I Knew a Guy Who Was SO OLD...

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Are you interested in the parts of history that remain a mystery? Do you want to learn more about the historical myths and misconceptions used to prop up belief today?

I'm Nathaniel Lloyd. In my podcast, Historical Blindness, I delve into all of these topics, sharing puzzling tales from the past, and examining hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and misremembered events that provide insight into modern politics and religion. New episodes every two weeks find Historical Blindness on most podcast players and platforms.

Dan McClellan (0:37)

The first point to make is that these ages are just fictional. People were not living this long anciently.

Dan Beecher (0:44)

Wait a minute, you are saying that Methuselah did not live 969 years?

Dan McClellan (0:50)

Absolutely not.

Dan Beecher (0:51)

Having fathered Lamech at 187

Dan McClellan (0:54)

Right.

Dan Beecher (0:57)

That's solid, man, if they did pull that off, that's impressive.

Dan McClellan (1:01)

Hey, everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:07)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:08)

And you are listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we seek to increase the public's access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How are things today, Dan?

Dan Beecher (1:23)

Things are great. We're going to have a fun show. I think I'm looking forward to this one.

You're going to explain some stuff to me that I've been wanting to understand, so I'm excited. I'm giddy, positively giddy.

Dan McClellan (1:38)

Excellent. The two segments today are questions that I get all the time on my social media channels, so hopefully this will be a great resource for folks.

Dan Beecher (1:48)

Exactly. That's great. So, should we just jump right in?

Dan McClellan (1:51)

Let's just dive right in with our...

Dan Beecher (1:54)

By the numbers.

Dan McClellan (1:55)

By the numbers. Let's talk about some of the ages of the patriarchs from the primeval history, Genesis 1 through 11

Dan Beecher (2:07)

Yeah, I did some digging on this just because I didn't want to come into this like completely a neophyte. And I don't know if you know this, Dan, but these fellows lived a kind of a long time. Like I read an article recently that was about a woman down in the south, I think, who was 114 years old. And she has a... The thing that stood out to me is that she has a granddaughter who's like 75 or something crazy like that, which feels funny to know that there's a woman out there who's in her 70s and can go visit her grandma.

But that's nothing.

Dan McClellan (2:52)

Nothing.

Dan Beecher (2:53)

Compared to what we're about to get into. We are about to delve into some crazy stuff. And it starts...

We're launching basically from Genesis 5, is that right?

Dan McClellan (3:04)

Genesis 5, although in the process, we're going to talk a little bit about Genesis 4 as well.

Dan Beecher (3:13)

And I was digging into other stuff. You have to jump around a little bit to get all of the people, because the patriarchal age kind of gets... Abraham's considered one of the patriarchs, right?

Or not. So we're going from Noah, or rather from Adam to Noah to Abraham, and it does not take that many steps to get to these guys, though it takes many years. So how do we start this conversation?

Dan McClellan (3:49)

Let's do this. I want to talk about the differences between Genesis 4 and Genesis 5, and then we'll hop into what's going on in Genesis 5 Because in Genesis 4 and Genesis 5, we have two different genealogies.

And this is one of the things that tipped scholars off to the fact that we may be dealing with separate traditions that were brought together at some point in the past.

Because in Genesis 4, you have genealogies for Cain and Seth, two separate lines. Did I say Genesis 5 or 4? You said 4 Okay. In Genesis 4, we have a line for Seth and a line for Cain, and they are different.

Dan Beecher (4:31)

And both of these are sons of Adam.

Dan McClellan (4:33)

Right. So you have the wicked son of Adam, the first murderer, and then Seth is the righteous son of Adam. And Seth's line goes down all the way to Noah. And Cain had a son named Enoch, and he built a city and named it Enoch after his son Enoch. And then Enoch had a son named Erad.

And then Erad had a son named Mehujael, who had a son named Methusael, who had a son named Lamech.

Dan Beecher (5:10)

Oh, I'm starting to see some parallels happening.