Living 900 Years Old…Really?
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, August 22, 2025 (Donate)
I looked at this subject a number of times in the past
and I’m going to pool together some of that information here under one article.
When we look at the ages of the patriarchs, like Adam who
lived 930 years or Noah who lived 950 years, we tend to look with our “eyebrow
raised”. Did people really live this long? Today, hitting 80 is an
accomplishment—and that is above the average!
So, was this even feasible? In our secularized
culture, they teach that we evolved
from animals whose lifespans were quite short. In light of this, it is
assumed in our distant past, man also had short life spans. So, when non-Christians
see the biblical data that reaches to 900+ years old, many think these ages
were quite fanciful and false. But was it?
God said they lived this long. That should settle the issue.
Nevertheless, let’s dive into this subject in more detail.
Ages Dropping Off
Let’s start by considering something else right up front—a
God of life created man in a perfect world where they should never have died
if they hadn’t sinned! I sometimes think we are asking the wrong question—it
should be why did they live such short lives of only 900 years or so,
and why do our lives tread even shorter?
Man was designed to live forever, but sin destroyed that perfection
and death now reigned as of the third chapter in the Bible. From Adam to Noah,
people lived around 900 years old—with the exception of Enoch who was taken to
heaven without death (translated) at 325.
|
|
Patriarch |
Age |
Bible reference |
|
1 |
Adam |
930 |
|
|
2 |
Seth |
912 |
|
|
3 |
Enosh |
905 |
|
|
4 |
Cainan |
910 |
|
|
5 |
Mahalalel |
895 |
|
|
6 |
Jared |
962 |
|
|
7 |
Enoch |
365 (translated) |
|
|
8 |
Methuselah |
969 |
|
|
9 |
Lamech |
777 |
|
|
10 |
Noah |
950 |
|
|
11 |
Shem |
600 |
|
|
12 |
Arphaxad |
438 |
|
|
13 |
Shelah |
433 |
|
|
14 |
Eber |
464 |
|
|
15 |
Peleg |
239 |
|
|
16 |
Reu |
239 |
|
|
17 |
Serug |
230 |
|
|
18 |
Nahor |
148 |
|
|
19 |
Terah |
205 |
|
|
20 |
Abram (Abraham) |
175 |
|
|
21 |
Isaac |
180 |
|
|
22 |
Jacob ( |
147 |
|
|
23 |
Joseph |
110 |
Table 1. Ages
of the Patriarchs from Adam to Joseph
Noah’s father Lamech died at 777—he was a young pup compared
to the other patriarchs. In fact, Lamech’s father was almost 200 years older
than him when he died. After Noah, the ages dipped down through Shem’s line.
Since all are descendants Noah’s three sons, and none live to 900 today, then
all three lines dropped off in great ages.
Although we are given Shem’s line, it is possible that Ham’s
and Japheth’s line could have been slower or faster in their decline. For
instance, Japheth or Ham could still have lived 800-900 years old and then the
ages drop off. We simply don’t know. We just know that Shem lived to a mere 600
years old, though he surely expected to live about the ages of his father, grandfather
and great grandfather.
The ages did drop off over the next millennium or more. Over
the years, several people have proposed ideas as to why this happened.
Diet
For example, some thought it had something to do with diet.
People were first permitted to eat meat after the Flood (Genesis 9:3) so some
thought the original vegetarian diet (Genesis 1:29) would help them live to
such great ages. Some have further pointed toward Daniel and his request of a temporary vegetarian diet (Daniel 1:8-16) so that he didn’t have to eat the king’s food
that was sacrificed to false gods.
However, vegetarian diets never allowed people to live to
such ages as 900 years even today. In fact, vegetarians do not attain a life
span much different than those who retain meat in the diet.
Increased Oxygen
Some proposed that increased oxygen prior to the Flood (and
changed significantly due to the Flood) would allow the body to better heal,
and eliminate disease and thus, reach such ages. And although there are some
benefits to temporary increased oxygen in some cases (e.g. hyperbaric
medicine), in other cases it is detrimental to your health (e.g., birth defects
such as blindness in children due to supplemental oxygen, oxygen toxicity,
swelling of lenses in the eye causing blurred vision, etc.).
Increased oxygen can cause a host of other problems because
oxygen is extremely reactive causing oxidation where your body doesn’t want it.
People often eat foods that are high in antioxidants to reduce these
extra “free radicals” of oxygen. Regardless, the simple fact is that such
experiments have not permitted people to live to ages remotely close to 900
years.
Environmental Changes
It is true that the world changed significantly due to the
Flood. Vegetation, as well as land and sea life, were drastically reduced and
made to virtually “start all over again”. But did this cause aging to
significantly drop off?
Noah, who was already 600 years old, stepped off the Ark
into this new world as well. If the environment was the cause massive reduced
aging, why did Noah live 350 more years?
The new environment didn’t seem to touch him!
Noah was the third longest living person recoded in the
Bible (after Methuselah and Jared)! If the environmental effects were the
cause, then this does not make sense, unless these environmental effects were
more gradual. Though, this is not to say environmental changes did not do
something, but its effects were not the primary cause of ages dropping about 9
times.
Some have suggested that carbon 14 was greater in the
post-Flood world and that might have a detrimental effect on aging.[1]
Again, Noah was subject to this, yet lived 950 years old, 350 of those years post-Flood.
Genetics
Genetics were likely the prime culprit. Dr. David Menton and
Dr. Georgia Purdom look specifically at genetics and resulting functions of
anatomical features with regards to aging.[2]
We need to keep in mind that there were two major genetic
bottlenecks:
1. At the Flood
2. At the Tower
of Babel
Flood Bottleneck
Genetic bottlenecks cause a significant loss of access to
other people’s versions of genes (called alleles) that are essentially lost. The
obvious loss of pre-Flood people reduced the alleles in the gene pool in
humanity to only 8 people, but really only 6.
Scripture reveals that Noah and his wife had no more sons
after the Flood (Genesis 10). Thus, this leaves Shem, Ham, and Japheth and
their wives, and, of course, these three men each inherited their genes from
the same two parents.
So, early generations after the Flood, like early
generations after the Garden of Eden, saw marriages between people who were
close relatives. Of course, such close intermarriage was not
forbidden until the time of Moses. Regardless, this bottleneck saw the loss
of a great many alleles from the gene pool of those who died in the Flood.
Tower Bottleneck
If you look at the ages of people born after the Flood, the
ages do a sudden drop but are stabilized at about 445 years or so:
1 Arphaxad 438 Genesis
11:12–13
2 Shelah 433 Genesis 11:14–15
3 Eber 464 Genesis 11:16–17
The ages seem to drop in half, where Shem, who was born
prior to Flood, lived to 600. After the Tower, ages suddenly drop from
about 450 to about 235 or so for three generations:
1 Peleg 239 Genesis
11:18–19
2 Reu 239 Genesis
11:20–21
3 Serug 230 Genesis
11:22–23
Even 2 generations after this Terah lived to 205. But these ages trickle down from here.
The Flood and the Tower bottlenecks did something
significant to cause ages to suddenly drop. In both cases, there is a loss or
splitting up of the gene pool. Consider also how mutations can affect age with
an extreme example: One tiny flaw, and
50 years lost!
With these bottlenecks, a host of alleles will be filtered
out and lost. Consequently, immune systems may not be as good, or a host of
other functions, resulting in more infectious disease and so on.
Shem An Intriguing Clue
Another interesting clue comes from Shem. The bottleneck at
the Flood would not have affected Noah as his genetics were not bound by that
event. And he lived 350 years after the Flood and died at 950 years.
Again, Ham and Japheth’s ages are not recorded in Scripture.
But Shem was 600 years. Either bottleneck, the Flood or the Tower would not
have affected Shem’s genetic longevity, in the same way it didn’t affect Noah,
which was prior to the Flood as well.
And yet, his age was significantly dropped off too, by 300 to 350 years. The Bible does not record the cause of death, so it is possible that something caused a premature death. However, it likely just the age of Shem in his old age. And this is a clue that there may have been a genetic problem that passed through Noah to Shem (and perhaps Ham and Japheth too) to trigger a drop in ages.
Consider Lamech again. Noah’s father, only lived to 777. In
the reality of his day, he was young when he died! Methuselah, Lamech’s father, lived nearly 200
years longer than Lamech! So, is it possible that there was a genetic mistake
hidden within Lamech that occurred between Methuselah and his son Lamech?
If this defective gene was passed to Noah from Lamech, and
yet masked by a good gene from Noah’s mother, it may not affect him and hence,
he still lives to a ripe old age of 950 years. But Noah could still pass this
defective along to his sons, such as Shem, who lived to 600 years. But why
couldn’t this have been masked by a good gene from Noah’s mother…unless she too
had a defective gene?
The Bible reveals that Noah was the only one righteous among
his generations (Genesis 6:8-9). Yet he failed to have been fruitful and
multiply until he was 500 years old (Genesis 1:28; Genesis 5:32); which may
signify that Noah had to wait for a long time to find a godly wife (as opposed
to intentionally ignoring God’s command).
Perhaps like Isaac, he went back to common relation to find
a wife who was godly as opposed to finding a wife among the ungodly (Genesis
24:37-38). Methuselah and Lamech (Noah grandfather and Lamech’s father), who
were trained by Enoch, who walked with God as well and was translated without
death to heaven (Genesis 5:24), seems to be strongest candidates whose families
could offer a godly wife. But with this, the same defective gene could be in
her genes as well if it also passed to Lamech.
After the Flood in Genesis 9 [prior to the assembly at Babel
while Noah and his descendants were still living in tents west from Shinar],
righteous Noah became rather drunk, so drunk in fact, that he lay naked in his
tent and failed to recognize that his son Ham had gazed into the tent and
observed him and then proceed to spread the raunchy words about his father
(Genesis 9:21-22).
It was Shem and Japheth’s responsibility to walk in
backwards, not looking at their father’s nakedness, and lay a covering over him
(Genesis 9:23). Did you ever stop and ask, why was it their responsibility
to cover Noah? Where was Noah’s wife? And why would Noah get so drunk in
the first place?
Could it have simply been that she had already died…perhaps
even recently to warrant Noah’s act of getting drunk? According to Archbishop
Ussher, the events at Babel occurred about 106 years after the Flood (according
to the Bible about 3-4 generations had been born, so this is in the ballpark
but may be off a little.) This means that this event occurred in less than this
time, which is enough for Canaan to be born (Ham’s youngest) and cursed by Noah
when he awoke.
If this were the case, then Noah and Mrs. Noah could have
had defective genes that were passed to their sons and this could explain why
Shem only lived to 600 years, Noah’s wife is missing in Genesis 9, and why ages
began dropping.
Further, this explains one aspect of how this could have
coupled in subsequent generations to drop the ages even further.
Common Denominator Of All People Today
All people today go back to Noah and his wife (Mrs. Noah).
So, something with reduced aging has to come through them. Consider the name of
Noah and the prophecy associated with it:
And he called his name Noah,
saying, "This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our
hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed." (Genesis 5:29)
Noah’s name literally means “rest”. This is obviously
looking back to Genesis 3:17-19, where the “ground was cursed” due to sin, “by
the sweat of your brow” and “through painful toil will you work” the ground.
How can we have rest or comfort in this? It is by either
better ways to doing the work…or not doing it as long. Commentators have long
stated many ideas on this such as Noah comforting us in being a type of Christ
with the Ark. Others have pointed out that this relates to the post-Flood
statement by God that He would no longer curse the ground with new curses due
to man’s sake, among other comments too.
Some have said that this was the advent of farming, however,
Adam worked the ground (Genesis 3:23) and so did Cain (Genesis 4:2-3). So, this
may not be the best interpretation. Consider:
Then I heard a voice from heaven
saying to me, "Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now
on.’" "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from
their labors, and their works follow them." (Revelation 14:13)
This verse gives support to the idea that rest or comfort
from work and labor, means that you have died and now rest in the Lord. Let’s
face it, the people after Noah did not work for 900 years, but far less than
that by the sheer fact that they did not live that long.
Could Genesis 5:29 mean that through Noah people would not
live as long and therefore have rest concerning their work and toil? It is
possible. I’m sure an entire book could be written on the subject.
Conclusion
There are goo logical reasons, starting with God’s Word,
that the ages of the patriarchs are indeed really old. But the real question
remains—why do they die so early? Instead of living 5,000 years old, why so
young at 900?
We are in a sin-cursed and broken world where death reigns
due to man’s sin. God forbid man from reaching out and taking form the Tree of
Life and living forever in a sin-broken world. He even put Cherubim with
flaming swords to block that path.
Man would eventually die (surely die) just as God
said due to our sin. But the fact remains, that God solved the sin-death problem with His Son, Christ Jesus.
When Jesus died on the cross, God’s wrath was satisfied to
punish Him instead of us. Christ, being God Himself, could endure that punishment
and walk out of the grave, since He is the God of life.
In heaven, 900 years is but a blink of the eye. For in
heaven, those who repent and trust in Jesus Christ, and His death, burial and
resurrection, will live forever in perfection again with God and all His
eternal blessings. We will, never die but have eternal life.
□
Bodie Hodge, Ken Ham's son in law, has been an apologist
since 1998 helping out in various churches and running an apologetics website.
He spent 21 years working at Answers in Genesis as a speaker, writer, and
researcher as well as a founding news anchor for Answers News. He was also head
of the Oversight Council.
Bodie launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a
personal website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has
spoken on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and
universities. He is married with four children.
Portions originally at Answers in Genesis; Edited;
Republished by permission.
