Does the bible and science agree on man's maximum age?

esmith said:

In Genesis 6:3 the LORD said let mans age not exceed 120 years. In 1961 Dr Leonard Hayflick came up with the same number. This age limit is called the Hayflick Limit.
Hayflick Limit

Is this just a coincidence?

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Riverwolf said:

The oldest person who ever lived was 122 when she died, so the limit has already been breached.

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Kerr said:

What about Jeanne Calment? She became 122 years.
Jeanne Calment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Shaul said:

Golly, 1 person out of the 10,000,000,000 that have lived since that verse was written exceeded its nominal limit. Your sure have some point there.

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9-10ths_Penguin said:

As I mentioned a few posts back, even the Book of Genesis describes several people as living past the limit was established... if that's how we interpret the passage.

Why did you decide to interpret the passage to be instituting a limit on human lifespan?

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Shaul said:

This limit was established after the Flood and after those that lived longer than 120 years.

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9-10ths_Penguin said:

Assuming it didn't apply to people living at the time (since the same chapter describes Noah living more than 120 years after this) and assuming that this might have included Noah's sons, we still have:

- Arphaxad (born after the flood, son of Shem and grandson of Noah), who lived to 403. (Gen 11:13)
- Shelah (son of Arphaxad), who also lived to 403 (Gen 11:15)
- Ebar (son of Shelah), who lived to 430 (Gen 11:17)
- Peleg (son of Ebar), who lived to 209 (Gen 11:29)
- Abraham, who lived to 175 (Gen 25:7)


I could find some other examples if you like.

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Nowhere Man said:

I'm sure with future advances in technology and medicine we can expand the age 'limit' substantially.

Unfortunately for me it's too late. But give it a couple centuries into the future it probably wouldn't be surprising to see somebody live close to 140 years and beyond.

Future Human lifespan 140 years, 500 years, 1000 years or indefinite with aging damage repair and aging reversal – NextBigFuture.com

Of course I would wonder if that would actually be a good thing though.

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9-10ths_Penguin said:

Genesis describes a number of people living longer than 120 years after God says this, as I pointed out earlier:

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Shaul said:

No, it has people who were already living when it was established living for up to another 120 years.

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6 When humankind began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose. 3 So the Lord said, “My spirit will not remain in humankind indefinitely, since they are mortal. They will remain for 120 more years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days (and also after this) when the sons of God were having sexual relations with the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children. They were the mighty heroes of old, the famous men.

5 But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—everything from humankind to animals, including creatures that move on the ground and birds of the air, for I regret that I have made them.”

8 But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.

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10 This is the account of Shem.

Shem was 100 years old when he became the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood. 11 And after becoming the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. 13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

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