Why did people live so much longer in Biblical times? The oldest was Methuselah. He died at age 969.?

It was the fall of man in the garden of Eden that changed everything. Sin corrupts and if you look at the Old Testament you will see that as you go through the generations, man lived less and less time. Methuselah lived 969 years, his son, Lamech , lived 777 years. Then there was Noah. "And the Lord said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” (Genesis 6:3) From this point on we see Noah's son Shem lived 600 years, down to Abraham who lived 175 years, Moses lived 120 years, then Joshua lived 110 years. The evil that was in man reduced him to live shorter and shorter lives.

It seems unlikely that they did live so much longer. Alternative explanations for the ages reported in the early chapters of Genesis might include:

(A) The ages were originally recorded in months, rather than years, and a translation problem caused the units (but not the numbers) to be misunderstood later. A 969-months-old man would have been over 80 years old, and that would have been rare in early times--as would an accurate record of anyone's age.

(B) The storytellers who put together these genealogies might have decided to give these characters very long lifespans to indicate their importance. This is a well-known literary technique: see the genealogies in Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" for examples.

They only lived longer at the very beginning of the Bible. The ages of the kings of Israel were given for when each of them died. Most of them lived what would be considered short lives by todays standards. Life expectancy was about 25 in the Roman Empire. That is lower that the poorest nation of today.

Because of the sphere of ice which surrounded the earth til the flood. Science bears this out. There was more density to the air and a much higher oxygen content. This was the concept behind the oxygen tents, (hyperberic chambers) which atheletes use today for faster healing. If the dinosaurs were still on earth today, they would be much smaller, or just die,based on the dimensions of their nasal passages, they wouldn't be able to breathe enough oxygen at the earth's levels today. The Most High stated as Noah was building the ark, that man would only be of 120 years from that point on, and that's what happened. We now get to experience the result of sin, which is why there are folks dying at different ages, along with wrong and foolish decisions.

Obviously the Israelite writers made those ages up to fit into their belief of 7 - 1000 year periods , which also included the Gilgamesh story of the Flood ( which really was when the Mediterranean Sea filled up from the big glacier melt , and spelled over through Istanbul into a shallow Black Sea ) . Too bad Jesus blindly believed in their version . But , at least he got in touch with God's true Holy Spirit , which taught him how to keep his conscience clean so he could receive an immortal body ; And so we could read the gospels and obey all of Jesus' sayings so we could too . And , insidentally , Jesus' "Comforter" is not God's Holy Spirit ; which Jesus said he couldn't give until he died . And since it is easier to get than God's H.S. people easily sin againt it ; and so Jesus has to wash those men and women right out of his hair ( 40's song ) .

You can only be truly baptized and receive God's H.S. if you PO 14 , Indep., Mo. me.

I did a study on this years ago. I came to the conclusion that it had to be that the water cycle changed.

The big factor was the long life of Shem after the Flood. He was still alive when Abraham was on the scene but after him life descended rapidly, and after Peleg - even moreso.

Remember, before the Flood the water came up through the ground - not from the air - and thus didn't have all the heavy metals and pollutants that came about when the cycle changed.

That was the writers' way of emphasizing the honor and blessedness of the person and in general relaying a myth of a "Golden Age." The Sumerians also left inscriptions talking about their kings ruling for tens of thousands of years. See "Sumerian Kings List."

Because the Spirit of God was still with mankind at the time. Though i'm not sure what verse, in the OT God says that His Spirit will not be with man any more and that the number of years we'd live would be capped at 120 yrs. Very few people have lived longer than that, and they don't live to be any older than a few years after 120.

Many have evidence and believe that the world was much more oxygen-rich prior to the flood enabling people to live much longer than we do now. Something happened during the flood that dramatically affected the atmosphere of the planet that has never really recovered.

They were genetically closer to ideal humanity as God gave it to Adam and Eve than subsequent generations.