People in pre-industrial societies probably routinely lived to 70 or 80; it would take a bit of luck to dodge diseases or an accident along the way but doable if you made it past the early childhood high mortality stage.

But Deuteronomy 34:7 states "Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated."

Was Moses just really strong and healthy? What do we do with the people living up to 969 years in Genesis?

I don't think he is predicting the median future lifespan, he is remarking on the potential lifespan of humans in his time based on observation. Then, as today, people who pass through youth and avoid sickness or accident generally make it to about 70 or 80.

Pro Sandy said:

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But Deuteronomy 34:7 states "Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated."

Was Moses just really strong and healthy? What do we do with the people living up to 969 years in Genesis?

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Haven't some people made it into the 110s in the 20th and 21st century?

Honestly with no processed food, no electricity, and no powered transport, I'd expect pre industrial humans to be on average far more healthy than those in the 20th century and later (of course injuries and illness aside).

120 is the upper end of the lifespan. Science has no way to move beyond this currently. Telomeres, cell division, etc. When we talk about longer lifespan, 120 is the goal. The other goal is that people wouldn't be sick for their last 10 years, but would merely decrease mental and physical function in comfort.

Tons of baseless speculation to follow:

It's interesting to think that older people in ancient times on average were "healthier" than older people now. Infectious disease and death by violence were much more prevalent then. But if you could avoid deadly infectious disease, violent death, cancer and things like appendicitis, then you were probably in top shelf condition. Salt was expensive, people weren't obese, tobacco wasn't a thing yet, people didn't add sugar to everything, air quality was great outside the cities. I read somewhere that tobacco and obesity alone account for 80% of cancer and probably pretty close to that for heart disease and stroke.

As far as people living 900 years, I have a completely baseless idea that it refers to nations. After all, you could legitimately say that Israel was born, gave birth to Judah after a few hundred years and died after about 400 years. You could say Judah was born and died 500 years later. Like I said, really nothing concrete to suggest this, but all the Hebrew nations were named for their patriarchs. So Israel refers both to Jacob and the nation. Judah refers to the same. Problem with this reasoning is that you run into Noah, and he was 500 years old when the flood happened.

I've also seen speculation that they were counting months, which would have made Methusaleh about 80 at death and Noah about 50 at the time of the flood. But then you get people becoming fathers around age 5 or 6, which doesn't make sense either.

Or maybe people really did live that long, but when God flooded the Earth he permanently changed something like the level of oxygen in the air or the ozone layer or introduced a virus or mutation into Noah's kids and that shortened human lifespan.

In regards to Moses being 120 and vigorous, he was the only person to see God face to face. He actually glowed afterward, so maybe that did something for his vitality.

ramblin_ag02 said:

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Tons of baseless speculation to follow:

It's interesting to think that older people in ancient times on average were "healthier" than older people now. Infectious disease and death by violence were much more prevalent then. But if you could avoid deadly infectious disease, violent death, cancer and things like appendicitis, then you were probably in top shelf condition. Salt was expensive, people weren't obese, tobacco wasn't a thing yet, people didn't add sugar to everything, air quality was great outside the cities. I read somewhere that tobacco and obesity alone account for 80% of cancer and probably pretty close to that for heart disease and stroke.

As far as people living 900 years, I have a completely baseless idea that it refers to nations. After all, you could legitimately say that Israel was born, gave birth to Judah after a few hundred years and died after about 400 years. You could say Judah was born and died 500 years later. Like I said, really nothing concrete to suggest this, but all the Hebrew nations were named for their patriarchs. So Israel refers both to Jacob and the nation. Judah refers to the same. Problem with this reasoning is that you run into Noah, and he was 500 years old when the flood happened.

I've also seen speculation that they were counting months, which would have made Methusaleh about 80 at death and Noah about 50 at the time of the flood. But then you get people becoming fathers around age 5 or 6, which doesn't make sense either.

Or maybe people really did live that long, but when God flooded the Earth he permanently changed something like the level of oxygen in the air or the ozone layer or introduced a virus or mutation into Noah's kids and that shortened human lifespan.

In regards to Moses being 120 and vigorous, he was the only person to see God face to face. He actually glowed afterward, so maybe that did something for his vitality.

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Or it could just be true and people lived that old like written in the Bible. I dont think we need to speculate, people lived that old

We dont have any archeological digs reporting that they found the remains of someone who was hundreds of years old.

montanagriz said:

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Or it could just be true and people lived that old like written in the Bible. I dont think we need to speculate, people lived that old

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Yeah but that's boring. Why is the sky blue? God made it that way. Why do things fall? God made it that way. Where did the moon come from? God made it. All of those statements are just as true as the scientific explanations but all are boring and teach us nothing.

Pro Sandy said:

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We dont have any archeological digs reporting that they found the remains of someone who was hundreds of years old.

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Not an archaeologist or archaebiologist, but I was thinking about this. How would you even test it? We normally age bones by maturity. But if a 600 year old man had the same bone structure as a 50 year old, then a modern examination would only show that the 600 year old was 50 at death. Maybe you could use carbon dating or some other isotope, but to my limited knowledge the error bars for someone living 5000 years ago would be in the hundreds of years anyway. Plus, bone is constantly being broken down and remade. A 60 year old literally has a different skeleton than when they were 20. So any isotopes in the 20 year old skeleton have been replaced. Heavy metals remain in the body, so maybe if you had different isotope ages in non-refreshing bones like the teeth you could find something. But I dont think anyone has even done those sorts of tests

You want interesting read fiction or science fiction.

I kid, check out or google dake bible

bmks270 said:

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Haven't some people made it into the 110s in the 20th and 21st century?

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The world record is 122 years and 9 months.

Yea we have written words. People recorded the length of a Kings reign. And there is no indication of extraordinary lifespans. No proposed mechanism for how it would be possible or how it was lost. No one lived that long. Take it as allegorical if anything. The broader history told before and through the conquest of Canaan doesn't match archaeological records.