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fakename
Guest
That is, as a catholic, should we believe in the Genesis accounts of extremely long-lived men?
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Aelred_Minor
Guest
From what I’ve heard apologists and such say, a Catholic may believe in these extremely long life spans in a literal way or can hold that they are in some way symbolic. I personally would strongly lean to the latter view.
What a Catholic would not be able to hold is that the Bible is simply wrong or lying about these ages.
What a Catholic would not be able to hold is that the Bible is simply wrong or lying about these ages.
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Huiou_Theou
Guest
Well, let’s see. It depends on which man, and what numbers.
In the Egyptian reconing of age, there were 10 months in a year (DECA=10 december), (OCTOBER=8), etc. And they hadn’t invented the decimal point yet; so a month is a tenth of a year, and they would often say things like: 8,1 is 8 years 1 month old; but when we read it, as there is no decimal point, it comes out 81. etc.
Now, if their age is reconed by Babylonian standards it is different; the same kind of problem pops up today, for example, with Chineese who recon age FROM conception and not birth. So, there is a 1 year difference typically in the way we figure our ages.
On top of all that, the ancients often reckoned wisdom and time as similar things; and for hebrews, life wasn’t counted until a child had lived so long. I don’t know how all the details fit into the calculations – but I DO know that when the old testament was translated from one language and numbering system to another that the ages were changed in a systematic way to correct for puberty; although the total number of years was kept the same. So, there are at least two different numbering schemes involved in those ages; A reasonable estimate for most of the high numbered years, to bring them into our idea of years, is to divide by 10, and then assume the age may be off by ±10 years.
St. Augustine goes into a bit of detail on this subject, and I have come across others too – but in general, I didn’t pay that much attention, as there were too many other important things to fill my head with at the time.
Short answer, no – not ALL large numbered life spans have their decimal point in the same place we would put it if writing it in English today. Also, Other countries tend to switch the comma and the decimal point – so English, English would do it differently still.
Hope this helps…
(I’m not joking about the facts, just the delivery.)- Status