In this chapter we trace Adam's lineage down to Noah. It turns out that Adam was Noah's great - great - great - great - great - great - great - grandfather. For anyone who cares, here's the exact lineage:
Adam - Seth - Enosh - Kenan - Mahalalel - Jared - Enoch - Methuselah - Lamech - Noah
We also learn these people's ages as we go down the list. It turns out that people back then lived a lot longer than people do now. Adam lived a whopping 930 years, and ol' Methuselah tops everyone by living to be 969. For people worried about having kids later in life, like in their 40's or 50's, have no fear... Seth fathered Enosh when he was 105, and Lamech had Noah when he was 182.
These passages in the Bible are what Young Earth Creationists point to when they claim that the Earth is only 6000 years old. Why go through the trouble of carbon-dating fossils when all you have to do is count up how long people lived in the Bible?
I went to a Creationist website (www.creationists.org) for answers. How can the Earth only be 6000 years old despite the mountains of scientific evidence that state otherwise? If Adam, Eve and Cain were the only people on Earth at the beginning, then where did Cain's wife come from, who is mentioned in Gen 4? Was everyone incestuous at the beginning of time, and if so, doesn't that contridict God's laws?
Unfortunately, the answers given in the FAQ section of creationists.org did not satisfy me. The arguments use circular reasoning, begging the question by assuming what they claim to be proving.
If you put enough effort into it, you can twist the words of the Bible, along with your own logic, to defend anything the Bible says as being the literal truth, the way creationists.org works hard to prove that Cain's wife was Adam's daughter, and that incest was okay back then because it was before God restricted it in Leviticus.
When I consulted www.biblestudy.com about the question of Adam's inexplicably long life, it told me that:
"After the [Biblical] flood the earth was completely different than the earth before. There were widespread global differences. These would include changes in the climate, composition of the atmosphere, hydrologic cycle, geologic features, cosmic radiation reaching the earth, ozone concentration, ultra violet light, background radiation, genetics, diet, and a host of other subtle and/or profound chemical and physiological changes. These changes caused a rapid decline of the longevity of post flood humanity."
Uh-huh...
Bible literalists always seem outraged when people (other Christians, even) suggest that the Bible is speaking in symbolic language. To them, if the Bible says Adam lived to be 930 years, then Adam lived to be 930 years, and they'll figure out ways to argue the logic of that. To me though, it seems a more egregious offense to the Biblical text to so forcefully twist its words around in an effort to explain away the inconsistencies and anamolies it contains.
It makes more sense to me that God intended the Bible (or at least at this point Genesis) to be read as an allegory, rather than as a literal text that needs to be supplimented by countless rationalizations and apologias.
Pop References to Gen 5: Okay, this is hardly a "popular" culture reference, but I still thought it was interesting. There's an organization called The Methuselah Foundation that holds a scientific competition each year "designed to draw attention to the ability of new technologies to slow and even reverse the damage of the aging process, preserving health and wisdom in a world that sorely needs it." The foundation is named after Methuselah, the oldest person mentioned in the Bible.
More Pop References to Gen 5 (Added 7/3/07): I stumbled across a news article that described an old episode of the original Star Trek titled "Requiem for Methuselah" about Kirk falling in love with an android created by a five-thousand year old man named Flint, who has also been known as Leonardo DiVinci and William Shakespeare throughout his lifetime. Both Kirk and Flint want the robot for themselves, she is torn between the two of them, resulting in her short circuiting.
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