{"id":3922747,"date":"2025-11-09T09:03:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T14:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/who-was-methuselah-a-man-who-lived-for-969-years-according-to-the-bible\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T09:03:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T14:03:42","slug":"who-was-methuselah-a-man-who-lived-for-969-years-according-to-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/who-was-methuselah-a-man-who-lived-for-969-years-according-to-the-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Was Methuselah? A Man Who Lived For 969 Years According To The Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Methuselah, Noah\u2019s grandfather, is considered the man with one of the longest lifespan\u2019s in history and is said to have lived for 969 years until the great flood swept across the land. <\/strong><\/p>\n

But not only is this Biblical character fascinating for his longevity, he is also very important for a number of other reasons.<\/p>\n

According to Genesis, Methuselah was the eighth antediluvian patriarch, son of Enoch, father of Lamech and grandfather of Noah<\/strong> (who was the last<\/strong> of<\/strong> these patriarchs<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

The following is taken from the\u00a0King James Version<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of the\u00a0Bible.<\/p>\n

21 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:<\/strong><\/p>\n

22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:<\/strong><\/p>\n

23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:<\/strong><\/p>\n

24 And Enoch walked with God: and he\u00a0[was]<\/em>\u00a0not; for God took him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

25 And Methuselah lived a hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech:<\/strong><\/p>\n

26 And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:<\/strong><\/p>\n

27 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.<\/strong>
\n\u2014Genesis 5:21\u201327.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Noahs
Noah\u2019s Ark. Image Credit: Shutterstock.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Methuselah is mentioned in Genesis as the son of Enoch and father of Lamec\u2014who in turn was the father of Noah\u2014whom he fathered at 187 years of age.<\/p>\n

His name has become a general synonym applied to any elderly creature, used in phrases such as \u201chaving more years than Methuselah\u201d or \u201cbeing older than Methuselah\u201d.<\/p>\n

A careful reading of the Old Testament reveals that Methuselah reportedly died in the year of the Great Flood.<\/p>\n

Three manuscript traditions, the\u00a0Masoretic<\/strong>, the\u00a0Septuagint\u00a0<\/strong>and the\u00a0Samaritan<\/strong> Torah<\/strong> offer different timelines.<\/p>\n

If we take a look at the Masoretic<\/a><\/strong>, an authoritative\u00a0Hebrew\u00a0and\u00a0Aramaic\u00a0text of the\u00a0Tanakh\u00a0for\u00a0Rabbinic Judaism, was 187 years when his son was born. He died the year of the Flood at the age of 969.<\/p>\n

The Septuagint<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0 sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament, the earliest extant\u00a0Greek translation of the\u00a0Old Testament\u00a0from the original\u00a0Hebrew indicates how Methuselah was 187 years when his son was born and died at the age of 969, but six years before the great flood.<\/p>\n

According to the Samaritan Torah<\/a><\/strong>, \u00a0a text of the first five books of the\u00a0Hebrew Bible, written in the\u00a0Samaritan alphabet<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and used as\u00a0scripture\u00a0by the\u00a0Samaritans, Methuselah was 67 years old when his son was born, and he died at the age of 720 years, the years the Great Flood took place.<\/p>\n

These \u2018discrepancies\u2019 in ancient texts have been explained in a number of ways, the most obvious one being the accidental corruption by copyists and translators.<\/p>\n

Some errors may be the result of attempts to correct previous errors.<\/p>\n

But despite the fact that there are discrepancies in the dates, one thing remains the same: Methuselah lived beyond the life expectancy of ordinary humans.<\/p>\n

So, what does that make him? Was Methuselah perhaps, not human?<\/p>\n

How on Earth is it possible that someone can live for 969 years?<\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t be possible.<\/p>\n

\"Sumerian
The Ancient Sumerian King List.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, if we take a look at another ancient text, the Ancient Sumerian King List, we find plenty of \u2018historic\u2019 evidence of \u2018Kings\u2019 living on Earth for thousands of years.<\/p>\n

If we take a look at the Sumerian King list we\u2019ll see that it clearly states:<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridug. In Eridug, Alulim became king; he ruled for 28800 years. Alaljar ruled for 36000 years. 2 kings; they ruled for 64800 years.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Sumerian King List describes eight kings who ruled over Earth for a total of 241,200 years, since the original kingship had \u2018descended from heaven\u2019 all the way to the time of the \u2018Great Flood\u2019, which swept over the land and once more \u201cthe kingship was lowered from heaven\u201d after the Flood.<\/p>\n

So, there we see different historical sources describing \u2018people\u2019 actually living on Earth for hundreds and even thousands of years.<\/p>\n

But ordinary humans can\u2019t live that long.<\/p>\n

According to James W. Vaupel<\/strong>\u00a0an American scientist in the fields of\u00a0aging research,\u00a0biodemography, and formal\u00a0demography, life expectancy began to increase in 1840 with the decrease in infant mortality and adolescent mortality and has continued to rise, in an average increase of two and a half years each decade.<\/p>\n

Vaupel\u2019s research shows that life expectancy is likely to increase well beyond the purported limit of 85 years.<\/p>\n

But 85 is still a long way from 969 years of life.<\/p>\n

\"Yoda\"<\/p>\n

Our current knowledge about the lifespan of a cell leads us to suppose that the natural limit of longevity in the human being is below 150 years.<\/p>\n

The Guinness record for the longest human lifespan is that of Jeanne Calment of France (1875\u20131997), who lived to the age of 122 years, 164 days.<\/p>\n

Some authors believe that human beings lived close to a thousand years, until after the flood, God shortened this age (Genesis 6:3<\/a><\/strong>) Then the LORD\u00a0said,\u00a0\u201cMy Spirit\u00a0shall not strivewith man\u00a0forever,\u00a0because\u00a0he also\u00a0is flesh;\u00a0nevertheless his days\u00a0shall be one hundred\u00a0and twenty\u00a0years.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

But was it really an act of God, the fact that human lifespan was shortened?<\/p>\n

Or is it possible that there is another, more extravagant explanation, one that suggests that in the days of Methuselah, beings not from Earth, walked on our planet?<\/p>\n

Featured image credit:\u00a0Anthony Hopkins as Methuselah in Noah (2014). Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Go to Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

Methuselah, Noah\u2019s grandfather, is considered the man with one of the longest lifespan\u2019s in history and is said to have lived for 969 years until the great flood swept across the land. <\/p>\n

But not only is this Biblical character fascinating for his longevity, he is also very important for a number of other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3922747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-code","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3922747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3922747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3922747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3922747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}