And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Noah was five hundred years old when he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. He belonged to the nine generations before the Flood whose lives averaged 912 years, nearly a thousand years each, in contrast to the steady fall afterward to 332 years, then to seventy years in the time of Moses, and to about thirty-five years at present. Those centuries of life were lived in full health and with great physical and mental vigor, strong memory, and rare power to plan and execute, giving seven contemporaneous generations far greater advantage in merely human knowledge than modern men possess. Their overlapping lifetimes made direct transmission of what God taught Adam possible, from Adam to Methuselah to Shem to Abraham and Isaac to Jacob. That length of days and ability was given for serving God and making His name a praise in the earth, but the long-lived race gave loose rein to iniquity in proportion to its skill, despised the truth, and was destroyed by the Flood, while Noah stood among the righteous who kept the knowledge of God before the world and warned of the coming judgment.
Long Life Before Flood
Noah was five hundred years old when he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The verse belongs to the record of nine generations before the Flood whose average age was 912 years, compared with nine generations after the Flood averaging 332 years, falling to seventy years in the time of Moses and to about thirty-five years at present. This proves a steady decrease in longevity and a woeful deterioration from original physical vitality.
The patriarchs from Adam to Noah, with one or two exceptions, lived nearly a thousand years, between nine hundred and a thousand years. Lifespans afterward gradually tapered down, reaching between one and two hundred years by the time of the Egyptian vassalage. After Noah's time human life spans began to decline, so the long lives before and through Noah's time stand in contrast with the shorter lives of later generations.
The record covers more than sixteen hundred years of vegetarian living from the expulsion from Eden to the Flood. It shows remarkably good health with no mention of sickness and death of children, feebleness in youth or middle age, or fevers, dyspepsia, gout, consumption, or local diseases from breakdown of one organ while others remain strong. All lived in full enjoyment of health nearly one thousand years — Adam nine hundred thirty years, Seth nine hundred twelve, Enos nine hundred five, Cainan nine hundred ten, Mahalaleel eight hundred ninety-five, Jared nine hundred sixty-two, Methuselah nine hundred sixty-nine, Lamech seven hundred seventy-seven — until the springs of life grown weary stood still. There were no sufferings long drawn out and no excruciating agonies in death, the record simply giving the measure of each life and its cessation with and he died.
The long lives were prolonged by the life-giving power of the tree of life, transmitted from Adam and Eve. Noah belonged to a race only a few generations removed from Adam when human existence was still measured by centuries. The list records the ages of men at death, while with but an exception or two it never mentions how old the women were at death. The lives in the early generations stand in contrast to the suffering and mortality common in the present generation.
Vigor, Knowledge, and Judgment
The ages in the genealogy ending with Noah at five hundred years show lifetimes overlapping from Adam to Jacob in a way that made direct handing down of what God taught Adam possible. Adam was still alive during the first 243 years of Methuselah's life, and Methuselah was still alive until Shem the son of Noah was 98 years old. Shem lived 150 years after the birth of Abraham and 50 years after the birth of Isaac, while Abraham lived until Jacob and Esau were 15 years old and Isaac lived until they were 120, so knowledge passed from Adam to Methuselah to Shem to Abraham and Isaac to Jacob, the father of the tribes of Israel. Men then lived for centuries with great physical and mental vigor and with strong memories able to grasp, retain, and transmit unimpaired what was communicated to them without books or written records. For hundreds of years seven generations lived upon the earth at the same time with opportunity to consult together, each profiting by the knowledge and experience of all. They received from Adam, who was formed in God's image and instructed by the Creator in all wisdom pertaining to the material world and in the history of creation which he himself witnessed through nine centuries, and imparted it to descendants, giving them far greater advantages in merely human knowledge than modern men have from the works of master minds.
That long life was joined to rare powers to plan and execute, with many giants of great stature and strength, renowned for wisdom and skill in devising cunning and wonderful works. That length of days and ability was given for serving God, for making the Creator's name a praise in the earth, and for answering the purpose for which life was given. The people failed to do this, and their guilt in giving loose rein to iniquity was in proportion to their skill and mental ability.
Noah was one of the righteous men before the Flood who with Seth, Enoch, Methuselah and others presented truth and kept the knowledge of God continually before the world. He afterward warned the people of the coming Flood, while Methuselah and his descendants, including Noah's family, received instruction from him and helped build the ark. That long-lived race despised the truth then as people despise the truth now, with imaginations of the heart evil and only evil continually. They formed secret societies to work in darkness to do violence, until the Lord destroyed that long-lived race by a Flood.
The race was created with ten times more vital force than it now possesses, without which its violations of the laws of health and life would long since have extinguished it. Violation of God's laws of health and life cut down the years of man to contemptible brevity and filled them with pain. By the time of David, about halfway from Adam to the present day, the average of human life was only threescore years and ten. Now by the Bills of Mortality and the Life Insurance companies the average in Europe and the United States is but thirty years and in great cities but twenty years.
Noah was five hundred years old when he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. He belonged to the nine generations before the Flood whose lives averaged 912 years, nearly a thousand years each, in contrast to the steady fall afterward to 332 years, then to seventy years in the time of Moses, and to about thirty-five years at present. Those centuries of life were lived in full health and with great physical and mental vigor, strong memory, and rare power to plan and execute, giving seven contemporaneous generations far greater advantage in merely human knowledge than modern men possess. Their overlapping lifetimes made direct transmission of what God taught Adam possible, from Adam to Methuselah to Shem to Abraham and Isaac to Jacob. That length of days and ability was given for serving God and making His name a praise in the earth, but the long-lived race gave loose rein to iniquity in proportion to its skill, despised the truth, and was destroyed by the Flood, while Noah stood among the righteous who kept the knowledge of God before the world and warned of the coming judgment.
Long Life Before Flood
Noah was five hundred years old when he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The verse belongs to the record of nine generations before the Flood whose average age was 912 years, compared with nine generations after the Flood averaging 332 years, falling to seventy years in the time of Moses and to about thirty-five years at present. This proves a steady decrease in longevity and a woeful deterioration from original physical vitality.
The patriarchs from Adam to Noah, with one or two exceptions, lived nearly a thousand years, between nine hundred and a thousand years. Lifespans afterward gradually tapered down, reaching between one and two hundred years by the time of the Egyptian vassalage. After Noah's time human life spans began to decline, so the long lives before and through Noah's time stand in contrast with the shorter lives of later generations.
The record covers more than sixteen hundred years of vegetarian living from the expulsion from Eden to the Flood. It shows remarkably good health with no mention of sickness and death of children, feebleness in youth or middle age, or fevers, dyspepsia, gout, consumption, or local diseases from breakdown of one organ while others remain strong. All lived in full enjoyment of health nearly one thousand years — Adam nine hundred thirty years, Seth nine hundred twelve, Enos nine hundred five, Cainan nine hundred ten, Mahalaleel eight hundred ninety-five, Jared nine hundred sixty-two, Methuselah nine hundred sixty-nine, Lamech seven hundred seventy-seven — until the springs of life grown weary stood still. There were no sufferings long drawn out and no excruciating agonies in death, the record simply giving the measure of each life and its cessation with and he died.
The long lives were prolonged by the life-giving power of the tree of life, transmitted from Adam and Eve. Noah belonged to a race only a few generations removed from Adam when human existence was still measured by centuries. The list records the ages of men at death, while with but an exception or two it never mentions how old the women were at death. The lives in the early generations stand in contrast to the suffering and mortality common in the present generation.
Vigor, Knowledge, and Judgment
The ages in the genealogy ending with Noah at five hundred years show lifetimes overlapping from Adam to Jacob in a way that made direct handing down of what God taught Adam possible. Adam was still alive during the first 243 years of Methuselah's life, and Methuselah was still alive until Shem the son of Noah was 98 years old. Shem lived 150 years after the birth of Abraham and 50 years after the birth of Isaac, while Abraham lived until Jacob and Esau were 15 years old and Isaac lived until they were 120, so knowledge passed from Adam to Methuselah to Shem to Abraham and Isaac to Jacob, the father of the tribes of Israel. Men then lived for centuries with great physical and mental vigor and with strong memories able to grasp, retain, and transmit unimpaired what was communicated to them without books or written records. For hundreds of years seven generations lived upon the earth at the same time with opportunity to consult together, each profiting by the knowledge and experience of all. They received from Adam, who was formed in God's image and instructed by the Creator in all wisdom pertaining to the material world and in the history of creation which he himself witnessed through nine centuries, and imparted it to descendants, giving them far greater advantages in merely human knowledge than modern men have from the works of master minds.
That long life was joined to rare powers to plan and execute, with many giants of great stature and strength, renowned for wisdom and skill in devising cunning and wonderful works. That length of days and ability was given for serving God, for making the Creator's name a praise in the earth, and for answering the purpose for which life was given. The people failed to do this, and their guilt in giving loose rein to iniquity was in proportion to their skill and mental ability.
Noah was one of the righteous men before the Flood who with Seth, Enoch, Methuselah and others presented truth and kept the knowledge of God continually before the world. He afterward warned the people of the coming Flood, while Methuselah and his descendants, including Noah's family, received instruction from him and helped build the ark. That long-lived race despised the truth then as people despise the truth now, with imaginations of the heart evil and only evil continually. They formed secret societies to work in darkness to do violence, until the Lord destroyed that long-lived race by a Flood.
The race was created with ten times more vital force than it now possesses, without which its violations of the laws of health and life would long since have extinguished it. Violation of God's laws of health and life cut down the years of man to contemptible brevity and filled them with pain. By the time of David, about halfway from Adam to the present day, the average of human life was only threescore years and ten. Now by the Bills of Mortality and the Life Insurance companies the average in Europe and the United States is but thirty years and in great cities but twenty years.