Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Genesis 6:3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 6:3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive and remain with man forever, because he is indeed flesh [sinful, corrupt--given over to sensual appetites]; nevertheless his days shall yet be a hundred and twenty years." |
Subject: Why is life expectancy for Americans low |
Bible Note: Edd, even so the Spirit strives with man still, this does not negate the interpretation of Genesis 6:3 to mean that God set a time limit on calling the people to repentance before He brought Noah's Flood to destroy all human life except Noah and his family. The context of the passage unambiguously supports the "one hundred and twenty years" to be the span of time until the Flood during which God gave man opportunity to respond to the warning that His Spirit would not strive with man forever. Compare 1 Peter 3:20 in which Peter speaks of the patience of God being kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark. The 120 years was not a promise of man's longevity then and it is not one now. Its application was not to life expectancy then nor is it now. It referred solely to the time that God would allow to elapse before sending the Flood, and the application of this verse is therefore limited to this specific time in history and to the conditions that existed at that time. To use this verse as a promise for all time of a 120-year human lifespan is not good exegesis by any measure, including the basic fact that it doesn't square with reality, because rarely has any man lived to be 120 years since ancient times. The verse does not suggest any reason whatever to develop a general principle from a specific event. And this verse, like all other verses, is better understood when one reads it for what it actually says and avoids reading into it what one may wish it to mean. --Hank |