 9:29 it says Noah lived 950 years (350 of those after the Flood, according to verse 28).

[doss1]

Originally Posted by GCSTroop

Sorry to be a stickler for details, but why allow the one exception???

As a general rule, people won't live past 120. Pretty amazing that it got it right. Even more interesting is that 120 years after this pronouncement, the Flood happened. It seems God may have given the people 120 years of "patience" before he decided to wipe them out and start over, so to speak.

So many ways to interprete various aspects of Genesis, but it gets it right at the heart of the story.

[Oakback]

There is also the school of thought that maintains the geneology from Adam to Noah bridges the gap between creation and the flood, just as Shem's geneology bridges the interval between the flood and Abraham.Neither history or chronolgy is to be looked for here.

[GCSTroop]

Originally Posted by TexasNick

As a general rule, people won't live past 120. Pretty amazing that it got it right. Even more interesting is that 120 years after this pronouncement, the Flood happened. It seems God may have given the people 120 years of "patience" before he decided to wipe them out and start over, so to speak.

So many ways to interprete various aspects of Genesis, but it gets it right at the heart of the story.

''My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."


This seems pretty finite. Definite. Not just a 'general rule of thumb'. From what I understand, people believe God is pretty exact when he says something, right? We have discussions all the time as to 'literal' word for word interpretation, so why the obvious contradiction??

[doss1]

Originally Posted by MomtoFour

But it says in Gen 9:29 it says Noah lived 950 years (350 of those after the Flood, according to verse 28).

I don't see this as a contradiction because of a few reasons:

• The ones that lived long lives produced the Messiah
• Genesis 1:6 mentions a "canopy of water" or something in the sky. This would have blocked the majority of radiation, a major pillar to long life
• after the flood, this canopy of water, the ideal living condition, was ended
• so early in the human era, there would not be much of any defects in the human genetic code - lack of illnesses, etc

Modern times is post-flood, and like the people who were born from then and up to modern times, don't live past 120.

[doss1]

Originally Posted by GCSTroop

''My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."


This seems pretty finite. Definite. Not just a 'general rule of thumb'. From what I understand, people believe God is pretty exact when he says something, right? We have discussions all the time as to 'literal' word for word interpretation, so why the obvious contradiction??

Troop, I don't see how someone being 122 years old...2 years older than Genesis' statement of 120 years, puts the reliability of Genesis in danger. I understand what you are saying, but then we'd have to hold 99.9% of the text in Genesis accountable, as well. We don't have the minute-to-minute historical details, it's not a police report. In other words, when we look at the reliability of the New Testament and question the validity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we know that there are details that are different between each Gospel in regards to eyewitness testimony. Mark says something different than John, etc, but the heart of the story is correct. For example, when you have 4 different witnesses recounting their story of a car crash, each will have different details, but the main point is there: there was a car crash.