Did Noah really live for 950 years?

Thanks for your inputs. Hearing what people think about this makes one more familiar with the subject. More inputs will be helpful.

Does it matter? If he lived only 23 years would it change the saving message of Christ's incarnation? I encounter too many people who get hung up on details about years and days in the Old Testament. As Orthodox Christians we do not read Old Testament as a book of science but as a book of faith - The Faith as revealed by God for our edification. Whether Noah lived 950 years or not cannot and will not change whether we are saved through/in Christ or not. Please don't misunderstand my comments here. The tact of \"discrediting\" the minutae details in scripture is used by many to discredit the message of Christ. I would hate for you or others to get lost in that battle. Similarly as Orthodox Christians we don't make an issue of whether a book was written by Moses or not either even though the Holy Tradition refers to \"as Moses said\" etc. The Scriptures, New and Old Testament, are the Holy Revealed Word of God written by the Church for the Church and bear their authority granted to them by the Holy Canons of the Church.

Hmmm... Belittling and ridiculing me. Check. Obsfucating the issue with verbal misdirection and pseudo-scientific jargon. Check. Flat out refusal to answer direct questions. Check. Well, Artintel/Dr George Grebens, or whatever name you want to go by, at least you're consistent. Oh, and you might want to go back over the dialogue from a year ago. I never said I was a \"bed ridden invalid\". I'm flattered that you keep my work, though.

Don't the Fathers warn against taking the Bible too literally? I was reading Patristic Theology by Romanides and he mentions this, as does Lossky in Mystical Theology of the eastern Church(if memory serves, of course). In the end does it matter? Would Noah living 950 years or 95 years change the fact that God became flesh in the incarnation, and was crucufied to set us free from bondage and death? I'm no expert but debates such as these tend to distract us from the Way causing us to stumble and to fall away from our salvation. Also they seem to me to lead to disputes that tear the Chuch apart which is what demonic literally means.

Yes, I believe Noah lived for 950 years as did Methuslah live for 969 years. The way I reason this .... God created Adam and Eve as the perfect physiological male and female. They were not genetically predisposed to any diseases or any other physical imperfections when God created them. After the fall this changed .... The sins of their ancestors gradually began to cumulate from generation to generation and, consequently, the physical disposition of their ancestors began to deteriorate. To paraphase Leviticus .... One's sins visit down to one's third and fourth generation. Its only by the grace of God that this \"age deterioration\" was at last set at 70 years.

Well, I think people can *COMMENT* regardless of what book they've read or not. Whether they give an informed opinion or not is a different issue.

Since we have the answer of a priest for the question of this thread (\"Did Noah really live for 950 years?\") - should we not trust him and his clear statement instead of listening to a man who pretends that he knows everything better and deeper and more scientific then any other? Who uses an enormous amount of words to say nothing and provoking only one question: \"What wants the autor to tell us?\"

Are you saying that \"priests are infallable\" ???

Yes. He had a great retirement plan. :)

Not at all. Even priests have different opinions in this question. But in this case here I trust a cradle orthodox with a theological education more then a convert who may have read a lot, but is a layman. By the way - we adress a priest as \"Father\". Unless he has proven himself as unworthy

The last line I would like to cancel, but there is no revice function here.

One would hope there is no special dispensation of godly favour to the cradle.

 

I would agree with Fr. Athanasius.

The literary tradition of the sacred scriptures maintained by the Church cause us, successive generations, to grow in love for the divine embrace of God with His creation in the Incarnation of His Son.

 

Sometimes God provides answers and examples in front of us, but they don't become obvious, and we end up in tangential discussions.

  We have a scientific / medical phenomenon of "Progeria" as a living example that God can accelerate the aging process such that our lives are reduced by 1/10 of that of a "previous" or "normal" generation.   Most children with Progeria don't make it to 20 years old, and by 10, they resemble someone who is in old age....

If we believe that Noah's ark was real, and that Noah's decendents were the only ones left on the planet after the flood, why can't we also believe / accept that those same decendents carried a Progeria-like "mutation" that accelerated the aging process in everyone AFTER Noah?  Just like we have examples today of people who are genetically "destined" to live 1/10 of the lives that others live, why couldn't Noah's decendants also live ~1/10 of 950 years?  This was done to fulfill the psalms ("and their years shall be 70, etc"), as well as the Biblical suggestion that due to our sinful state, God had to "cut our years" in hope that this may help us choose to repent.  

Of course, there are some other examples later on of people exceeding the new theoretical maximum of 120 years  (Symeon the Presbyter who received Christ as an infant, for example, or the 7 youths of Ephesus who helped prove the Resurrection was a real event), but these rare examples are God's exceptions for specific purposes.

Giannis

Not including the issue of guilt and sin across generations, this idea of greater sin causing shorter life span seems to be disproved by the current generation living longer yet, many would argue,  sinning more.