Old Testament Question

Ha! That is what I was thinking last night while reading. I agree with your theory, but many people will say that years were dated differently, but do we know? No. So we must go by what is told.

My understanding is that human and animal life characteristics were different in the antediluvian and postdiluvian eras. (Meaning, pre-flood and post flood.) I believe the people before the flood were the ones living loooong lives. I don't know the specifics on why, but the Bible says the long life spans will happen again during the Millennium.

>>My understanding is that human and animal life characteristics were different in the antediluvian and postdiluvian eras.

When we were down in Flordia recently, we visited a zoo and they had some turtles there that were pretty big. They could have been over 100 pounds. We were told that they were over 300 years old and that turtles do not ever stop growing, as long as they live, they just keep getting bigger and bigger. Many reptiles are that way, the longer they live, the bigger they get.

With the Deluge great changes came, for example, the life span of humans dropped very rapidly. Some have suggested that prior to the Flood the waters above the expanse that posibly were in the thermosphere, it could hold water in a vapour suspension, shielded out some of the harmful radiation and that, with the waters gone ie, the flood, cosmic radiation genetically harmful to man increased. However, the Bible is silent on the matter. Incidentally, any change in radiation would have altered the rate of formation of radioactive carbon-14 to such an extent as to invalidate all radiocarbon dates prior to the Flood.  Approx 4,500 years.

For a while, I believed that man was so perfectly built that it took a while for him to devolve into the man of three score and ten. I've also heard speculation as to the atmosphere and environment being more protective, at the time.
Now, I'm not sure, but I do believe that they lived to be these ages which isn't hard to believe, even scientifically. Science has shown that there is a defect in the machinery - sota speak, and that the body shows evidence of having been designed to last much longer than it currently does.

raphe: Hi and welcome to the forums.

I do also believe that the ages mentioned in Genesis are correct. And that man's longevity was also based on his nearness the the perfection of Adam. Interestingly though that the ages of man dropped drasticaly after the flood, whereas before (for some 1600 years) they stayed pretty much the same.

Perhaps there was less sin?

That's probably true, at first anyway.

But then. Genesis 6:9-12 “This is the history of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man. He proved himself faultless among his contemporaries. Noah walked with the [true] God. 10 In time Noah became father to three sons, Shem, Ham and Ja'pheth. 11 And the earth came to be ruined in the sight of the [true] God and the earth became filled with violence. 12 So God saw the earth and, look! it was ruined, because all flesh had ruined its way on the earth.

It seems that sin had gone from bad to worse in a relatively short period of time, so that God had to step in and take action.

This is as good a place as any to post my most recent daydream. Please don't take this too too seriously, it's just something I was thinking.

I looked up the Hebrew for "spirit" and "soul" the other day, with the verse about God being able to discern between spirit and soul in mind. (Heb 4:12) Both can be expressed as wind, but the difference really was that spirit tends towards meaning the wind itself, and soul towards breathing. When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, then, I am guessing their spirits died, and not only that, but damage was done to the spirit of all life in creation. Death was introduced to the whole creation. From there, it just slowly deteriorates. Each succesive generation tends towards shorter and shorter life. So the souls of the earth are like fish out of water, breathing but having nothing to inhale.

My 2 cents.

You make some very interesting observation there Shane. Have you ever considered that animals were aways meant to die.

It appears from scripture that this might be the case.

The Bible speaks of animals as being “born naturally to be caught and destroyed.” But concerning mankind it says: “God . . . has even put eternity into their minds.” (2 Peter 2:12; Ecclesiastes 3:10, 11, Byington) In other words, animals were not purposed to live forever, but man was. The first human pair were created not to die but to live eternally—provided they were obedient to God. Compare Genesis 2:15-17.

Hmm, I never have and I think I can explain why. In Genesis when mentioning what to eat the never mention animals (Gen 2:9) and there are verses about how the lion will lie with the lamb. I admit this is not particularly convincing, but the entire question of animals is not terribly well documented in the Bible.

Mostly I was just thinking in terms of human life spans, and the effect death caused by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil's being eaten from.

I think the most obvious answer would be that they were so much less removed from Adam and Eve, who's bodies were perfect. Because there was intermarrying, these perfections took much longer to dilute themselves and pick up imperfections.