Genesis 5:6-20 comments: longevity

6 ¶  And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos: 7  And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: 8  And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. 9  And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan: 10  And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters: 11  And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died. 12  And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel: 13  And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters: 14  And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died. 15  And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: 16  And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters: 17  And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. 18  And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: 19  And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 20  And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.

We learned in the last chapter that it was during Enos’ time that men called out to God and wanted to know Him as the cross-reference through Romans shows us the use of the phrase call upon the name of the Lord. Two contrasting religious impulses are generated. One based on a heartfelt desire to worship God understanding that it is only by the shedding of blood that sin can be dealt with as Hebrews 9:22 says without shedding of blood is no remission and the other following a manner that God rejected and that did not reflect the consequences of sin or God’s approval.

With regard to the long lives of the people in the Pre-Flood world a combination of environment and low frequency of genetic damage must have permitted this. Experiments on worms today has shown that by manipulating genes lifespan can be increased fourfold which, for humans, would mean an extension to 300 years roughly. It is not difficult to imagine, with an environment providing protection from too much radiation, a natural diet, and genome that had not deteriorated to the extent it has today, that living in the range of a thousand years is not unimaginable and having the characteristics of youth to a much longer age is quite understandable. (23)

(23) The Tech Museum of Innovation, “Why Do We Age and Is There Anything We Can Do About It?” http://genetics.thetech.org/original_news/news10. (accessed 7.10.2016).