Why did Methuselah live so much longer than King David?

Answer 1

Another answer from our community:

Adam lived for 930 years, Methuselah lived for 969 years and so on. Evil was increasing on earth since people were living for about 1000 years (even when people know they are going to live only 100 years see how much evil going on in our present day). Then God said in Genesis 6:3 that He would reduce the life span to 120 years. This is the reason why David did not live as much as Methuselah.

Gen_6:3 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."

One of the outcome from the Human Genome Project was that the possibility of living in this current human body for 1 to 2,000 years. This is another proof from the modern day science that the ages recorded in the Genesis are literal ages. If people were making up stories why would they write something hard to believe? It was the fact that Methuselah lived 969 literal years. Adam was still living when the tenth generation Noah was born! This is the reason why we have the accurate account in The Bible about the events and people. Below is a list years each person lived on the earth upto Isaac the father of Jacob who became Israel.

Adam

930

Seth

912

Enosh

905

Cainan

910

Mahalalel

895

Jared

962

Enoch

365

Methuselah

969

Lamech

777

Noah

950

Shem

600

Arphaxad

438

Salah

433

Eber

464

Peleg

239

Reu

239

Serug

230

Nahor

148

Terah

205

Abraham

175

Isaac

180

Answer 2

All the ages given in the Book of Genesis are actually based on numerology. In fact, for the ancestors prior to Jacob in the Bible, the number 17 was important.

In the Bible, Methuselah:

• became a father for the first time at age 187, which is 11X17, and
  
• died at age 969, which is 57X17.
  

Further examples to demonstrate this use of the number 17, as well as other important numbers in numerology:

Adam, the first person to die in Genesis, lived to 930 years, which is 7X9 + 3X17X17 [51X17].
930 is also 30X30 + 30, so this formula then provides a link to Joseph, the last person to die in Genesis - Joseph lived to 110 years, which is 10X10 + 10.
Numerology then gives us a link from Joseph to the three Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Bible says that:

1. Abraham lived to 175 (5X5 X 7)

2. Isaac lived to 180 (6X6 X 5)

3. Jacob lived to 147 (7X7 X 3)

• Each lifespan involves a perfect square (5, 6, then 7 in a numeric series),
  
• the third factor also forms a series (7, 5, 3)
  
• in each case the sum of the factors is 17.
  

Here, the link is that Joseph's age, 110, is the sum of 5X5 + 6X6 + 7X7.

These examples demonstrates that we should not take the ages given in Genesis literally.

The Deuteronomic History (which includes Samuel and Kings) does not really use numerology, so the ages at which people are said to have died are more credible, although some numbers such as 40 years, the length of David's reign, were probably used because they were easy to remember when recounting the stories orally.

Answer 3

Because he lived before the Flood. God shortened our lifespans when sin became ubiquitous (that is one of the meanings of Genesis 6:3). After the Flood and long before King David's time, the recorded lifespans gradually diminished (Genesis ch.11, Exodus ch.6). King David lived a normal length of time for his (and our) era. See also:

More about King David

Noah's Flood

Accuracy of the Hebrew Bible