How old was Noah

Zombrex

Funny, that question never got answered...

So any religious folk feeling brave enough, do you literally believe that Noah lived to 950 years old? (this thread would no doubt be closed on the Christianity forum, but if mods think it doesn't belong here either feel free to move or close)

GLaDOS

950 metaphorical years, obviously.

Zombrex

ScienceNerd wrote: »

950 metaphorical years, obviously.

:P

MagicMarker

Maybe they meant dog years?

Owen

Some religious people genuinely believe that people lived to be that old around then, and that sin and the like is the reason we struggle to hit 100 now.

AG2R

about 65, he didn't really lure animals to an Ark it was kids.

marienbad

I have noah idea.

mooliki

Owen wrote: »

...sin and the like is the reason we struggle to hit 100 now.

Don't you mean medical advances and the trials and efforts of several centuries of scientific progress?.....Wait a sec...

fitz0

Owen wrote: »

Some religious people genuinely believe that people lived to be that old around then, and that sin and the like is the reason we struggle to hit 100 now.

Does that mean that there's a link between scientific advance and a decline in sin?

Paparazzo

And the thing is, even if it said he lived to be 3000, it still wouldn't be the most far fetched part of the Noah story.
It's always a good one to annoy Jehovah's Witnesses. I think they even have trouble believing this one

Wereghost

^There's always the old "early quantum state phenomenon" explanation. Man, the number of times that I've heard that one!

irishh_bob

Paparazzo wrote: »

And the thing is, even if it said he lived to be 3000, it still wouldn't be the most far fetched part of the Noah story.
It's always a good one to annoy Jehovah's Witnesses. I think they even have trouble believing this one

are you not confusing noah with gandalf

gawker

Noah was old, sure, but Methuselah was the man! 969 years. All factual, of course.

Wereghost

^ Enoch may be technically the oldest man in the Bible, because hypothetically he's still around - having been supposedly transformed into the Metatron rather than dying.

Delirium

I'm thinking his parents never swapped over to measuring his age in years and just continued to measure his age in months.

bit weird to be almost 40 starting primary school, but on the plus side you have a high frequency of parties.

pH

If you live to 950 then some weird stuff is bound to happen in your life

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1875/whats-up-with-the-biblical-story-of-drunken-noah-part-1

Corkfeen

irishh_bob wrote: »

are you not confusing noah with gandalf

Aren't they one in the same? Favourite line of Noah is "You shall not Pass!". Gandalf was some awesome dude.... :pac:

Sarky

I liked how he saved all the animals by getting the giant eagles to carry them.

Mark Hamill

Corkfeen wrote: »

Aren't they one in the same? Favourite line of Noah is "You shall not Pass!". Gandalf was some awesome dude.... :pac:

That was when the dinosaurs were trying to get on, right?

Corkfeen

Mark Hamill wrote: »

That was when the dinosaurs were trying to get on, right?

I thought it was the Neanderthals, it was Gandalf's/Noah's way of disproving evolution by not letting them survive.

marienbad

Scrawny71 wrote: »

^ Enoch may be technically the oldest man in the Bible, because hypothetically he's still around - having been supposedly transformed into the Metatron rather than dying.

Megatron !! never new that .

Wereghost

^ Metatron. Way cooler than Megatron. Voice of God, and Biblical Dude With The Coolest Name for about 3000 years running.

Sarky

If he can't turn into a gun or kill Optimus Prime, he's not cooler than Megatron.

charlemont

He was an alien so he could live for hundreds of years and his ark was a spaceship and it was DNA samples from the animals he kept...;)

Mickeroo

Sarky wrote: »

If he can't turn into a gun or kill Optimus Prime, he's not cooler than Megatron.

He's Alan Rickman.

Wereghost

^ True, though in fairness Megatron was Hugo Weaving.

aidan24326

pH wrote: »

If you live to 950 then some weird stuff is bound to happen in your life

Like ending up in a huge boat full of animals?

Anyway what was the life expectancy back then? I mean even in the year 1900 you were doing well if you made it to about 55 or so. Many didn't.

Galvasean

Scrawny71 wrote: »

^ Enoch may be technically the oldest man in the Bible, because hypothetically he's still around - having been supposedly transformed into the Metatron rather than dying.

Yay Transformers!!!!!!

Doctor DooM

Scrawny71 wrote: »

^ True, though in fairness Megatron was Hugo Weaving.

...

Frank Welker.

Hugo Weaving is a sad pretender to the throne.

On a vaguely on topic note Enoch ceased to be a man when he- ahem- transformed in to Metatron so I don't think he counts.

EDIT: And none of this comes from accepted Christian texts either

antiskeptic

Zombrex wrote: »

So any religious folk feeling brave enough, do you literally believe that Noah lived to 950 years old?

Let me get this straight: you're supposing one who holds that water was turned into an alcoholic beverage needs to muster up bravery to answer 'yes' to this question?

Why?

And what's the prob with 950 years in the context of God's existence?

Sarky

Yes, then?

antiskeptic

antiskeptic wrote: »

Let me get this straight: you're supposing one who holds that water was turned into an alcoholic beverage needs to muster up bravery to answer 'yes' to this question?

Why?

And what's the prob with 950 years in the context of God's existence?

The problem is in the fact that it's a patently silly part of the story that cannot be fobbed off by saying it's "metaphor".

I believe it was from Philologos trying to claim that the Noah's ark story was an accurate retelling of an actual flood in the middle east, despite it containing several fantastical elements for which there's no sane way to take it as a metaphor.

So do you believe the bible was telling the truth when it claimed something silly like a man can live this long?

Daftendirekt

Mickeroo wrote: »

He's Alan Rickman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Ej9-q0dqU

philologos

King Mob wrote: »

I believe it was from Philologos trying to claim that the Noah's ark story was an accurate retelling of an actual flood in the middle east, despite it containing several fantastical elements for which there's no sane way to take it as a metaphor.

To briefly clarify.

I believe that Noah's Ark was an actual account. I believe there was an actual flood in the Middle East at that time. Other Christians may disagree with me, but I suggest that you read Genesis 6 - 8 using a concordance to look at the specific Hebrew words used if you want to get closer to the text.

I never said it was a metaphor in any way. It's a real account.

biko

If water covered the entire planet for months, where did it come from? And where is it now?

If only Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives survived, where do Chinese people come from?

philologos

philologos wrote: »

To briefly clarify.

I believe that Noah's Ark was an actual account. I believe there was an actual flood in the Middle East at that time. Other Christians may disagree with me, but I suggest that you read Genesis 6 - 8 using a concordance to look at the specific Hebrew words used if you want to get closer to the text.

I never said it was a metaphor in any way. It's a real account.

So then do you believe what the Bible says when it claimed that the flood covered the entire Earth and was high enough to submerge mountain tops and that Noah lived for 950 years?

This is the point you refused to clarify.
So could you please clarify it now or at least explain why you're not going to answer it?

MrStuffins

biko wrote: »

If only Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives survived, where do Chinese people come from?

Japan! But don't tell them that, they don't like it for some reason!

robindch

philologos wrote: »

I believe that Noah's Ark was an actual account. I believe there was an actual flood in the Middle East at that time. Other Christians may disagree with me, but I suggest that you read Genesis 6 - 8 using a concordance to look at the specific Hebrew words used if you want to get closer to the text. I never said it was a metaphor in any way. It's a real account.

So the Epic of Gilgamesh -- which features an identical flood sent by a deity for identical reasons, an ark and a dove -- is the metaphorical account and the Hebrew derivative is the true one?

antiskeptic

King Mob wrote: »

So do you believe the bible was telling the truth when it claimed something silly like a man can live this long?

Which is sillier: water into wine or living 950 years? If you consider them equally silly then you've underscored the pointlessness of Zombrex's question just as much as I have.

MrStuffins

antiskeptic wrote: »

Which is sillier: water into wine or living 950 years? If you consider them equally so then you've underscored the pointlessness of Zombrex's question just as much as I have.

Hi antiskeptic.

How old do you think Noah was? Do you think he was 950 years old?

Thanks.

antiskeptic

MrStuffins wrote: »

Hi antiskeptic.

How old do you think Noah was? Do you think he was 950 years old?

I've no reason to suppose otherwise (it not striking me that the story is (contextually speaking) fable or the like).

antiskeptic

antiskeptic wrote: »

Which is sillier: water into wine or living 950 years? If you consider them equally silly then you've underscored the pointlessness of Zombrex's question just as much as I have.

I don't see what the point your making is.

Is it that God used his magic to do both and therefore if you believe in God there's no issue with believeing either claim?

Because this has nothing to do Zombrex's point as far as I can see as it's dealing with the fact that the "it's metaphorical" excuse only goes so far.

Now you've been plenty evasive on the issue so could you please be clear this time?
Do you believe the bible when it says that Noah lived to be 950?
Do you believe the bible when it says the flood went as high as mountain tops?

MrStuffins

antiskeptic wrote: »

I've no reason to suppose otherwise (it not striking me that the story is (contextually speaking) fable or the like).

Really? You have no reason to suppose a man didn't live to be 950 years old? Really?

Could you please confirm that, yes, you DO indeed, believe Noah was 950 years old though? it seems you don't want to actually admit it, you just want to say "well he could've".

fitz0

antiskeptic wrote: »

I've no reason to suppose otherwise (it not striking me that the story is (contextually speaking) fable or the like).

No reason like the life expectancy of a human being being less than 1/10th of that? No that's a ridiculous reason isn't it?

Oh wait, God did it. Never mind.

getz

first thing you have to ask yourself was noah a man ? daft as it may seem genesis chapter 6, says the sons of god saw the daughters of men[dont tell the christian churches that god has more than one son] and that they were fair,and took them as wives of all they chose.when the sons of god came into the daughters of men and bare children to them,the same became mighty men which were of old men of renown,then it goes on to say noah found grace in the eyes of the lord, the rest you know ,so was noahs dad a son of god ?

getz

getz wrote: »

first thing you have to ask yourself was noah a man ? daft as it may seem genesis chapter 6, says the sons of god saw the daughters of men[dont tell the christian churches that god has more than one son] and that they were fair,and took them as wives of all they chose.when the sons of god came into the daughters of men and bare children to them,the same became mighty men which were of old men of renown,then it goes on to say noah found grace in the eyes of the lord, the rest you know ,so was noahs dad a son of god ?

we're all sons and daughters of god really. awwwww.


maybe they were giants or something.

MagicMarker

fitz0 wrote: »

No reason like the life expectancy of a human being being less than 1/10th of that? No that's a ridiculous reason isn't it?

Oh wait, God did it. Never mind.

1/10th of life expectancy now, probably 1/20th of life expectancy back then.

tuxy

Does anyone know about the story that happened after Noah and his family came out of the ark after the rain.

Apparently he got drunk and naked. And then make his grandson become a slave.

And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders and went backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

What kind of message does that portray?

tuxy

tuxy wrote: »

Does anyone know about the story that happened after Noah and his family came out of the ark after the rain.

Apparently he got drunk and naked. And then make his grandson become a slave.


What kind of message does that portray?

Well it's obviously a metaphor...

fitz0

MagicMarker wrote: »

1/10th of life expectancy now, probably 1/20th of life expectancy back then.

At a conservative estimate. I didn't want to say that though as I'm not arsed looking for sources.

To quote GTA3 people in ye olde times "threw stones at their own shadow and died of old-age and fear at 24!"

getz

bluewolf wrote: »

we're all sons and daughters of god really. awwwww.


maybe they were giants or something.

there was,it also says,there were giants[nephilim]in the earth in those days