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| Photo by Justin Vidamo |
We read in the Bible of people living
900 years or more before the flood. After the flood, the average
lifespan slowly decreased, from 450, to 250, and at last to 80. Why?
First of all, it wasn't because of
God's words in Genesis 6:3; “his days shall be 120 years.” That
verse was actually speaking of the allowance of time God had given man
in which to repent before the flood came to destroy them. But if it
wasn't that, what was it?
Some people have suggested it was a
change in diet. Before the flood, meat eating was not allowed.
However vegetarians today live no longer than other folks, so we know
that can't be true.
What about environmental changes? Some
hypothesize that the pre-flood world could have been very different
in terms of atmospheric pressure and oxygen levels, but neither of
these is likely to have been the culprit. Noah stepped off the ark at
600 years old, and yet the post-flood environment had no negative
effect on the rest of his life. In fact, he lived to become the third
oldest person in human history!
The most likely cause for shorter
life-spans after the flood is genetics. Shem only lived to be 600 (we
don't know how long Ham and Japheth lived), despite having been born
in the same environment as Noah, and whatever it was that caused his
“early” aging was passed down to his descendants, none of whom
lived longer than he did.
Lamech, Noah's father, only lived to be
777, which was quite young. He could have well passed down the
genetic marker for premature aging to his grandsons, and with the
bottleneck of the flood, there would have been no infusion of fresh
DNA in the post-flood bloodline to prevent all of Noah's decedents
from being affected. One little mutation, and we lost 300 years. The
dispersion at the Tower of Babel provided yet another bottleneck,
paring down the pool of genetic information available to each people
group—and mutations multiplied, and with them, apparently, came yet
another drop in the average lifespan.
I know, I know. That wasn't really a short answer. But I tried!
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