Could Adam Have Lived that Long?

Genesis 5:5
“And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.”

In Genesis chapter 5 we read that Adam lived to be 930 years old. One question often asked is, “Could Adam really have lived that long?”

Most of the effects of aging are due to genetic mistakes that accumulate over generations. This is in addition to the age limitations God imposed on human beings after the Genesis Flood. These early generations, so close to Adam and Eve, would have accumulated comparatively few genetic mistakes.

Before the Genesis Flood, the Earth was probably a very different place. Many creation-scientists believe that the pre-Flood Earth was surrounded by a canopy of water vapor or at least in some way had a greater atmospheric pressure – perhaps about twice what it is now. Medical researchers have been experimenting with the effects of higher atmospheric pressure. Tests in chambers that subject people to similar air pressures show that high atmospheric pressure gets more oxygen to the cells and speeds healing. Hospitals use a hyperbaric chamber for burn victims. Experiments have shown that such chambers can also reverse senility. And higher atmospheric pressure appears to reverse some of the effects of aging on the skin and hair and stimulates the entire body.

We can be sure that Adam and the others lived as long as they did because God’s Word says they did. However, science may be discovering some of the conditions in the pre-Flood world that may have helped make these long lives possible.

Prayer: Father, I trust Your Word because I know that You could not lie or mislead, even if You wanted to. Even as I confess my trust in the truth of Your Word, let me not neglect studying it. Grant me Your Holy Spirit so that my understanding of it would grow. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Photo: Michelangelo Adam PD.JPG