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Did people really live hundreds of years?

Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died...Altogether, Seth lived 912 years, and then he died...Altogether, Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died...Genesis 5:5,8,11

That’s what the passages say. Hard to believe? There are some good explanations.

1. God created the earth for humans to live in. They were the first test subjects living in freshly clean environment.

2. The purity of the “just-created” environment they lived in kept them free of diseases spread by human contact. Disease had not started to mutate and spread.

3. The genetic code of their bodies was near perfection. Today heart disease, cancer and car accidents are the leading killers, all results of our corrupt lifestyle and passed on by our parents. That wasn’t a problem back then.

4. Wars and conflict had not spread since it was more of a family unit, so people did not die from violence.

5. After the flood, the relationship between man and animals changes, becoming more aggressive. Maybe people started dying while hunting animals or dying because they were eating animals (fats, contamination, blood).

6. There was less stress in the world. People lived more focused on the day to day needs of family and not worried about stress, world powers and what they are going to be when they grow up. Life was simple.

7. Finally, God wanted them to live a long time so they could populate and expand. Man lived because it was God’s will, who protected mankind so they could get civilization started.

As the genealogies continue into Genesis 11, we see the life span decreasing. Terah, Abraham’s father, only lived to 70 years old.

It’s not hard to believe that people lived so long when you consider the environment early man lived in.