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Genesis 6:3 3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. AFA

by Ruudjah 15y ago

Genesis 6:3 3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. AFAIK, all people in recent history (<3000 years) claiming to be aged over 120 years are either questionable or not verified. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment If this is true, [i]Men[/i] still did not exceed 120 years by 128,99 days. Interpreting the bible is hard, determining as literal and figure of speech is the hard part.

chc 15y ago
Jeanne Calment, mentioned in the OP, lived to be 122. But yes, I think most people in the field agree that 120 is roughly our shelf life.
- ern 15y ago
  Could there be some deeply ingrained idea, possibly derived from Genesis, that leads to dimished care for people as they approach 120, and hence increases mortality? I doubt it, but I wonder if this possibility has been explored.
  - JohnLBevan 15y ago
    Fundamentalists working in care homes perhaps? Jeanne was spared for 2 years due to factions forming over whether Man referred to species or gender.
  - chc 15y ago
    It seems quite unlikely to me. Without any affirmative evidence, I would assume not. It certainly wouldn't come from Genesis, as that book not particularly relevant to the vast majority of the world's population. (Even among Christians, few have the kind of familiarity needed to even know about that passage, and most people don't actually know that 120 is the age that both Genesis and modern medicine agree on.)
jacques_chester 15y ago
In any book composed of random fantasy elements, written by hundreds of authors, it is pretty much inevitable that some bits will, merely by chance, be correct. Genesis is the same book that puzzlingly fails to mention the big bang, for example.
- glimcat 15y ago
  In the beginning, there was light. On second thought, do we have to count "the beginning" as the moment of the singularity or as the time when the universe became transparent to photons? Gonna end up with a holy war over that one. Wait, it's all good. You start out with a dark and formless void, then you get your "fiat lux" afterwards. The Bible was right again!
  - jacques_chester 15y ago
    1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Oops, there's water before there's light. Better retcon that sucker.
    - lelele 15y ago
      > 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The Big Bang.
      - jacques_chester 15y ago
        Evidence suggests that energy preceded matter -- ie that light preceded earth, heaven and water. Look, the Bible is an anthology of twisted fairytales that's been an absolute bonanza of story fuel for the western tradition. But it's not exactly replete with reliable scientific information.
        glimcat 15y ago
ciupicri 15y ago
Speaking of the Bible, Adam lived 930 years ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam ) and if I remember correctly Eve also lived nine hundred years.
- demallien 15y ago
  Pfft. Martin Silenus does better than that in Hyperion. Of course, the age of fictional characters doesn't really have much impact on the debate about the maximum possible age of a human being, does it now...
  - mdonahoe 15y ago
    If more characters lived extended lifespans, perhaps the general public would be more accepting of the pursuit of immortality
shawndumas 15y ago
Not that it matters but... If you take it in context the 120 years are referring to when the flood was scheduled to occur, not the upper bounds on human life. (See Calvin)
zavulon 15y ago
Don't understand why you're getting downvoted.. if this was Reddit, then yeah, but I expected more from HN crowd. I was about to post the same thing - this is no surprise to us Jews. As the saying goes - may you live to 120 years!
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
jaredmck 15y ago
Now translate this directly from the original source.

by Ruudjah 15y ago

chc 15y ago

Jeanne Calment, mentioned in the OP, lived to be 122. But yes, I think most people in the field agree that 120 is roughly our shelf life.

ern 15y ago
Could there be some deeply ingrained idea, possibly derived from Genesis, that leads to dimished care for people as they approach 120, and hence increases mortality? I doubt it, but I wonder if this possibility has been explored.
- JohnLBevan 15y ago
  Fundamentalists working in care homes perhaps? Jeanne was spared for 2 years due to factions forming over whether Man referred to species or gender.
- chc 15y ago
  It seems quite unlikely to me. Without any affirmative evidence, I would assume not. It certainly wouldn't come from Genesis, as that book not particularly relevant to the vast majority of the world's population. (Even among Christians, few have the kind of familiarity needed to even know about that passage, and most people don't actually know that 120 is the age that both Genesis and modern medicine agree on.)

jacques_chester 15y ago

In any book composed of random fantasy elements, written by hundreds of authors, it is pretty much inevitable that some bits will, merely by chance, be correct. Genesis is the same book that puzzlingly fails to mention the big bang, for example.

glimcat 15y ago
In the beginning, there was light. On second thought, do we have to count "the beginning" as the moment of the singularity or as the time when the universe became transparent to photons? Gonna end up with a holy war over that one. Wait, it's all good. You start out with a dark and formless void, then you get your "fiat lux" afterwards. The Bible was right again!
- jacques_chester 15y ago
  1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Oops, there's water before there's light. Better retcon that sucker.
  - lelele 15y ago
    > 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The Big Bang.
    - jacques_chester 15y ago
      Evidence suggests that energy preceded matter -- ie that light preceded earth, heaven and water. Look, the Bible is an anthology of twisted fairytales that's been an absolute bonanza of story fuel for the western tradition. But it's not exactly replete with reliable scientific information.
      - glimcat 15y ago

ciupicri 15y ago

Speaking of the Bible, Adam lived 930 years ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam ) and if I remember correctly Eve also lived nine hundred years.

demallien 15y ago
Pfft. Martin Silenus does better than that in Hyperion. Of course, the age of fictional characters doesn't really have much impact on the debate about the maximum possible age of a human being, does it now...
- mdonahoe 15y ago
  If more characters lived extended lifespans, perhaps the general public would be more accepting of the pursuit of immortality

shawndumas 15y ago

Not that it matters but... If you take it in context the 120 years are referring to when the flood was scheduled to occur, not the upper bounds on human life. (See Calvin)

zavulon 15y ago

Don't understand why you're getting downvoted.. if this was Reddit, then yeah, but I expected more from HN crowd. I was about to post the same thing - this is no surprise to us Jews. As the saying goes - may you live to 120 years!

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

jaredmck 15y ago

Now translate this directly from the original source.