What was the average life expectancy in the Bible?

From Adam to Noah men lived much longer than in the period that followed. Adam lived 930 years, Noah 950, and Methuselah 969, the longest recorded. After the flood, Shem lived 600 years, but no one after him reached 500. In Peleg is another decline, he lived 239 years; Abraham only 175 years. We can easily understand why God caused people in the early age of the earth to live so much longer than afterwards. God said to Adam "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth." Gen. 1:28. He also said the same to Noah after the flood. Gen. 9:1, 7. When the earth became more and more peopled the life of man was shortened. The only intimation of what may perhaps now be called the normal longevity of man is in Ps. 90:10, and yet it is a lament for his short and troubled life: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow: for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." This is remarkable as being, according to the heading "A prayer of Moses the man of God," for of Moses we read that he lived 120 years, and "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated," Deut. 34:7; but the Psalms were prophetic both for our, and future times, and Moses leads short-lived man to the eternity of God. (Ver. 2.) In the thousand years of the millennium apparently no one will die but the wicked, and one at a hundred years of age will be called a child: the days of God's people will be as the days of a tree, and they will, when the curse is removed, long enjoy the work of their hands. Isa. 65:20-22.

Various figures are laid under tribute by the Psalmist; a flood, a sleep, a bundle of withered grass. God's sentence upon man is as irresistible as a flood. Man's uncertain existence here is quickly over, as quickly as seems to pass a night of sleep. He is cut down and He withers as swiftly as a handful of grass. Three score and ten years were the ordinary measure of his days. This, we may observe, was specially applicable to the people amongst whom Moses moved in the wilderness. All those who were numbered from twenty years old and upward came under that word, "Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness" (Num. 14:29); so those who were in their prime at thirty, when coming out of Egypt, cannot have lived to be more than seventy, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua. It is remarkable that God should have used a man who lived to one hundred and twenty, and who when he died at that age was still full of vigour, to declare three score and ten to be man's days.

But why is man so frail, so mortal? Because he has fallen under the Divine displeasure. It is not an unreasonable accident that he is in this plight. He was not created thus. It is simply and only that anger and wrath from God lie upon him. An hard saying this, but a true one. It is the only explanation of the sad state in which man is found.

Thus, all our days are passed away in His wrath (v. 9), for sin continues predominantly in all those who are "in the flesh," not renewed by the power of the Spirit of God. "We finish our years like a sigh." Then, though Moses himself (who wrote this psalm) lived 120 years, he writes of a normal life being seventy years. Of course in Genesis there were those who lived over 900 years, but God shortened this greatly by the time Moses wrote. Now, some may be given strength to live 80 years, yet the extra years are accompanied by "labor and sorrow" (v. 10). In other words, there is no encouragement given to wish for an extended life, and certainly this is specially so in the case of one redeemed by the blood of Christ, who is glad for the prospect of entering into the Lord's presence. At any rate, "it is soon cut off, and we fly away." Some do live for over 100 years, but however long life is, it is still short!

Job lived to the age of 140 years, and Jacob to 147 years. The ages of men, as recorded in the Book of Genesis, decline from Noah, who lived for 950 years, Shem, his son, died at 600, Shelah, the grandson of Shem, at 433, and Peleg, the grandson of Shelah, at 239. After three generations comes Abraham, who lived to be 175 years old, and after another three there is Joseph, who died at 110. Moses and Joshua, who died at 120 and 110 years respectively, seemed to have lived longer than their contemporaries, for Moses, in Psalm 90 writes, "The days of our years are threescore years and ten," showing that by his time the normal span of human life had been brought down to what it is now.

God has seen fit to return man to the dust (v. 3), though some had lived at one time to close to 1000 years, — now not often much over 100. But with the sentence of death upon them, God tells them, "Return, O children of men." Return to their former condition? Not at all, but return to God. For if He shortened their days on earth, yet to Him even 1000 years was like "a watch in the night," come and gone, or like grass, grown up, then cut down and withered. Indeed, "what is man?"

In full confirmation of the foregoing lines, we may run the eye over the contents of Chapter 5 and find therein the illuminating record of man's weakness, and subjection to the rule of death. He might live for hundreds of years, and "beget sons and daughters;" but, at last, it must be recorded that "he died." "Death reigned from Adam to Moses." "It is appointed to men once to die." Man cannot get over this. He cannot, by steam, or electricity, or anything else within the range of his genius, disarm death of its terrible sting. He cannot, by his energy, set aside the sentence of death, although he may produce the comforts and luxuries of life.

Compared with his father Noah and those before him, Shem's years mark the growing diminution of human age after the flood. Yet it was given to him before he came near the end of his six hundred years to live into the days not of Abram only but of Isaac. Peleg, the fifth in this series, did not reach half the limit of Shem's term; and Nahor, the father of Terah, dwindled to a hundred and forty-five years. So that in God's providential arrangements man was coming by rapid steps to the span of years ordinary since the prayer of Moses (Ps. 90), himself an exception as there have been a few even in modern times.

Long afterwards — and there was wisdom in the arrangement — when man's age began to be shortened to its present limit, God made a written revelation. Some make merry at the idea; but the time will come when they must weep. Faith sees divine wisdom where incredulity mocks. Do you not see that when man's age is expressly said to be shortened to threescore years and ten (Ps. 90), Moses, the man of God, was first used to write down this word? Scripture, therefore, is more than the word. It was the word before Scripture, but now Scripture is God's word written by inspired men. So all Scripture teaches. Any one who is familiar with the New Testament will admit this. "Every scripture [is] given by inspiration of God." This is an important statement, because it shows that the Holy Spirit was providing for what was not yet written — for the Gospel and the Revelation of John, as examples, not yet written. Every scripture — whether what was written or what was going to be written — every scripture is given by inspiration of God.

"And all the days which Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died" (ver. 5). There is not the slightest sound reason to doubt the longevity here attributed to antediluvian man. Man was made to live, not to die; his death came in through sin. The truth of life will appear when the Second man takes the world-kingdom (Rev. 11). Those who live righteously when He reigns shall continue through the thousand years, none dying save under curse for rebellion; and the righteous, as scriptural principles imply, are at last changed, without passing through death, into everlasting incorruption; as Christians are entitled to expect who are alive and are left to the coming of the Lord, before His displayed kingdom begins (1 Thess. 4, 1 Cor. 15). Lengthened as the span of years may seem, compared with the measure which the prayer of Moses (Ps. 90) lays down as the ordinary rule of human life, they were but "days" of Adam or any other here recorded. After Adam they were begotten, and they begot; they lived and they died. This sums up the history of most; but of this more when we review the account of others, as well as the exceptions.

Genesis 5

When Adam was 130 years old, God gave him another son instead of Abel and he called his name Seth. After that Adam lived 800 years, and had sons and daughters. At the age of 930 years, "he died". In those days men lived to be very old. The oldest of all was Methuselah: he lived 969 years. Today, if a person lives to be 100, we think him very old. But he must die. How about Methuselah? Of him also it is written: "He died." Would you like to live to be 969 years old? Many people would. Would they like to die then? No. Death is man's enemy. Nobody likes to die, but in this world all except two men have died, Enoch and Elijah.