from 1/7/2016….
Part of our group’s Genesis discussion: why did early generations of humanity live so long? One reader had suggested to me the insight that after God told Adam and Eve to go forth and multiply God may have granted long lives to assure the survival of humanity in the now-broken world and to facilitate the transfer of learned skills and collective wisdom of humanity during that early populating and dispersal of people over larger areas of land. Oral transfer of knowledge and developing traditions, patterns, and human institutions needed deep reservoirs of memory in order to become firmly established. It makes sense sociologically and theologically to me that a good and loving God would give his beloved creation every opportunity to survive through such a means as tHis. Another observation was that the perfectly functioning physical bodies of eaRly humanity were not so corrupted by the brokenness of sin until many generations later so that the cumulative toll on humanity took time to whittle away at the physical resiliency of mankind. Eventually diseases that arose and corruption and biodiversity in the DNA of expanding populations shortened lifespans and as means of retaining information developed through writing that filled the gap that was lost in the deep memory pool of oral tradition. Interesting and thoughtful discussion!