Impossible ages in the OT?
- Thread starter Arcade22
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Marduk
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yay, we have a winner, it would be foolish to ignore that many aspects of the Old Testament are based on Mesopotamian mythology, from the great flood to the creation of man to the tower of Babel, all have antecedents in cuneiform. this is especially true of characters that appear to be based on Mesopotamian originals, such as Noah, based on Upnapishtim/Atrahasis and Nimrod based on Enmerkar and when youre plagiarising characters you'd also have to plagiarise the other details that made them so popular, like their ages.
With the Sumerian king list, specifically the first dynasty Kings of kish,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_King_List#First_Dynasty_of_Kish
the lengths of reign were recorded in contemporary times and then added to with each succeeding generation, often with the king list being the only solid historical source for earlier history. However due to changes in the numerical system, later scribes didn't realise that the values had changed 60 fold. So a Sumerian date of 1200 years is in reality 20 years (1200 / 60). This was also unknown to the authors of the Old testament who must have taken the approach, whats good for the goose. Using the same system Methuseleh was actually a little over 16 years old at death (969 / 60). Because a lifespan is often longer than a reign.
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MG1962
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Well there are two broad groups of Christians in this regard. The literallists who argue the Bible is word for word true, and the rest of us who see it as a series of interpetions.
From my perspective my only concern would be does the age of the person actual matter to the event being described. Adam is said to live over 900 years. Yet the most imporant part of Adam's story after the garden is the actions of his two sons - so he could be 900 90 39 - matters not to the telling of the story