Bible Trivia - 9/30/2008

Question: Who lived to be 969 years old?

Answer: Methuselah. (Genesis 5:27)

Comments: The genealogy of Genesis 5 asserts that Methuselah lived to be 969 years. That is the oldest documented age in the Bible, but only by seven years. As such Methuselah has become synonymous with senectitude. The expression “old as Methuselah” dates back to at least the fourteenth century. An allusion to it is cited as circa 1390 in Frederick James Furnivall (1825-1910)’s Minor Poems, 1901: “...if a Mon may libben heer As longe as dude Matussale.”

So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died. (Genesis 5:27)

The name “Methuselah” means alternatively “Man of the dart” or “when he dies/died, it will be sent/has been sent”). The year of Methuselah’s death coincided with the Great Flood. As such, many have interpreted Methuselah’s name as being a prophetic warning and his long life evidence of the magnitude of God’s patience.