Methuselah
| Methuselah | |
|---|---|
| The person with the longest lifespan recorded in the Bible. | |
| BC | 3281 to 2312 |
| FC | 687 to 1656 |
| Father | Enoch |
| Children | Lamech |
Methuselah (Hebrew: מתוּשׁלח) (687 FC – 1656 FC | 3281 BC – 2312 BC | 969 years) was the son of Enoch, the father of Lamech, and the grandfather of Noah. He is famous for having lived to 969 years, which makes him the longest-lived person in the Bible.[1]
Life
He was born 687 years from Creation, which means his time on Earth overlapped with Adam for 243 years. It’s likely that he heard Adam talk about the Garden of Eden and his experience in being expelled from it. Methuselah witnessed the world becoming more filled with sin, and heard his father’s judgment of the people for their wickedness and his prophecies of the Lord returning with His saints (Jude 14-16).
Methuselah named his son Lamech, which means “powerful”, not to be confused with the Cainite Lamech. Methuselah lived to see his grandson Noah build the Ark and died in the year of The Flood, and possibly in the Flood.
Etymology
Methuselah means “Man of the sword or dart” or “Death of Sword”[2]. It is likely that the prophet Enoch used his son’s name as a warning to those who would listen about the judgment of God that was coming.
Living 1,000 Years (Or More)
Main Article: Millennial Day
Many people are recorded as having lived nearly 1,000 years, including for example, Adam (930 years), Seth (912 years), Enos (905 years), Cainan (910 years), and Jared (962 years). While the typical age at death was over 900 years, none exceeded 1,000. This is because, according to Job 14:5-6, a day is a “bound that he cannot pass”, and Peter wrote that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). Thus the 1,000-year day is also a “bound that he cannot pass”.
In the Garden of Eden, God warned Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, saying that Adam would die in the day that he ate of it (Genesis 2:17). Plainly, he lived more than one 24-hour day, but he still died within the 1,000-year day that he sinned according to God’s warning.
Mythologies of many ancient cultures, including the Indian, Sumerian, and Chinese, have tales of kings living more than 1,000 years. They were seen as divine because they passed the 1,000-year boundary that other men could not pass. But everyone who ever sinned has died in the same 1,000-year day that they broke the law. If a person could remain sinless, then there would be no reason for him to die within 1,000 years.
