Why did Adam and Eve live so long?

I’ve always wondered that myself. I don’t recall that answer ever being directly answered by scripture, so I put on my detective hat, pulled out my magnifying glass and went digging.

Following an in-depth exploration of the subject, I came to this conclusion: There isn’t a direct answer. BUT, I had so much fun checking it out that I thought you might enjoy a little trip through my findings.

Chapter 5 of Genesis lists all the life spans of Adam and his descendants from Adam to Lamech (Noah’s dad). This is where we see crazy stuff like Adam living 930 years, his son Seth living 912 years, great great great great great (is that enough “greats?”) grandson Methuselah living 969 years, and on it goes through verse 31, then we come to Noah. Of course, along with Noah came the flood. He ended up living 950 years (Genesis 9:29).

n Genesis 11 we’re given the “records of the generations of Shem (v.10)” Shem is one of the 3 sons that rode on the ark with Noah, surviving the flood. This passage reveals a gradual decline in years lived. Shem lived 600 years, his son Arpachshad (say THAT 3 times fast!) lived 468 years, his grandson lived 433 years and on down it goes (with a few exceptions like Eber and Terah who lived a little longer than their surrounding relatives). So, after the flood, people were living 600, then 400ish, then 300, then 200 years. Shem’s line was so traced because it delivered Abraham and eventually, Jesus (if you’re interested, go to Matthew 1:1-17).

I do think it’s interesting how the years went down after the flood (which happened because God was sorry He made us and “every intent of the thoughts of [our hearts] was only evil continually”). Following the flood, we went increasingly down and things began to stabilize with Abraham who became the father of the Jewish nation. He lived 175 yrs., his wife 127, his son Ishmael 137, his son Issac 180. Skip forward a few generations and Moses lived 120 years while next-in-command, Joshua, only lived 110 yrs.

This is where it gets fun. Did our God cut down the life spans because we kept sinning against Him? Did He decide we wouldn’t need to live as long once Israel became established as a nation? Too much junk food and TV time? Too much hair spray that destroyed the ozone and lets cosmic radiation harm life ont he planet? What do YOU think?