How Did People Live So Long In The Beginning

How do you respond to skeptics of the Bible who often ask, "How was it possible for the Biblical patriarchs to live to be over 900 years old?" The very idea of people living to be over 900 years old seems difficult to believe, not less explain. But the Bible says the early patriarchs lived that long. Did they really live that long or did God use a different measurement of time? If not, how did people live so long in the beginning?

When we look in the genealogies recorded in Genesis 5, 10 and 11, the Bible clearly teaches the early patriarchs often lived to be nearly 1,000 years old. The structure of the genealogies gives the father’s age when his son was born, and then the age that he died. We can use these genealogies to date the age of the earth. We will also look at several theories that may give us clues to how people lived so long and why that may have possibly changed.