As we get older, this causes a progressive loss of our ability to hear, see, smell, taste, and. The important point is that science offers no hope for eternal life, or even for the significant lengthening of life.
It has been estimated that if complete cures, or preventions, were found for the three major killers cancer, stroke, and coronary artery disease , the maximum life span of man would still not increase although more people would approach this maximum.
And such long-lived people would still become progressively weaker with age as critical components of their body continued to deteriorate. People complain about The New Answers Book. Well, we listened! Many view the original New Answers Book as an essential tool for modern discipleship.
Both of these books answer such questions as: Can natural processes explain the origin of life? Can creationists be real scientists? Where did Cain get his wife? Is evolution a religion? Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry , dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
Donate Now. View Cart. Georgia Purdom and Dr. Audio Version. Share: Email Using: Gmail Yahoo! Outlook Other. Table 1. Ages of the Patriarchs from Adam to Noah Patriarch Age Bible Reference 1 Adam Genesis 2 Seth Genesis 3 Enosh Genesis 4 Cainan Genesis 5 Mahalalel Genesis 6 Jared Genesis 7 Enoch translated Genesis 8 Methuselah Genesis 9 Lamech Genesis 10 Noah Genesis During the 1, years following the Flood, however, the Bible records a progressive decline in the life span of the patriarchs, from Noah, who lived to be years old, until Abraham at see figure 1 and table 2.
Table 2. The New Answers Book 2. Read Online Buy Book. It should be noted that Genesis does not refer to God mandating a maximum life span for people of years. If this is the case, then the Bible is in error as many people have been recorded as living longer than years. Rather, it refers to the amount of time from when God determined to destroy mankind to when God sent a global flood. Perls and D. See chapter 7, which provides an overview of mutations.
Monaghan and M. It mentions a listing of eight kings and then a massive deluge, destroying everything. This is similar to the biblical account, which mentions a total of 10 full generations before the Great Flood.
Later Sumerian lists add two extra names to the list, bringing the total number of antediluvian rulers to 10—just like the Bible. There is something else very interesting about the Sumerian King List. The lifespans given for the pre-Flood rulers are immensely longer than those who lived after the Flood.
Actually, the number of years given in the Sumerian list to each of the antediluvian rulers is immense.
Or is it? There is more to the early Sumerian King List than meets the eye. This was part of the Babylonian sexagesimal numerical system a system that used a base of The surrounding peoples, including the Semitic-language peoples, used a decimal system a base of 10, as we use today.
Much research has been done into parallels between the antediluvian biblical list and the Sumerian King List. Raul Lopez believes that both accounts are related and represent a simple error caused by a Babylonian scribe probably obtaining some kind of Semitic clay tablet of generations similar to the Genesis record, and mistaking the documented years for being in the sexigesimal system rather than decimal.
While the ages of the certain individuals are different obviously, given that different individuals are described in the biblical list and Sumerian King List , the time frame given for the successive antediluvian generations matches very closely between the Bible and the King List, when allowing for this assumed scribal error.
Much more detail on this can be found in Dr. George Insham here. Putting aside for now any complex calculations, it is simply striking that we have an ancient king list documenting 10 complete generations of men living to immense ages before a great flood, after which the average age plummets.
The general similarities are too much to simply dismiss. And it is clear that this Sumerian list, or even a similar parallel, was not the source for the Genesis antediluvian list. This is because the Sumerian list is accurate to the nearest years; Genesis is accurate to the nearest one year. And the Genesis account is, in general, immensely more detailed than the Sumerian. It is far more authoritative and specific. The final king of this first part of the Sumerian list lived concurrently with a certain Utnapishtim.
According to the Epic, Utnapishtim was instructed to build a boat within which he, his relatives and all species of animals were to survive a flood that would destroy all mankind. Like the biblical account, the Epic states that the reason for the flood was human wickedness. Also like the biblical account, the large boat came to rest on a mountain. Both accounts describe birds being released to test whether the water had sufficiently subsided.
In fact, both accounts describe the use of the same bird species for this purpose—the dove and the raven. Both accounts record that sacrifices were offered after the flood, and both records say that the men Utnapishtim, Noah were afterwards blessed. More detail on this can be found in our Flood article here. Some have speculated that rather than being post -Flood kings, these were actually parallel rulers who lived before the Flood, reigning concurrently with the kings from the first part of the list.
One reason for this theory is because the King List is broken up into parts according to location of rulership. So rather than having ruled after the Flood from a new location, they probably still represented pre- Flood rulers over different territories. There are some additional clues showing that this second part of the king list represents pre-Flood rulers. This character meets with Utnapishtim, the Noah-like character mentioned above, to discuss the secrets of immortality.
This would match with the biblical account of Noah remaining on the scene after the Flood as human lifespans were sharply dropping. This king is mentioned in Sumerian literature in the context of building a tower and desiring unity of language among the people. And their ages match up directly with those of the biblical antediluvian world. The pre-Flood biblical lifespans are, of course, typically pushed away as being over the top and extreme.
But what is of note about the Bible is just how reasonable the ages of humans are. But no human lives beyond 1, years. There is a clear, progressively descending curve in ages directly after the Flood—not a vertical drop-off. Eighty years is possible if the individual is physically stronger. But longer years are obtainable, just as Moses experienced as he lived to years. Today, some women have lived to the age of about years. Jiroemon Kimura lived to years and 54 days. Psalm is not trying to give us a maximum limit on the age a man or woman can live.
It is referring to the average lifespan of mankind. According to Worldometers. Craig R. Jiroemon Kimura. Find out more in our story on whether the countryside is a healthier place to live today. But interestingly, when the revolution came in medicine and public health, it helped elites before the rest of the population.
By the late 17th Century, English nobles who made it to 25 went on to live longer than their non-noble counterparts — even as they continued to live in the more risk-ridden cities. Surely, by the soot-ridden era of Charles Dickens, life was unhealthy and short for nearly everyone?
Still no. A five-year-old girl would live to 73; a boy, to Not only are these numbers comparable to our own, they may be even better. Although it is obviously difficult to collect this kind of data, anthropologists have tried to substitute by looking at today's hunter-gatherer groups , such as the Ache of Paraguay and Hadza of Tanzania.
Looking at dental wear on the skeletons of Anglo-Saxons buried about 1, years ago , they found that of skeletons, the majority belonged to people who were under 65 — but there also were 16 people who died between 65 and 74 years old and nine who reached at least 75 years of age.
Our maximum lifespan may not have changed much, if at all. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Do we really live longer than our ancestors? Share using Email. By Amanda Ruggeri 3rd October The wonders of modern medicine and nutrition make it easy to believe we enjoy longer lives than at any time in human history, but we may not be that special after all.
Age of empires Back in a study looked at every man entered into the Oxford Classical Dictionary who lived in ancient Greece or Rome. Being pregnant adversely affects your immune system. Then you tend to be susceptible to other diseases — Jane Humphries. On the record The data gets better later in human history once governments begin to keep careful records of births, marriages and deaths — at first, particularly of nobles. From to , year-olds would reach an average age of anywhere between 62 and 70 years.
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