How would a rationalist interpret the long lives of the ancient people enumerated in the Bible, from Methuselah on down? Virtually no person lives more than 120 years today, even with the assistance of modern medicine. Does the rationalist concede that at least in this one case, we must say "Nishtaneh haTeva," nature has changed?
Answer
That it is not intended literally, but rather the numbers have allegorical significance. (For example, Chanoch lived precisely 365 years, the number of days in a solar year.)
That it referred to dynasties started by the individual person, rather than just to the lifespan of that person.
Or that "shana" does not mean what we think it means. I tried to explain the latter in these two posts:
See how I interpret the Sumerian king list, where they have similarly extremely long lifespans.
kol tuv, josh
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