If Wisdom Comes With Age, Adam Was A Wise Guy!

Thus all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. (Gen 5:5)

A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to be a part of a men's Bible Study group. At the time, one of the gentleman asked why we separated the men and women for this study. Aside from just personal choice, we pointed out that men tend to want explanations on the literal sense of the Bible while women tend to accept the message without sweating the details. The lifetimes of the early humans is a perfect example.

The question came up early in Genesis regarding the ages of the patriarchs of our faith. We naturally looked for any official Church teaching and finding none, began to put forth reasons this might be. Some leaned on the fact that the story of Creation was not meant to be take quite so literally, and that ages were merely symbolic of the importance of each person. Others suggested that in those years, time was not measured in the same sense that we think of it -- the Roman calendar and the cuckoo clock were yet to be discovered Still others reasoned that God ordered long life spans in order to allow time for the people to be fruitful enough to populate the world!

I like to think that it stems from the fact that our original parents ate from the Tree of Life while in Eden. The fruit from that tree would have gained them eternal life with the Father. When they were tossed out on their heels for their sin, the effects of that fruit did not immediately subside. Therefore we see throughout Genesis that the ages of our earliest ancestors were great in number, but generally dropped off as the amount of time since the fall of man increased.

Note that this is not official Church teaching. They do not speculate on age just as they do not specify whether a Catholic in good standing must believe in Creation or Evolution or some combination of the two. She only requires that "by faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the Word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible" (Hebrews 11:3). Further more, the Church recognizes that the early chapters of Genesis "remain the principal source for catechesis on the mysteries of the 'beginning': creation, fall, and promise of salvation" (CCC 289).

But alas, the debate between Creation and Evolution is best left for another entry.