many nations and cultures certain people had long lifespans like there are flood myths. The Sumerian kings had long recorded reigns as well. When the jews were captured and wrote the torah thats were they got there idea from?
I think you’re referring to the Sumerian Kings List which records lengthy lives of as long as 40,000 years. Tied to this list is King Gilgamesh, who has a legendary Epic that also records a world Flood.
Given what we know about the practices of conquerers at the time, the flood story was likely a local tradition that Gilgamesh made his own when he conquered the Babylonian region. He made himself the hero of the story, replacing Noah as the righteous survivor.
If it was a local oral tradition, it would make sense to see a similar story in the Bible, since Abraham came from Ur, which is in the Babylonian region, before migrating west across the Fertile Crescent.
So, seeing that there is a tradition in Sumeria to record their legendary kings as having long lives, and there is a
old Semitic tradition to record their righteous patriarchs as having long lives, then we can find a common denominator here. Length of life is associated with greatness, whether that be greatness in rulership/character (as in Sumeria), or greatness in righteousness (as in the Semitic tradition). It is likely then, that long life was a symbolic statement of magnanimity of person.
Indeed, we might consider a tie-in with Genesis 6:4 - Now giants were upon the earth in those days. For after the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, and they brought forth children,** these are the mighty men of old, men of renown.** Traditionally, the “Sons of God” has been understood as the descendants of the line of Seth, while the “daughters of men,” have been understood as the descendents of Cain. The meaning, of course, being that of a division of the righteous and the wicked.
So, before the flood we see a
joining of the righteous line with the wicked line, and these were the mighty men, the giants of history. And Noah was the last righteous man, the last Patriarch to live past 900 years.
But let’s consider the actual verse wherein God says man’s years will be one hundred and tweny. Genesis 6:3 - “
And God said: My spirit shall not remain in man for ever, because he is flesh, and his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.” Note, this is said immediately after we’re told that the Sons of God took as wives the daughters of men, and immediately before telling us that they had children together who were mighty, giants, and renowned men. Thus, we should understand “
because he is flesh” as being related to the intermixing of these two lines.
But consider the actual verse more closely. God says “My spirit shall not remain in man for ever… and his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.” It seems that the oldness of the Patriarchs was tied in with the God’s “Spirit” remaining in them. But, when the righteous men became
one flesh in marriage with the daughters of the wicked, God’s spirit no longer remains in them, and after this happens, we see a general decline in the ages of men.
Noah was 600 years old when the Flood came. An ominous number, as six is the number of man. Shem, let it be known, lived to be 600 years old (Genesis 11:10-11). Again, this is symbolic of the
change in man. It was the spirit of God that caused men to live near on one thousand years, but it is the spirit of man, who is flesh, symbolized by the number six, which reigns after the Flood. We shouldn’t find it coincidental, then, that the first recorded death after the Flood, excepting Noah of course, since he was the last righteous Patriarch, occurred in the man’s 600th year. After Shem, no man lived past 600 years, each dying consecutively younger.
