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Genesis 6 · a question people ask

What does "his days will be one hundred twenty years" mean?

Interpretation

Verse 3 doesn't say which it means, and Protestants read it two ways.

How Christians read it

Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.

A limit on human life

From now on people will live around 120 years at most. Lifespans after the flood do shorten over the generations (11:10-26), and Moses dies at 120 (Deuteronomy 34:7).

Genesis 11:10-26 · Deuteronomy 34:7

Time until the flood

God gives the world 120 more years before judgment. 1 Peter 3:20 speaks of God waiting "patiently in the days of Noah while the ship was being built".

1 Peter 3:20

The verses

“The LORD said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.””
Genesis 6:3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Genesis 6

Genesis 6: Noah found favor

The first heart the Bible mentions is full of evil, and the second is God's, grieving. God will end a world people had already ruined, but first he promises his covenant, the Bible's first use of the word, to Noah, who found favor in his eyes.

In Favor, questions like this come up right where they arise as you read, with the Hebrew and Greek behind the words and how the chapter leads to Jesus.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions