That's a fair question to ask when very few of us today know anyone who makes it to a hundred, let alone 930 like Adam (Genesis 5:5), or 969 like Methuselah (Genesis 5:27). We learned that Noah lived to be 950.
Apparently the world was a drastically different place prior to the flood. Not just because peoples diets were different with out the discovery of trans-fatty acids and long before the fast food generation. But evidently the atmosphere was different as well because right after the flood you see an immediate decline in years lived, the next main figure after Noah is Abraham and he lived to be only 175, (Gen 25:7) then his grandson Jacob lived to be 147 (Gen. 47:28). Then Moses lived 120 (Deut. 34:7) And then centuries later, King David wrote in Psalm 90:10 about a modern life span that is applicable all the way to present day. "The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away."
Now how could people back in the opening chapters of Genesis (1-9) have lived so long; how is that possible?
Some theologians contend that the earth's atmosphere prior to the flood was very different from that of today. They suggest the earth was once surrounded by a canopy of water vapor. Genesis 1:7 says, God…separated the water under the expanse (sky) from the water above it."
Some scientists visualize water surrounding the earth similar to the system of rings that surround the planet Saturn. Those rings would be composed primarily of ice particles orbiting the earth. They suggest this thick water vapor would block out harmful radiation of the sun, create uniform temperature and humidity, eliminate Polar Regions, and make possible lush vegetation over the entire earth.
I remember watching on the Discovery Channel once about the frozen mammoths discovered in Siberia and Antarctica. And how scientists were baffled because plants that grow only in warmer climates were found in the animal's stomachs. They concluded these Arctic regions sometime back in history had to be much warmer than they are now, though they offered no explanation how it was different then and why it changed.
But scientists admit that the earth as we know it now, has not always been. There have been catastrophes that have greatly altered the surface of the earth. So it is speculated that one of the reasons people lived much longer prior to Noah's day was because atmospheric conditions were much healthier. With a warmer temperature, and humidity above the earth it created an atmospheric pressure, which would allow a person to live much longer.
I remember reading an article on Michael Jackson years ago, in it he talked about how his greatest fear is dying, he won't even allow you to really bring up the subject in his presence, so for over 20 year, Jackson routinely slept in a pressurized oxygen chamber.
But scientists admit that the earth as we know it now, has not always been. There have been catastrophes that have greatly altered the surface of the earth. So it is speculated that one of the reasons people lived much longer prior to Noah's day was because atmospheric conditions were much healthier. With a warmer temperature, and humidity above the earth it created an atmospheric pressure, which would allow a person to live much longer.
I remember reading an article on Michael Jackson years ago, in it he talked about how his greatest fear is dying, he won't even allow you to really bring up the subject in his presence, so for over 20 year, Jackson routinely slept in a pressurized oxygen chamber.
He believed it would allow him to live to be at least 150 He said, "…when I sleep in my hyperbaric oxygen chamber…I awaken feeling like a new person." Well we now know that even those chambers can't thwart the devastating affects of drugs on the body.
But according to many experts, prior to the flood it never rained, it was one consistent, warm, humid climate throughout the whole earth; in other words our planet was one massive hyperbaric chamber. Genesis2:5 says, "The Lord God had not sent rain on the earth,…but streams (KJV: a mist) came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground." Proverbs 8:28 says, God "established the clouds above, and fixed securely the fountains of the deep."
At one time, many experts' suggest places like Mammoth Cave and the Grand Canyon were designed by God to have been pressurized water reservoirs that would refresh the earth with a mist at night. Genesis 7:11-12 describe the beginning of the flood. "On that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights." This is the first recorded rainfall.
When the storm was over, a rainbow appeared for the first time ever, which suggests a dramatic change in the earth's atmosphere. So Noah was 600 when the rains came. And so I think the environment had something to do with it...
But according to many experts, prior to the flood it never rained, it was one consistent, warm, humid climate throughout the whole earth; in other words our planet was one massive hyperbaric chamber. Genesis2:5 says, "The Lord God had not sent rain on the earth,…but streams (KJV: a mist) came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground." Proverbs 8:28 says, God "established the clouds above, and fixed securely the fountains of the deep."
At one time, many experts' suggest places like Mammoth Cave and the Grand Canyon were designed by God to have been pressurized water reservoirs that would refresh the earth with a mist at night. Genesis 7:11-12 describe the beginning of the flood. "On that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights." This is the first recorded rainfall.
When the storm was over, a rainbow appeared for the first time ever, which suggests a dramatic change in the earth's atmosphere. So Noah was 600 when the rains came. And so I think the environment had something to do with it...
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