Can you explain Methuselah's age?
Introduction. Methuselah is the oldest man mentioned in the Bible. He lived to be 969 years old (Gen. 5: 21-27). In view of the precision of the language and the chronology of events, it is apparent 969 is to be understood as a literal number.
The longevity of antediluvian man. Men before the flood lived much longer than men lived after the flood (notice from Adam to Noah, Gen. 5). The average age of the nine patriarchs (excluding Enoch) was 912 years (Gen. 5). The Bible presents the world before the flood as being a "different world" in a number of important ways, not just man's longevity (Gen. 2-6; 2 Pet. 3: 6).
Something happened to cause man to have a much shorter life-span. It is a Biblical fact that there was a slow decline in life-span from 950 years for Noah to 205 years for Terah (Gen. 11) and further down to 70 years when Moses wrote Psalm 90: 10. We need to remember that man was created to be immortal (Gen. 2: 9), but sin brought about physical death (Gen. 3: 22).
Plausible scientific explanations. The world before the flood was created as "very good" (Gen. 1:31) and appears to have had a "different system" to provide water (Gen. 2: 6 vs. Gen. 9: 12-17). The global flood resulted from a massive release of water from both under the sea and from the heavens (Gen. 7: 11). This along with other catastrophic geological processes very likely resulted in a major change to the earth's geology, climate, incoming solar radiation, and such. It is plausible these changes along with natural decay resulted in increased genetic mutations that in turn resulted in accelerated aging and death. While plausible, we have to admit the scriptures do not explicitly answer the question.
Conclusion. This earth, its atmosphere and man have undergone drastic changes since the "very good" creation. Some of these changes may well account for some of the apparent contradictions between the Bible and science, generally viewed. A case in point would be how the age of the earth is determined. Rest assured, the Bible is always right.
The longevity of antediluvian man. Men before the flood lived much longer than men lived after the flood (notice from Adam to Noah, Gen. 5). The average age of the nine patriarchs (excluding Enoch) was 912 years (Gen. 5). The Bible presents the world before the flood as being a "different world" in a number of important ways, not just man's longevity (Gen. 2-6; 2 Pet. 3: 6).
Something happened to cause man to have a much shorter life-span. It is a Biblical fact that there was a slow decline in life-span from 950 years for Noah to 205 years for Terah (Gen. 11) and further down to 70 years when Moses wrote Psalm 90: 10. We need to remember that man was created to be immortal (Gen. 2: 9), but sin brought about physical death (Gen. 3: 22).
Plausible scientific explanations. The world before the flood was created as "very good" (Gen. 1:31) and appears to have had a "different system" to provide water (Gen. 2: 6 vs. Gen. 9: 12-17). The global flood resulted from a massive release of water from both under the sea and from the heavens (Gen. 7: 11). This along with other catastrophic geological processes very likely resulted in a major change to the earth's geology, climate, incoming solar radiation, and such. It is plausible these changes along with natural decay resulted in increased genetic mutations that in turn resulted in accelerated aging and death. While plausible, we have to admit the scriptures do not explicitly answer the question.
Conclusion. This earth, its atmosphere and man have undergone drastic changes since the "very good" creation. Some of these changes may well account for some of the apparent contradictions between the Bible and science, generally viewed. A case in point would be how the age of the earth is determined. Rest assured, the Bible is always right.