Question #21

Please explain Genesis 6:2-3.

Would you please explain to me wht Genesis 6:2-3 says? . . . . “In the future” is the key here. At what point did man stop living longer than this 120 years? Genesis chapter 23 – 25 or so mention Saray dying at age 127. Abraham was 175 when he died.

The Answer:

The translation that you cite [omitted in the question] is the New Living Translation (“NLT”). One of the problems with many of the new translations, as with the NLT here, is that they are really commentaries. Although the original text admits of two or more possible interpretations, some newer translations pick one of the possible translations and insert it into the text. The readers of the translation can never learn of other possible meanings unless other translations are consulted. Most commentaries are more honest than that because they discuss all possible meanings even though they prefer and argue for one.

Here, the language may mean that there is a 120 year grace period before the deluge begins. This is the interpretation preferred by the great Hebrew scholars, Keil and Delitzsch. On the other hand, it can mean, as the NLT suggests, that man’s life would be limited to 120 years in the future. This is the understanding preferred by Gordan J. Wenham in the Word Biblical Commentary. However, he, as others who hold this view, consider the 120 year limit to have been gradually imposed. As you point out, Abraham lived to 175. Isaac lived to 180 and Jacob to 147. After Jacob, however, the longest lived included Joseph (110), Moses (120), and Joshua (110). Only Aaron (123) exceeds 120. By the time of David, he was able to say, “ The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” Psalm 90:10.