How could Methuselah be 969 when he died?

Answer 1

This question "bothers" us only because it seems impossible today. Seeming impossibility, however, is not disproof. Any disproof would have to come from physical evidence, not conjecture or numerology.
Many ancient nations and historians have records of "unnaturally" long lifespans of the ancients:
Manetho, Berosus, Mochus, Hestiaeus, Hieronymus the Egyptian, Hesiod, Hecataeus, Hellanicus, Acusilaus, Ephorus and Nicolaus all state that the ancients lived around a thousand years.
Such records are found in the histories of ancient Sumeria, China, Greece, Persia, Vietnam and India. Such widespread agreement can only be because it (like the Creation) is a worldwide tradition based upon more than mere myth.

Answer 2
It is useful to look at the biblical lifespan for Methuselah in terms of numerology. First of all, the number 17 was important in Genesis genealogies, from Adam all the way down to the legendary Patriarchs. For Methuselah, the formula was simple, reflecting his status as the oldest man:

• he had his first child at the age of 187, which is 11 X 17,
• and died at 969, which is 57 X 17.
  

The statistical chance of the oldest person in The Bible having his first child at an exact multiple of 17 and then of dying at an exact multiple of 17 are somewhat remote, confirming that this part of the story arose out of the spiritual meaning of the number 17 (widely used in Genesis in setting extreme ages), not history.

Answer 2

This question "bothers" us only because it seems impossible today. Seeming impossibility, however, is not disproof. Any disproof would have to come from physical evidence, not conjecture or numerology.

Many ancient nations and historians have records of "unnaturally" long lifespans of the ancients:Manetho, Berosus, Mochus, Hestiaeus, Hieronymus the Egyptian, Hesiod, Hecataeus, Hellanicus, Acusilaus, Ephorus and Nicolaus all state that the ancients lived around a thousand years.

Such records are found in the histories of ancient Sumeria, China, Greece, Persia, Vietnam and India. Such widespread agreement can only be because it (like the Creation) is a worldwide tradition based upon more than mere myth.
See also the Related Links.

Link: Longevity

Link: Evidence of the Flood

Link: Earth's population

Answer 3

Christians who take the Bible very literally have offered a variety of attempted explanations for the great ages of early biblical characters like Methuselah, none of them very satisfactory. One of the most common such explanations is that the first humans had such perfect DNA that they could live almost forever, but that the DNA degraded after some generations, until humans could no longer live astonishing lifespans. That is pseudo-science and is not taken seriously by real scientists, who say that all the evidence available to them proves that early man lived for even shorter lifespans than we do today. These explanations assume that no one ever died of disease, accident or misadventure.

It is useful to look at the biblical lifespan for Methuselah in terms of numerology. First of all, the number 17 was important in Genesis genealogies, from Adam all the way down to the legendary Patriarchs. For Methuselah, the formula was simple, reflecting his status as the oldest man:

• he had his first child at the age of 187, which is 11 X 17,
• and died at 969, which is 57 X 17.
  

The statistical chance of the oldest person in the Bible having his first child at an exact multiple of 17 and then of dying at an exact multiple of 17 are somewhat remote, confirming that this part of the story arose out of the spiritual meaning of the number 17, not history.

Answer 4

yes