Genesis 5 · a question people ask
Did people really live more than 900 years?
The chapter gives ages from 365 (Enoch) to 969 (Methuselah). Protestants who trust Genesis read these numbers in different ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Literal ages
People really lived this long before the flood. After it, lifespans shorten over the generations (compare 11:10-26 and later). Many on this view read 6:3 as God setting a limit of 120 years on a lifetime (others read the 120 years as the time left before the flood).
Genesis 6:3 · Genesis 11:10-26
Numbers with meaning
Some read the ages as numbers chosen to honor the early generations and to carry meaning, rather than as simple counting. They point to Lamech's 777 years (5:31), which come right after Cain's descendant Lamech boasted of vengeance "seventy-seven times" (4:24).
Genesis 5:31 · Genesis 4:24
The verses
“All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years.”
“All the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty-nine years, then he died.”