Why, if god limited man's life to 120 years, did people live longer?

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How do you determine which translations are "poorly done"? It sounds like you're choosing the KJV as "correct" because it tells you what you want to hear - e.g. that "Jesus is God". How do you know that the other translations aren't more accurate?

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That`s the Holy Spirit issue, which can`t be debated with the unbeliever..not that I`m accusing you.Edited by 3fojurky, : misspelling

How do you discern the difference between "Holy Spirit" and self-delusion?

Okay, let's assume that I am a believer. Let's assume that I believe exactly the same as you do.The only difference is that I don't understand how to determine which translations are "poorly done".
What do you tell a new believer about how to tell which translations are most accurate?

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It has already been established that the passage in question was referring to the world wide flood that nearly wiped out mankind rather than referring to the lifespan of individuals.

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AKA G.A.S.B.Y.George Absolutely Stupid Bush the Younger

yes, i think that is the consensus between believers and non-believers here. i suggest the kjv-only-ist tangent this thread has derailed into be taken to another thread.

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there is an odd difference in that verse than others. let me explainGenesis 6:3
"an hundred and twenty years"(KJV)this is what God said right before the flood
now look at how the ages are writtenGenesis 11:12
"12And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:"(KJV)now i see a difference between AGE of man and length of time. it says "five and thirty years" what does that mean?i think that what God said in Genesis 6:3 was that MAN will live for another 120 years then he will cause the flood, because it says that Noah was 500 years old, when God said this, when the flood came noah was 600.so about 100 years later the flood came, same as what God said? not quite, let me explain: God said that he would give man 120 years then he will judge them. now Genesis goes back and forth in Genesis 5 it ends with talking about how Noah had 3 kids. then in Genesis 6 it starts off explain how man multiplied bla bla and God saw that they were bad and then he sees Noah, and it explains how he has kids AGAIN. so im thinking heres how the chronology workednoah was 480 when God said to himself "My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years" then 20 years later Noah begets Shem, Ham, and Japeth. God speaks to Noah when he is 500 and it took Noah 100 years to build the Ark and explain to people about the flood. then when Noah was 600 Flood came. I THINK that is a good explanation on WHAT God meant according to the context structure.

Genesis 6:1-3 Reads:
"1.Now it came about that when men started to grow in numbers on the surface of the ground and daughters were born to them,
2. then the sons of the true God began to notice the daughters of men, that they were good-looking; and they went taking wives for themselves, namely, all whom they chose.
3. After that Jehovah (YWHW or JHVH in the original texts) said: "My spirit shall not act toward man indefinitely in that he is also flesh. Accordingly his days shall amount to a hundred and twenty years.""Ignoring 1. and looking at 2.:What the angels were doing was obviously unnatural. In accord with his sentence in 3. God was simply stopping the spread of the Nephlim. However, those "faithful" to him such as Sarah, Noah, and his family were an exception. Why would God limit them?As found in Genesis 6:8: "But Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah." It seems that "Man" included those other than Noah and Sarah. It also seems that Noah, Sarah, and his family did not go under this category:Genesis 6:5: "Consequently Jehovah saw that the badness of man was abundant in the earth and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only bad all the time."There is also an explanation for why the average life span of humans slowly declined at time progressed. If there was a canopy of water covering the Earth, it would have prevented a lot of UV rays. This would prevent many problems stemming from the sun.All scriptures above were copied from the "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures" which goes almost 99.999% unaltered from the copies of the dead sea scrolls and other records of the Bible.Edited by T Planck, : No reason given.

Hello, TPlanck, and welcome to EvC!I've never seen a name given for Mrs Noah before - that's interesting that your translation has one. We've been around this "vapor canopy" barn many times here, but I would like to point out that both oxygen and nitrogen absorb ultraviolet light better than water does. That's on an equal-weight basis, now, so if you want 50% of all our oceans as a "canopy," you may stop most of the UV, 'Course, you also trap all the heat then, too....

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I apoligize if this has allready been said,but in Genesis 6:3 (all quoes in KJV) "And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. "The creation of Noah, along with his wife was mentioned before this. Sarah was not mentioned, but this does not matter because she married Noah, and the names are used for reference. Also, the statement quoted previously could be referimg to any period of time, as it is not mentioned when god said the statement.Furthermore, in congruence to the Flood Theory, Water evaporated in the sky ( as evident from Gen 1:7 "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. ") This could be cause to slow the penetration of UV rays, and thus extend the lifetime of the occupants of the planet earth. The quote Gen 6:3 could be referencing after the flood, when the earth would be in its final resting state (without much of the oceans in the sky)

I am not sure what the problem is here. The context of Gen. 4-6 should be simple enough. The book of Gen. is outlined into 10 smaller books or genealogies or histories. Chapter 5 starts a new history (#2) hence "This is the book of the genealogy of Adam." In doing so it brings you from what was said before reguarding Creation and Adam to the focus of the new subject Adam and his descendants particularly Noah and the flood. The next history is the history of the sons of Noah and the events surrounding the Tower of Babel.God told Noah when he was 480 that he had given mankind 120 years until HE would destroy the world with the Flood. The reason was mans wickedness - culminating in the events reguarding the "bene elohim" or sons of God.Noah began to have his three sons when he was 500 and when he was 600 the flood came. This is not that difficult of a passage to exegete. It is not say man would from that point on live only 120 yrs (seeing Noahs sons lived longer than that) nor do we have to finagel it to mean an appoximate time. The truth is there for those who would seek in faith that the Word of the Living God is reliable and accurate in its details.Note: Methusalah; meaning (his death shall bring) lived the longest - 969 yrs old (hence Gods grace). He died the year that the flood came in the 600th year of Noah.

In the bible it says that a thousand years are as a day and a day as a thousand years. If you take this literally it would be easy to see im wrong but i believe it is being used as a metaphor for explaining Gods infinence and imensity in that his view of time is not human but that he looks down on time as if all of time is on a 2d timescale. So there is no real way to determine if he means 120 2nd millenium years or if he was using a totally different set of meaning.