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Comment by Nition | Hacker News Reader

One thing I always thought was interesting about that is it happened during Noah's lifetime, when he was probably already older than 120 and lived a few hundred more years after. He's lucky the new rule wasn't retroactive to those who were already alive!

Also, there's some debate about whether that line means the obvious (maximum lifespan of around 120 years), or whether it's actually saying that people have 120 years left until the great flood comes. Most people (and me personally as well) think the former but the latter does make some sense as an interpretation in context. Well, except for the fact that it does mark a point in the Bible where people's reported lives stopped being ridiculously long.

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There is absolutely no reason to believe that Noah was already older than 120 or that he lived longer than a normal life span. There is every reason to believe that nearly everyone's body falls apart between 50 and 120 if disease or malice hasn't gotten them prior.

When you fabricate its better if the fabrications concern things either long ago or far away and if the present situation is different from that described you have to explain why if you don't want your audience comparing present reality to prior and seeing through the hoax.

Example if you wanted to posit that insert legendary figure here was 30 feet tall and came from a village where most were 20' and up you can't set the story in the next village last year because someone has probably been there and noticed that people just aren't that tall.

If it was a thousand years prior across an ocean you can claim that people became less mighty as the years went by and lost touch with their gods which plays to people's tendency to filter the past through nostalgia.

If a 30 foot tall giant seems less likely than a 900 year old man then you may need to apply critical thinking skills.

Just because its still socially OK to believe nonsense doesn't mean its true.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply it was all true. I'm not Christian either. When I say "Noah lived for hundreds of years" (950 in fact!) I just mean according to the Bible. Same way I'd say Darth Vader ruled the Empire.

Many people who were born after the flood are listed in the Bible as living longer than 120 years. It's just not a very internally consistent book (probably because it has multiple authors).

Edit: I was wrong about the part below.

As for it being 120 years until the flood, if my memory serves me right, that passage is clearly after the flood (and as a reaction to the 'wickedness' before the flood).

That passage is before the flood. Flood planning starts just after.

I don't remember anyone living hundreds of years in the Bible after that proclamation (unless they were already alive, like Noah) but you might be right. I see Jacob was apparently 130 or older and that was later on. Is there anyone who lived a really long time that was born after Genesis 6:3? Seems like a good place to spot an obvious "plot hole".

You're right about the flood planning, I just checked. It's worth noting that the chapters in the Bible are likely modern too.

Abraham lived for 175 years, Moses suspiciously lived for exactly 120 years, some medieval commentators claim the genesis verse is a reference to him (although there is no other proof).

Thank you, good example. 175 is indeed beyond what one could reasonably consider "around 120" and Abraham came after the 120 years proclamation.

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