And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech:
Methuselah the son of Enoch became the father of Lamech at 187 years of age and the grandfather of Noah. He stands in the unbroken line from Adam to Noah of nine generations before the Flood who lived nearly a thousand years, Methuselah himself living 969 years, with every life closing in death. Their vast length of life was sustained by life-giving power from the tree of life passed down from Adam and Eve, and its steady shortening afterward came through violation of physical law, corrupt appetite, and flesh-eating after Noah. Those great ages show mankind was created with about ten times the vital force possessed now, and the fall to a brief life of disease and mortality shows the race has fallen rather than risen upward. Methuselah formed the living link by which what Adam had been taught by God passed to Shem and on to Abraham and Jacob, while he himself heard the warning of the coming Flood from Enoch and Noah and helped his grandson build the ark.
Long Lives Before Flood
Genesis 5 belongs to the unbroken record from Adam to Noah of nine generations who, with few exceptions, lived nearly a thousand years, between nine hundred and a thousand years, and each life in that chapter ended in death. Methuselah himself lived 969 years. Those nine generations before the Flood averaged 912 years of life, while nine generations after the Flood averaged 332 years. Afterward life tapered to between one and two hundred years by the Egyptian bondage, to seventy years in the time of Moses and David, and to about thirty-five years at present, or thirty years in Europe and the United States and twenty years in great cities.
Those protracted lives were prolonged by the life-giving power of the tree of life transmitted from Adam and Eve to their descendants. That tree had power to perpetuate life, so that as long as they ate of it they could not die, and only a few generations after Adam human life was still measured by centuries with much early vigor remaining. The shortening came from continued violation of the laws of life and physical law. The effects of corrupted appetites and violations of physical law took more than a thousand years to become plainly felt, and with the original curse and accumulated transgression and the race beginning to eat flesh after Noah, disease, pain, infant sickness, and mortality steadily increased.
The great ages prove humanity was created with remarkably good health and about ten times more vital force than now, for otherwise its violations of all the laws of health and life would long ago have extinguished it. They prove Adam's original nobility, size, physical strength, and intellect as made in the image of God and lord over creation and pronounced very good. The decline to a brief existence marked with disease, decrepitude, imbecility, sickness, and mortality, with pain conquering the body, disease seizing infants at birth, and multitudes born dead as to intellect and heart, proves humanity has fallen off in size, strength, mind, and years rather than progressing upward.
The great ages gave unrivaled advantages for gaining and spreading knowledge, for Adam lived nine centuries among his descendants and for hundreds of years seven generations lived at the same time and could consult together in person, each profiting from the knowledge and experience of all. Though without books or written records, their great physical and mental vigor gave strong memories able to grasp and retain what was communicated and transmit it unimpaired to posterity. What Adam had been taught by the Creator about the material world and creation and had witnessed himself through nine centuries he imparted directly to his descendants. The 187 years before Methuselah fathered Lamech show a people with rare powers to plan and execute, including many giants of great stature and strength, renowned for wisdom and skillful in devising most cunning and wonderful works. That long life and ability was given to serve God and make the Creator's name a praise and to answer the purpose for giving life, but failure to do so and giving loose rein to iniquity made guilt great in proportion to skill and mental ability.
Methuselah's Place and Witness
Methuselah was the son of Enoch, who at 187 years of age became the father of Lamech and thus the grandfather of Noah. He stands as the living link carrying what God had taught Adam to the later patriarchs, for Adam lived until Methuselah was 243 years old to impart it directly to him, and Methuselah lived until Shem the son of Noah was 98 years old to impart it directly to Shem. Shem in turn lived 150 years after the birth of Abraham and 50 years after the birth of Isaac to impart it to them, while Abraham lived until Jacob and Esau were 15 years old and Isaac until they were 120 to impart it to Jacob the father of the tribes of Israel.
Enoch instructed Methuselah concerning the coming flood. Methuselah then lived to hear his grandson Noah faithfully warn that a flood of waters was coming upon the earth, and listened to that preaching. He with his sons and grandsons and family lived in the time of the building of the ark, received instruction from Noah, and assisted Noah in the work of building it.
He was among the righteous men before the Flood who with Seth, Enoch, Noah and others presented the truth and kept the knowledge of God continually before the world. They did so while the long-lived race despised that witness, with the imaginations of their hearts evil and only evil continually. Secret societies were formed to work violence in darkness, and that world the Lord destroyed by a flood.
Methuselah the son of Enoch became the father of Lamech at 187 years of age and the grandfather of Noah. He stands in the unbroken line from Adam to Noah of nine generations before the Flood who lived nearly a thousand years, Methuselah himself living 969 years, with every life closing in death. Their vast length of life was sustained by life-giving power from the tree of life passed down from Adam and Eve, and its steady shortening afterward came through violation of physical law, corrupt appetite, and flesh-eating after Noah. Those great ages show mankind was created with about ten times the vital force possessed now, and the fall to a brief life of disease and mortality shows the race has fallen rather than risen upward. Methuselah formed the living link by which what Adam had been taught by God passed to Shem and on to Abraham and Jacob, while he himself heard the warning of the coming Flood from Enoch and Noah and helped his grandson build the ark.
Long Lives Before Flood
Genesis 5 belongs to the unbroken record from Adam to Noah of nine generations who, with few exceptions, lived nearly a thousand years, between nine hundred and a thousand years, and each life in that chapter ended in death. Methuselah himself lived 969 years. Those nine generations before the Flood averaged 912 years of life, while nine generations after the Flood averaged 332 years. Afterward life tapered to between one and two hundred years by the Egyptian bondage, to seventy years in the time of Moses and David, and to about thirty-five years at present, or thirty years in Europe and the United States and twenty years in great cities.
Those protracted lives were prolonged by the life-giving power of the tree of life transmitted from Adam and Eve to their descendants. That tree had power to perpetuate life, so that as long as they ate of it they could not die, and only a few generations after Adam human life was still measured by centuries with much early vigor remaining. The shortening came from continued violation of the laws of life and physical law. The effects of corrupted appetites and violations of physical law took more than a thousand years to become plainly felt, and with the original curse and accumulated transgression and the race beginning to eat flesh after Noah, disease, pain, infant sickness, and mortality steadily increased.
The great ages prove humanity was created with remarkably good health and about ten times more vital force than now, for otherwise its violations of all the laws of health and life would long ago have extinguished it. They prove Adam's original nobility, size, physical strength, and intellect as made in the image of God and lord over creation and pronounced very good. The decline to a brief existence marked with disease, decrepitude, imbecility, sickness, and mortality, with pain conquering the body, disease seizing infants at birth, and multitudes born dead as to intellect and heart, proves humanity has fallen off in size, strength, mind, and years rather than progressing upward.
The great ages gave unrivaled advantages for gaining and spreading knowledge, for Adam lived nine centuries among his descendants and for hundreds of years seven generations lived at the same time and could consult together in person, each profiting from the knowledge and experience of all. Though without books or written records, their great physical and mental vigor gave strong memories able to grasp and retain what was communicated and transmit it unimpaired to posterity. What Adam had been taught by the Creator about the material world and creation and had witnessed himself through nine centuries he imparted directly to his descendants. The 187 years before Methuselah fathered Lamech show a people with rare powers to plan and execute, including many giants of great stature and strength, renowned for wisdom and skillful in devising most cunning and wonderful works. That long life and ability was given to serve God and make the Creator's name a praise and to answer the purpose for giving life, but failure to do so and giving loose rein to iniquity made guilt great in proportion to skill and mental ability.
Methuselah's Place and Witness
Methuselah was the son of Enoch, who at 187 years of age became the father of Lamech and thus the grandfather of Noah.
He stands as the living link carrying what God had taught Adam to the later patriarchs, for Adam lived until Methuselah was 243 years old to impart it directly to him, and Methuselah lived until Shem the son of Noah was 98 years old to impart it directly to Shem.
Shem in turn lived 150 years after the birth of Abraham and 50 years after the birth of Isaac to impart it to them, while Abraham lived until Jacob and Esau were 15 years old and Isaac until they were 120 to impart it to Jacob the father of the tribes of Israel.
Enoch instructed Methuselah concerning the coming flood.
Methuselah then lived to hear his grandson Noah faithfully warn that a flood of waters was coming upon the earth, and listened to that preaching.
He with his sons and grandsons and family lived in the time of the building of the ark, received instruction from Noah, and assisted Noah in the work of building it.
He was among the righteous men before the Flood who with Seth, Enoch, Noah and others presented the truth and kept the knowledge of God continually before the world.
They did so while the long-lived race despised that witness, with the imaginations of their hearts evil and only evil continually.
Secret societies were formed to work violence in darkness, and that world the Lord destroyed by a flood.