When I started studying the bible (as opposed to just reading the bible) I started charting some of the items I found. One of those was the years people lived in Genesis.
<tangent>Some of the exercises I have done may be common. In fact, since I did this several years ago, I have found many internet resources that have similar analyses. I don't claim to be original. But I would argue there is much more value it writing it down or calculating it yourself, not only to verify the accuracy, but to further your personal understanding of God's word.</tangent>
Here is the data I pulled from the first few pages of Genesis. If you copy this, I recommend that you verify the years are accurate so you are more confident with the validity of the data.
| Name |
Year
born |
Years
Lived |
Year
died |
Father's
age at birth |
| Adam |
0 |
930 |
930 |
0 |
| Seth |
130 |
912 |
1042 |
130 |
| Enosh |
235 |
905 |
1140 |
105 |
| Kenan |
325 |
910 |
1235 |
90 |
| Mahalalel |
395 |
895 |
1290 |
70 |
| Jared |
460 |
962 |
1422 |
65 |
| Enoch |
622 |
365 |
987 |
162 |
| Methuselah |
687 |
969 |
1656 |
65 |
| Lamech |
874 |
777 |
1651 |
187 |
| Noah |
1056 |
950 |
2006 |
182 |
Once I had this list, I played with various graphs and the data became more tangible. For example, when I used a stock graph, I realized that Adam had the opportunity to know all the patriarchs except Noah.
This exercise gave me many hours of meditation material. I wonder about how they lived - together? Apart? Did they have family gatherings? What would Lamech call his great (to the 6th) grandfather?
