How can we determine the author's intent in listing various ages in Genesis?

Question

I believe some of the ages given in Genesis are historical, but am one of many who happens to think the earliest ages might be symbolic (example source). If this were to be the case that leaves us with the question "Why?". What would be the author's intent in choosing these particular numbers?

Many people think the Genesis ages are chosen to be numbers that people could easily remember, and some are. At the same time, there are very often ages such as 905 and 912. Some other ages may be divisible by a common figure of influence.

Is there something they all have in common? How would we know which are historical and which are part of the story for another reason? Is there any one “rule” applicable to all of those Genesis ages that would help us interpret the story?

Answer 1

Although I disagree with your presupposition that the ages are merely symbolic, I think this is a great question nonetheless. The reason I say this is that regardless of whether the ages are historically significant, we should assume they are literarily significant. The Bible is literature, and each author (or redactor) of each book has crafted his work of literature with a particular purpose in mind. What the author does include should be considered significant, since it was selected for inclusion while so many other details were left out. (This is often referred to as the "principle of selectivity".) The author could have just skipped the ages altogether if they were merely historical data points; there are plenty of other details the author leaves out, after all.

---

Short Answer: With that said, I believe the textual evidence points toward the ages being very significant in advancing the author's theological agenda. These ages show how the world changed after the flood, and how human life made the enormous transition from the original, exalted state of creation to the "modern", decrepit state of things (at the time of authorship.)

The Trend

Here is a chart of the ages of the Patriarchs prior to the Israelites' time in Egypt, normalized by birth date:

• The green are the ages of people who were born and died prior to the flood¹

• The yellow are the ages of people who were born before the flood, and died after the flood

• The red are the ages of people who were born and died after the flood

What the author shows us is that prior to the flood people lived a really, really, really long time, but then the flood changed things. Since I mapped the ages by birth date and not merely by textual entry the "taper" isn't as clear in the previous graph, so here is another graph of the post-flood ages that shows the post-flood taper more clearly:

You can see that while it is not a perfectly smooth curve, the trend does show, over all, the degradation of the human lifespan following the flood.

The Significance

The flood is a major catastrophic event in Genesis, executed because of man's great wickedness. The author wants the audience to see that things used to be much better than they are "now," but because of man's great wickedness, God executed judgment on the human race, and it had an enormous negative effect on our lives. The trend is intended to show the readers that their lives would have been much better if man hadn't sinned so greatly against God.

As for the ages being very specific and the curve not being perfectly smooth, I would suggest that the author intended for the reader to take these ages to be real ages. (Whether or not they are is another topic.) If the author had simply chosen symbolic ages along the lines of "900 . . . 900 . . . 900 . . . 900 . . . 700 . . . 500 . . . 300 . . . " it would not have been as believable, and would not have had the same effect on the reader as it would to relate these men to their own real, physical heritage. In other words, the "realness" of the ages brings the story home for the audience.

---

_{1: I left out Enoch, since the text explicitly claims that he was caught up to heaven before he could live out his days and die.}

Answer 2

Many people think the Genesis ages are chosen to be numbers that people could easily 
remember, and some are. 

The reason for this is no doubt that many of the traditions that came to be recorded in the Bok of Genesis were initially handed down orally by tradents, who used a variety of techniques to help them remember the stories, including poetry, numbers and meaningful names.

Examples include Noah, who (Genesis 5:32) begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth at the age of 500, although we later learn that there were age differences among Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Noah was (Genesis 7:6) exactly 600 years old at the time of the Flood, and died just 950 years old. Shem was (Genesis 11:10-11) 100 years old when he begat Arphaxad and then lived another 500 years, thus his lifespan was 600 years. Lamech lived 777 years.

Enoch, who traditionally invented the calendar, follows another rule: Genesis 5:23 tells us he lived 365 years. At the same time, we also find numbers that tradents could easily remember. Enoch's age is split by the birth of Methuselah when he was 65, then exactly 300 more years to his death. Enoch's father Jared, in like fashion, (Genesis 5:18) lived one hundred and sixty two years when he begat Enoch then another 800 years.

The number 17 had special significance in many of the ages in Genesis.

Methuselah, the Bible’s oldest living human, became a father at 187 (11x17) and died at 969 (57x17). There is little chance that the oldest living man would become a father at a multiple of 17 and then die at a multiple of 17 years.

Even more compelling are the ages of the Hebrew patriarchs and their family members, which are hidden in patterns based around the number 17.

1. Abraham's lifepan was 175 years, which is (5x5) x7
2. Isaac's lifepan was 180 years, which is (6x6) x 5
3. Jacob's lifepan was 147 years, which is (7x7) x 3

Examining these supposed lifespans, we find that:

• Each lifespan involves a perfect square (5, 6, then 7) in a numeric series,
• The third factor also forms a series (7, 5, 3)
• In each case the sum of the factors is 17.

Abraham's wife, Sarah, lived to 127 years, which is the sum of these consecutive square numbers plus 17 -- (127 = 5x5 + 6x6 + 7x7 + 17).

Joseph, sometimes thought of as the fourth patriarch, lived to 110, which is the sum of the square numbers -- (110 = 5x5 + 6x6 + 7x7).

The Book of Genesis ends with Joseph, whose age, 110 years, can be represented as 10X10 + 10. 

The Book of Genesis opens with Adam, whose age, 930 years, can be represented as 30X30 + 30. 

I also detect patterns around the number 17 among other Genesis characters. For example:

• Adam lived 930 years, which is 7x9 + 3x17x17
• Adam's surviving son, Seth, lived 912 years, which is 5x9 + 3x17x17.

There is more than one “rule” applicable to all of those Genesis ages, but the most common, and the most complex, is the use of the number 17.