What's With the Ages of the Patriarchs? (Part 1)

One of the well-known curiosities of Genesis is the long ages of the ancient patriarchs, particularly from Adam to Noah. With the exception of Enoch, who was translated, all of them are said to have lived over 700 years--some of them almost 1,000 years. To say that such long lifespans seem implausible is an understatement. What are we to make of these ages?

Carol Hill's 2003 article, "Making Sense of the Numbers of Genesis" (PDF) in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (a publication of the American Scientific Affiliation) argues that the numbers of Genesis should be understood in terms of numerology rather than arithmetic. She makes the following basic points:

• In ancient cultures numbers often had symbolic value independent of their numeric value.
• The ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt are known to have exaggerated lifespans of important persons.
• Mesopotamians used a sexagesimal (base 60) number system, often symbolically. However, the Egyptians--and later the Hebrews--used the decimal (base 10) system. The decreasing lifespans after the flood may reflect a change in the usage of numbers by the Hebrews as a result of their time spent in Egypt.
• All of the ages given from Adam to Noah can be broken down into favored numbers.
• There are clear examples of numerical symmetry in scripture.
• Genealogies in the Bible sometimes omit generations, and "begot" doesn't always mean begot.

Read the paper for more details. I think she makes a good case for exercising care in taking Biblical numbers (especially in Genesis) at face value. This frees us from having to accommodate such fantastic lifespans as part of real history.

BUT...

The Genesis lifespans are repeated in the Book of Moses, which is Joseph Smith's revision of Genesis, and Doctrine and Covenants 107:42-53 gives the ages at which the ancient patriarchs were ordained to the Priesthood. Not only were several of them hundreds of years old at the time of their ordination, but before he died Adam assembled his posterity to bless them. All of the patriarchs down to Methuselah (Adam's great-great-great-great-great grandson) are named as having attended.

So now we are back where we started. Or are we? In my next post we'll look at the ages of the ancient patriarchs a little more closely and see what we find.

Part 2
Part 3

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