The Age of the Patriarchs

Constraint:  In interpreting Scripture, we should always follow the intent of the author of the text.  This controls our interpretative scheme and allows for the author to speak to us from the text.  We should never violate this rule. 

There are hints within the text of Genesis 1-11 that the listed ages of the patriarchs are not meant to be taken in their straightforward sense.  These chapters give us many examples of individuals that live well over 200 years, some up to 900 years of age.   This does not cohere well with what we know from archaeological evidence--we have preserved skeletal remains of individuals that date from this period and their ages line up fairly well with modern averages of human lifespans, usually a decade or two lower.

Chronological Oddities:  Noah would still be alive at the time of Abraham.  Seems weird and not intended by the author.

Statements in the text itself:  

Abraham was surprised that a man could have a child at 100 years of age.  Yet, Abraham’s father had him at the age of 130 years if the ages are literal.  It doesn’t seem that Abraham should have been surprised if the age of his father is taken in a straightforward way.  

The author records that Abraham died at a ripe old age, yet he died when he was 175, well short of his contemporaries who are supposed to have lived to 500 or so years of age.  

This is a good indication that the author himself understood the figures in a not straightforward way.  

We also have examples outside of the Bible in which clearly historical figures are given extraordinarily long lifespans, like Sumerian kings reigning for over 20,000 years, even though that’s implausible, we do know that these kings really did exist.  Just not with that lifespan.

There are some explanations on offer as to why the author would inject these unrealistic lifespans to the pre-diluvian fathers; ranging from tribal identification to other numerological explanations.  The ages given follow a generally predictable factorization that is otherwise highly unlikely to obtain if the ages were listed in a random way following actual individuals.  This is explained by a deeper symbolism at work in the ages.