Methuselah

From Free net encyclopedia

(Redirected from Mathusala)

Template:Cleanup-date

This article is about the Biblical character. See Methuselah (disambiguation) for other uses.

Methuselah or Metushélach (Hebrew מְתוּשֶׁלַח / מְתוּשָׁלַח "Man of the dart", or alternatively "when he dies, it shall be sent" Standard Hebrew Mətušélaḥ / Mətušálaḥ, Tiberian Hebrew Məṯûšélaḥ / Məṯûšālaḥ) was the oldest person whose age is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He reportedly reached the age of 969 years. According to the Book of Genesis 5:27: And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. (ASV)

Contents

[edit]

Methuselah in Genesis

He is mentioned in Genesis as the son of Enoch and the father of Lamech (father of Noah), whom he fathered at the age of 187. His name has become a general synonym for any living creature of great age. A close reading of the dates in the Old Testament reveals that Methuselah is said to have died in the year of the Great Flood, but the Bible does not indicate if the cause of his death was by drowning. Some have interpreted his name as a prophecy: when he dies, the Flood will come. In that case, the long life has an allegorical dimension, showing that God withheld judgment on mankind for a very long time. In addition, the age of 969 fits within the dictum that man's life would be less than a "day" (i.e 1,000 years) after Adam ate from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden.

[edit]

Methuselah in the Book of Enoch

Methuselah is mentioned in the Book of Enoch as being the son of Enoch and that he had brothers. The writer tells Methuselah of the coming Deluge and of a future Messianic kingdom [1]

[edit]

Lifespan

Modern science puts the natural limit on current human longevity well below 150 years. Guinness Records for the oldest living person have long remained within the range from age 112 to the all-time record of 122 years held by Jeanne Calment, but the process of sorting genuine supercentenarians from longevity myths is hampered by the often questionable birth certification records from the late 19th century. Guinness Record statistics are soon likely to excuse the Methuselah age controversy, and further misunderstands the meaning of the story--some interpret Methuselah's age to be allegorical and, if anything, represented a different time and context).

Many theories have been put forward to explain why biblical ages do not correspond to the lifespan of modern humans and scientific findings. Some maintain that the unusually high longevity of Biblical patriarchs is the result of an error in translation: lunar cycles were mistaken for the solar ones, and the actual ages are 12.37 times less. This gives 78 years for Methuselah, which is still an impressive number, bearing in mind the life expectancy of Biblical times. Methuselah's fathering of Lamech would correspondingly have occurred at solar age 15 (187÷12.37). This theory however, seems doubtful to others since patriarchs such as Mahalalel (ibid 5:15) and Enoch (ibid 5:21) were said to have become fathers after 65 "years." If the lunar cycle theory were accepted this would translate to an age of about 5 years and 2 months.

Creationists have speculated on reasons for the dramatic decrease in lifespans following the flood of Noah's time. One is that conditions before the flood caused much less ultraviolet light from the sun to impact the earth, and that this allowed for longer life spans. Young Earth creationist Carl Wieland alternatively speculated that it is due to the genetic bottleneck that would have been caused by the flood, causing loss of longevity genes.[2] Other creationists believe that, according to the biblical text, a vapor canopy existed around the earth before the flood, which also would have protected mankind from the sun's aging effects. After the dissipation of the canopy during the flood, lifespans dropped rapidly to what they are today. In the opinion of the majority of scientists, proof of these events and proof of their effect on human lifespans is lacking. Therefore they are rejected by mainstream science.

Some believe that the cause for the decrease in human longevity for Bible believers is the passage of Genesis 6:3 where God sets a specific lifespan for human beings. "3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with [a] man forever, for he is mortal [b] ; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." In addition, a cosmology of "sin"--that man was once potentially immortal, but became mortal through four "falls" of man and thus had his life shortened in four successive stages (from potentially everlasting in the Garden of Eden to less than 1,000 afterward; then to less than 500 after the Flood; then to 250; then to 120) and that equated early death with sin (and thus long life with respect) all mean that early Biblical ages have allegorical, not mere literal, meaning. But most commentators regard this as the time that mankind as a whole had left before the Flood came, because individual lifespans as given in the Bible were much longer for some time.

a. Genesis 6:3 or "My spirit will not remain in" b. Genesis 6:3 or "corrupt" (NIV)

[edit]

Modern cultural references

Robert A. Heinlein wrote a science fiction series about rejuvenation and a project called the "Howard family" that was working to extend the human lifespan beyond 150 years. The first volume was called Methuselah's Children and it was continued in Time Enough for Love and later novels.

Richard Morgan's debut novel, Altered Carbon, explored a method of keeping the rich alive, via clones and uploadable memories, for several centuries. The common slang for these people is "Methuselah" or "Meth". This has been argued to simply be a nod to Heinlein's novel, but this theory is unlikely.

Edward Einhorn's absurdist comedy The Living Methuselah, appearing in his book of plays entitled The Golem, Methuselah, and Shylock, gives another perspective on Methuselah. In it, Methuselah has lived to modern day, though all the major disasters of human history, along with his wife, Serach, the oldest living woman.

In the card game Vampire: the Eternal Struggle the players are known as "Methuselahs", most likely because they are supposed to be ancient vampires controlling minions, thus being a reference to their age.

In the Star Trek episode "Requiem for Methuselah", Methuselah is revealed to be an immortal man born in the year 3834 BC. According to the episode, other identities of the immortal Methuselah included Leonardo Da Vinci, Merlin, Solomon, Lazarus, and Johannes Brahms. But at the end of the episode, Dr McCoy revealed that he was finally dying. Methuselah was played in the episode by actor James Daly.

In The Simpsons episode 9F21, there is a reference to a "Methuselah Rookie Card" that pictures a very old man. Ned Flanders is distributing free religious trading cards. And in The Simpsons Bible Stories episode AABF14, Abe Simpson plays Methuselah and is killed by Goliath II (Nelson). David (Bart) mourns him as "my oldest friend" and vows revenge.

The movie Blade Runner makes passing reference to a Methuselah Syndrome, a gland condition causing accelerated aging.

Methuselah is the name of a bird in Barbara Kingsolver's novel The Poisonwood Bible.

In the manga series Immortal Rain one of the main characters, Rain, is also known as the "meteor Methuselah", and the character Yuca is actually the "spirit of Methuselah". Both characters are immortal, by the way.

In the Anime RahXephon, the head of the Babaĥem Foundation was referred as a modern Methuselah

In the anime Witch Hunter Robin the name is mentioned as "the Methuselah Witch" or the Immortal clan said to be able to control the powers of other witches and live forever unless killed by fire.

In another anime, Trinity Blood, vampires are also known as 'Methuselah' as opposed to mortal human beings known as 'Terran'.

In the Brian Jacques Redwall series, Methuselah is the name of a very old mouse.

The Smashing Pumpkins recorded a demo of a song entitled "Methuselah" during the sessions preceding the recording of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

Methuselah is the name of the world's oldest living organism, a 4700 year old bristlecone pine

Scientists planted a seed from an extinct, 2,000-year-old date palm species; the unexpected sprout it produced was named 'Methuselah' (New York Times article [3]).

The song "Razzle Dazzle" from the musical Chicago contains the lines, "Back since the days of old Methuselah, Everyone loves the big bambooz-a-ler".

In Charlotte Bronte's novel Villette Methusaleh is an old tree in the garden under which Lucy Snowe buries letters from Dr. John.

In the television series Highlander: The Series, "Methuselah's Stone" was said to be an ancient stone that could turn any mortal into an immortal, and which could also make any immortal 10 times stronger.

In Johnny Depp's comentary on Pirates of the Carribian he said that during the island beach scene he felt like Methuselah with his arm around Kiera Knightly (a 17 year old actress).

[edit]

See also

[edit]

External links


Template:Adam to Davidang:Mathusal de:Methusalem es:Matusalén fr:Mathusalem (Bible) he:מתושלח nl:Metusalem pl:Matuzalem pt:Matusalém sv:Methusalem zh:瑪土撒拉

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Methuselah"