How Did Methuselah Beat Old Age and Live till 969?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

     A few years ago when I walked in Edgefield, Oregon with my son.  Very soon I'll be 89.  I've stopped walking, weather not inducing me, and a few other reasons.  I'll share one thing I've discovered.  I sleep much better with a window open. The fresh air puts me to sleep.  When that window is closed, I have a bad night.  Our forest fires that turn our skies a weird red and the air quality dangerous are not as bad at night.  I check my computer for that result for the night.  One must get some good sleep.  Fresh air was something my mother did for me every night; open my bedroom window regardless of the season.  Hope you can do it for your children.  Be sure to have screens on the window, though.    

Old age is upon me.  Really!  To top it off, I found the perfect description of it while reading  "The Outer Space Connection" by Alan and Sally Landsburg published in 1975 which I thought was so ap-ro-pos in this day and age of UFO's and UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena,).  They have an essay that I have copied for all to see what might be in store for them, written brilliantly.  

   Abraham and Sarah, who had Isaac at age 90 !  She died at age 127, quite young considering her peers.  Abraham died at age 175, and this happened AFTER the flood.  Ages are shortening.    

"If we consider aging a disease, then the symptoms are representative of a biological war taking place within the body.  The results of that war can be seen in many cases and measured in others.

The skin dries and wrinkles, hair falls out and is dusted with gray.  Our sensory organs begin to fail;  the lenses of the eyes thicken and lose their crystal clarity;  our hearing mechanism degenerates and loses its acuity.  Fat accumulates around the torso and the butt.  Muscles shrink and grow slack.  Joints stiffen and swell.

In old age the body's life-supporting organs suffer because the heart pumps blood less effectively and the vessels through which it travels lose their elasticity.  Lungs remove less and less oxygen from the air we breathe;  kidney and bladder functions drop sharply.  The flow of hormones---the chemicals that control many of our body's functions---is reduced.  The brain, man's crowning achievement, shrinks each day by more than a hundred thousand cells.

Aging is a cumulative weakening process, rendering the body vulnerable to the many degenerative diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular ailments, diabetes, etc.  If these diseases don't kill, the body finally dies from the sum total of ills we call "old age."

                 Noah and the Flood who lived till 950.  This tale is also told in the Babylonian "Gilgamesh epic" a parallel flood story, but with the hero named Utnapishtim. 

Babylonian Number System 

Today we're lucky to make it to 100, quite the target for many of us.  Landsburg was fascinated by the fact he realized that our ancestors living before the Flood of Noah all had extremely long lives, and it was after the Flood that ages recorded were feasible according today's ages.  The point is, these were recorded facts imbedded in clay tablets that have lasted all these years from places like Ebla. 

Methuselah lived the longest, dying at age 969.  How did they do it? Adam 930, Seth 912, Kenan 910, Enos 905, Mahalalel 895, Lamech lived till 777, Enoch lived till 365,  Jared 962, 

 The narrative of Noah’s Flood (Genesis Flood, Great Deluge) from a geoscientific point of view. It outlines the four most popular hypotheses: (i) the postglacial–early Holocene flooding of the Persian/Arabian Gulf which fell dry during the last glacial lowstand of the sea; (ii) a cosmic impact by a meteorite ca. 10,000 years ago, which triggered tsunami waves worldwide; (iii) the rapid re-filling of the Black Sea basin when the early Holocene rise of the Mediterranean Sea surpassed the Bosphorus sill about 8400 years ago; and (iv) the occurrence of one or several mega-floods in Central and Lower Mesopotamia, which left imprints in and around ancient settlement mounds (tells) such as Ur and Uruk. The pros and cons of these scenarios are discussed. Based on geological and sedimentological evidence the authors argue for the latter theory and describe future research venues.

Geologists have also found evidence in the soil of a time of flooding.  Scholars believe that the flood myth originated in Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian Period (c. 1880–1595 BCE) and reached Syro-Palestine in the latter half of the 2nd millennium BCE.  1880 BCE was about 4,000 years ago.  Accordingly, not only in the modern era, but as far back as 4,000 years ago, practically all areas on Earth were drastically changed by human land use. Over-hunting, nomadic animal husbandry, early agriculture and the first urban developments had already affected almost all parts of Earth by this time.   

Can you believe what just happened to LA?  Los Angeles: After months of sweltering summer heat and temperatures in the early 30s, residents of the California cities of Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs woke on Sunday morning (local time) to a blanket of grey storm clouds rolling in from the south.  Hurricane Hilary had arrived.  Then, just before 2.45pm local time, an earthquake shook the city for a few seconds.On any other day, it might have been ignored. But on a day of extreme weather and already frayed nerves, it added a biblical dimension to an otherwise already tense situation.The US Geological Survey reported a 5.5 magnitude earthquake, centred 7.2 kilometres south-east of the central California city of Ojai.                    

     American Heart Association advocating to eat healthy

Throughout the ages man has sought immortality and has
 failed.  The best we can do is to keep ourselves healthy by eating and living healthily, and keep our planet healthy.  You must realize that the planet before the flood must have been quite different and most healthy compared to today.  My father would be crushed, no beef showing up in the picture.  He was a wholesale Meat producer, and died at age 59.  

  Alan Landsburg (May 10, 1933-August 13, 2014) who died at age 81in California, born in New York.  

Thank you, Alan and Sally Landsburg for writing your essay on aging.  I can certainly agree on all your points. Alan William Landsburg was an American television writer, producer, and director. He was the founder and CEO of Alan Landsburg Productions and the Landsburg Company and was involved in producing over fifty movies of the week. He had over 2,000 hours of television production experience .  I've enjoyed reading your book, hope to read more.  

   Sally has also passed away.  Sally Breit Landsburg:  Sally Breit Landsburg died on March 11, 2019 at age 86 at the Sussman House Hospice in Rockport, Maine after a brief but intense battle with cancer.    Sally was born on August 18, 1933 in Binghamton, New York to Nellie Schwab Goldberg. Her father, Dr. Hugo Breit died while in his early fifties, while her mother died at 78 after remarrying Leo Goldberg.

Resource:

https://www.oldest.org/religion/people-bible/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_flood_narrative#:~:text=Scholars%20believe%20that%20the%20flood,of%20the%202nd%20millennium%20BCE.

https://www.uni-kiel.de/en/details/news/257-excavations#:~:text=Accordingly%2C%20not%20only%20in%20the,of%20Earth%20by%20this%20time.