Genesis 6:3

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And Jehovah said, My spirit shall not strive with man for ever, for that he also is flesh: yet shall his days be a hundred and twenty years. (ASV)

Pro

Two interpretations for this verse have been advanced. The first is that humans are not allowed by God to live to ages above 120 years. This may well have seemed far beyond lifespans when this was written, but in modern times people do sometimes live beyond 120 years, such as Jeanne Calment . Nonetheless, this verse may have been inserted later or not noticed by Biblical writers, as some people live over 120 years after this verse (some are Abraham at 175 years in Gen 25:7, Jacob at 147 years in Gen 47:28, and Isaac at 180 years in Gen 35:28).


This verse also shows that the apologetic of claiming that the ridicuously long ages in Genesis really mean months, since doing so would mean that God decreed people could only live to be 10 (=120/12) years old - in addition to the many people in Gen 5 who have children when they are 5 to 9 years old, if we go by months.

Perhaps in response to the fact that people do live longer than 120 years, some apologists say that this verse is a warning by God that God will kill everyone on earth in 120 years (the flood occurs in the next chapter). This doesn't work for a number of reasons. First, no exception is made in Gen 6:3 for Noah and his family, who survive. Secondly, and more importantly, this contradicts the text itself, which says Noah is 500 years old before this (in Gen 5:32, and that the flood comes when Noah is 600 years old (in Gen 7:6), giving a maximum time of 100 years.

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