Interesting. I am going for 140. ;)

I wouldn't want to live to 120, not with my quality of life. I think the length part is over rated, until one has to deal with serious quality of life issues. My wife deals with the terminally ill every day, and has told me for years, how cruel some family members can be, about forcing a loved one to struggle on and suffer even greater agonies - only because the family member(s) can't come to terms with letting their loved one die. I think its something to think about.

Sometimes letting go, is the best course of action. Forcing someone to linger on in a painful terminal situation borders on cruelty, in my opinion.

David

living to 120 means that you would have to work until you were 90 or could make enough money in 40 years to to support yourself for 55 years in retirement. This is very unlikely for the average person.

It's not how long you make it, it's how you make it long.

My wife's grandmother is 112!!! She is the 12th oldest in the country and 23rd in the world. Poor lady is just existing in a home in NC.
Can't walk, hardly can hear or see.

She was still living alone until just over 100.

I was kidding with her one time and said, "Grammy, do you remember when the Titanic sunk?" She said, "Oh yes, I was a little girl but is was in all the papers". Can you imagine all that she has seen happen?

Bill from Florida

Inchoation –

How very interesting! Yes, you're right, the verse from Genesis does cite age 120 as the maximum years of man!

It could be a coincidence, but it also occurs to me there may also be a logical explanation for how this happened.

In Old Testament times extreme longevity was greatly celebrated (as in the case of Methuselah) and was likely a source of high social status at that time. So the people of that era, such as the Israelites, would have kept notice of the age of their elders, especially as they got older and older, and likely would have handed down accounts of great age from one generation to another.

So, over the decades, even the centuries, there may well have been a couple of times when people were observed to have lived to around 120 (but no older), so that, there now being a record of this, the Israelites eventually were able to deduce, correctly, that no one ever seemed to get older than 120.

This observation then became a cultural fact for these people, one that was eventually recorded into their sacred writings and eventually coming down to us in the Book of Genesis.

Just a guess, but this might be what happened.

But very interesting, indeed!

Who would want to be an "old man" for 65 years? My father lived to age 95, and it seems that every couple we know has at least parent (out of four) who has reached or is very close to 90. The picture is in almost all cases not very pretty. Humanity for the most part has strived for "immortality" through religion, our works, and our heirs. Better that. Best wishes!

NewspaperLover

"Who would want to be an 'old man' for 65 years?"

Sign me up. Call it a lust for life.