Ages in the Old Testament

[Oualawouzou]

Hello everybody,

In my first year of high school, I had a religion teacher who was *quite* obviously a non-believer. When reading passages stating "And God said to Buddy Joe...", he would stop, raise his head, say "What this means is that Buddy Joe was thinking, talking to himself", then resume his reading.

However, some of his attempts at rationnal explanations threw my BS meter in a frenzy. Like when he argued that the parting of the Red Sea was due to Moses and cie witnessing the effects of tides, "something unknown at the time". Ouch. Ouch ouch ouch. Humankind strived along the borders of the sea. How could they not know about tides, even several dozen centuries ago?

But another of his explanations had to do with ages in the OT. You know, famous OT figures tended to have rather extraordinary long life. His explanation was that at the time, the Jewish people counted the age of someone not by the number of years elapsed, but by which important events happened in his life. Got married? Get a few years. Got a child? Get a few years. etc...

This always struck me as weird and a nightmare to manage. I mean, were there official events-to-years conversion tables? Could you get younger as significant events are declared null and void (repudiate your wife, discover you're not the father of your child, etc.)?

I'm just wondering if his explanation has some shreds of truth (I think not, but what do I know?) and where it may have come from (perhaps a mangled version of something else?).

Thanks!

 

[TheDoLittle]

I was told by a Rabbi once that the reason characters in the OT were given such extraordinary long lives was due the people needing heroes. Since being bulletproof, running faster than a train, and leaping over tall skyscrapers is too incredibly foreign for the people of the time, they imbued their heroes of the OT with the super powers of long life (most people were lucky to see their 40th birthday), siring<sp?> many children (infant mortality was high), and the ability to speak to god.

 

[petra10]

His explanation sounds rubbish to me.I think because people from the times of the OT didnt have a very long life span they put great importance on living to a great age.I think it was just to make you think the people were special.Pharohs from ancient Eygpt did live longer than most because I suppose of their easy life-styles.
Since I think a lot of religions stem from the ancient Eygptians, the writers of the OT knew how important the pharohs were so therefore they made the important people in their stories old.

 

[ReligionStudent]

The old ages in the bible are just mythic, and relate to what are called eponymous ancestors. These figures were used to link a non-kin group together in a culture where ancestral worship was extremely important. Don't have an ancestor in common? make one up and you can be ruled as a single group.

As for why they were so old, it was stories.
I never understood why non-believers had to have more rationalization behind this. Likely, it also has to do with it having been oral tradition, but mostly because of it being just myth.

 

[Mason]

I had initially assumed that the ages in that era were measured in cycles of the moon rather than the sun. It seemed to fit well enough in the passages from seth through the flood, but I've never actually tried to test it as a theory through the rest of the book.

 

[triadboy]

The advanced ages in the OT are a continuation of the advanced ages of the Sumarian Kings.

Don't forget - Sumarians - back then - were like Vulcans to us. They were very advanced for their time - the first to have writing, keep records, art, music, heroic tales, creation stories, etc. Sumarians tales gave us the Flood story, rejuvenating snakes, tree of life, etc.

This is one way you can guess when "current history" began happening to the Jews. Once the ages of people settled down - that's around the time remembered history occurs.

The Babylonians borrowed greatly from the Sumarians. And the Jews - during the Babylonian Exile borrowed from the Babylonians.

The religions of Jews, Muslims and Christians owe a lot to the Sumarians and Zoroaster.

 

[ReligionStudent]

What does Zoroaster have to do with Sumarians though? You seem to throw it in there at the end as it it were related.

 

[Tanstaafl]

I always assumed it was because the middle east was travelling at .95c up until the flood, when all that water vapor disrupted their tachyon field and caused the hyperdrive to malfunction. They were able to land back on earth, but since all the scientists and engineers died in the flood, all we have left is the time dilation reflected in the early books of the bible.

 

[triadboy]

What does Zoroaster have to do with Sumarians though? You seem to throw it in there at the end as it it were related.

I know...sorry about that. I wanted to express how important Sumarians were to the development of Western religions...and at the last minute I had to include Zoroaster too.

[The reason I had to include Zoroaster is - he introduced duality to western religions. Good and Evil. We get Satan - and eventually hell from Zoroaster. Sweeet!]

 

[Oualawouzou]

I always assumed it was because the middle east was travelling at .95c up until the flood, when all that water vapor disrupted their tachyon field and caused the hyperdrive to malfunction. They were able to land back on earth, but since all the scientists and engineers died in the flood, all we have left is the time dilation reflected in the early books of the bible.

*pins blue ribbon on Tanstaafl*

And thanks for the serious responses too, everybody. It makes sense if it is simply a mythological motif to ascribe extraordinary long life to "famous ancestors".

 

[Beerina]

I was told by a Rabbi once that the reason characters in the OT were given such extraordinary long lives was due the people needing heroes. Since being bulletproof, running faster than a train, and leaping over tall skyscrapers is too incredibly foreign for the people of the time, they imbued their heroes of the OT with the super powers of long life (most people were lucky to see their 40th birthday), siring<sp?> many children (infant mortality was high), and the ability to speak to god.

They still had guys like Herculese Samson and Goliath running around. Actually, there are 2 Goliaths in the Bible, but I forget what the other one's name is. He, too, was killed by a sling or some similar improbable manner. And then there's the giant chaos (waters of chaos) dragon Leviathan, and the giant chaos beast Behemoth, both of which, and their battles with Yahweh, are mentioned.

 

[Tanstaafl]

*pins blue ribbon on Tanstaafl*

And thanks for the serious responses too, everybody. It makes sense if it is simply a mythological motif to ascribe extraordinary long life to "famous ancestors".

Thanks!

It's only one lousy day later, but I had already forgotten that I wrote that!

Gee, I sure miss my memory!

 

[ksbluesfan]

So if these Biblical heroes didn't live to be several hundred years old, does that mean the Earth is actually younger than 6000 years old? I'm pretty sure they used genealogies to figure out the age of the Universe, didn't they? Wow, I bet the Universe is less than 2000 years old!

 

[Dancing David]

I'm just wondering if his explanation has some shreds of truth (I think not, but what do I know?) and where it may have come from (perhaps a mangled version of something else?).

Thanks!

there are many explanations, hebrai letters are numbers so the word ch'ai also becomes 18(ch+y=8=10) or something like that . So when they mention a huge number it could mean a word.