Startling Revelation from the Bible
Man was created as immortal being. Immorality is woven into the very fabric of our genetic makeup. It is sin that keeps us from this elusive aspiration. Rapid progress is being made in discovering the causes of aging and death. Today we stand at the threshold of eliminating human frailties but at the same time challenging ethical, moral and theological norms.
God created man to be immortal. Although man sinned and death entered into his body he has both the physical and mindset potential for immortality.
Adam and the antediluvian patriarchs enjoyed what would now be considered extreme longevity. The oldest man, Methuselah, lived 969 years and the average age of death of the generations following Adam was 857.5 years, and if Enoch and Lamech were not counted, the average would be 929 years.
Adam became a father at 130 years of age while Noah became a father at 500 years! Post Flood this dramatically drops to between 30-70 years.
Josephus a Jewish historian in the first century offers several reasons for the long lives these individuals enjoyed. They were closer to the creation when the earth was filled with life and they were 'beloved by God'. Their pure diet contributed significantly to their long life span. It is also thought that they were granted additional years to observe astronomical events, establishing the science of astronomy. Josephus notes that there is mention of Egyptian and Greek historians of people living close to 1000 years.
Maimonides, a Jewish physician, believed that longevity mentioned in the Bible (Torah) is an extremely rare phenomena, confined to the people enumerated in the narrative. He agrees with Josephus that diet and general lifestyle was an essential to longevity. Several believe that longevity was miraculous.
Nachmanides (Ramban) believed that Adam's descendants had long life due their biological perfection. It is his contention that the reduced age post-Flood was due to Climate Changes that did in fact happen after the Deluge.
The Abarbanel, a commentator, saw longevity as a result of temperance in all things. I am currently watching a Longevity webinar and there are many interviews with aged peoples from around the world and they all mention these things in association with longevity: diet, and moderation.
When we talk about extreme longevity we do not often pause to consider that a different biological clock could mean a delayed adolescence possibly unto the 6th or 7th decade. This would have impacted hormonal urges.
This is critical to understand Pre-Adamic man who had a 'normal' biological clock. When Adam was created his 'biological clock' was not created for death. When he ate of the Tree of Knowledge his biological was set to terminate his life.
When Adam and Eve were banned from the Garden of Eden they lived a secluded existence, separated from the 'rest of humanity'. Eventually they intermarried among the primitive locals who did not enjoy longevity. When Noah's children fathered the longevity was half of Adam. Another demarcation for reduction in age was when the descendants of Noah migrated to Babylon, Iraq where they bred with tribes and the longevity reduced by one-forth. Thus the years of life went from 929 years down to the Tower of Babel when it was 228 years.
This diluted this 'gift' reduced again with God confirming that the life span for man would become 120 years.
Treatise on Longevity
Maimondes wrote a Treatise on Longevity (in part):
Elsewhere in the Jewish oral tradition, the concept of potential physical immortality is explicit. There is even foreshadowing of regenerative biotechnology. Thus, for example, there is an extensive Jewish oral tradition about the “Etzem Luz” – עצם לוז – the bone of resurrection, the indestructible part of the human body from which the resurrection will proceed.
“Luz” (almond) is a very fraught mystical concept, denoting the source of resurrection and regeneration, as well as an endocrine gland and a sprout. Jacob used “Luz” (almond) rods for “bioengineering,” to change the color of his sheep (Genesis 30:37-39). “Luz” is also the name of the blessed land of the immortals.
It may be sufficient to quote a remarkable article on “Luz” from Jewish Encyclopedia to illustrate how deeply rooted is the concept of potential immortality (and even its laboratory testing) of orally transmitted legends:
“LUZ - Name of a city in the land of the Hittites [a territory restricted to the hills of Canaan-Israel or broadly referring to Anatolia-Asia Minor], built by an emigrant from Beth-el, who was spared and sent abroad by the Israelitish invaders because he showed them the entrance to the city (Judges i. 26). “Luz” being the Hebrew word for an almond-tree, it has been suggested that the city derived its name from such a tree or grove of trees. Winckler compares the Arabic “laudh” (“asylum”). Robinson (“Researches,” iii. 389) identifies the city either with Luwaizah, near the city of Dan, or (ib.iii. 425) with Kamid al-Lauz, north of Heshbon (now Hasbiyyah); Talmudic references seem to point to its location as somewhere near the Phoenician coast (Sotah 46b; Sanh. 12a; Gen. R. lxix. 7).
Legend invested the place with miraculous qualities. “Luz, the city known for its blue dye, is the city which Sennacherib entered but could not harm; Nebuchadnezzar, but could not destroy; the city over which the angel of death has no power; outside the walls of which the aged who are tired of life are placed, where they meet death” (Sotah 46b); wherefore it is said of Luz, “the name thereof is unto this day” (Judges i. 26, Hebr.). It is furthermore stated that an almond-tree with a hole in it stood before the entrance to a cave that was near Luz; through that hole persons entered the cave and found the way to the city, which was altogether hidden (Gen. R.l.c.).”
Luz is also “Aramaic name for the os coccyx, the “nut” of the spinal column. The belief was that, being indestructible, it will form the nucleus for the resurrection of the body. The Emperor Hadrian, when told by R. Joshua that the revival of the body at the resurrection will take its start with the “almond,” or the “nut,” of the spinal column, had investigations made and found that water could not soften, nor fire burn, nor the pestle and mortar crush it (Lev. R. xviii.; Eccl. R. xii.).
The legend of the “resurrection bone,” connected with Ps. xxxiv. 21 (A. V. 20: “unum ex illis [ossibus] non confringetur” - [one of those bones is unbreakable]) and identified with the cauda equina [horse tailbone] (see Eisenmenger, “Entdecktes Judenthum” [Judaism discovered], ii. 931-933), was accepted as an axiomatic truth by the Christian and Mohammedan theologians and anatomists, and in the Middle Ages the bone received the name “Juden Knochlein” (Jew-bone; see Hyrtl, “Das Arabische und Hebraische in der Anatomie”
Messianic Longevity
There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. Isaiah 65:20
Traditional Jewish thought explains that a person who dies at the age of 100 will have been considered to be an adolescent. The Hebrew word na'ar is used of a person around puberty, usually around age of thirteen. If the biological clock is altered, and puberty begins at 100, then the life span is increased by a factor of 7.7. The outer limits of human lifespan, which is currently around 120, would then be 923, very close to the age of the first generation after Adam. This prophecy means that the lifespan existing in pre-Noachide generations will be restored. What Adam lost will be restored during Messianic times.
There are several thoughts about how this may transpire. One view is that the Messianic Age will not be a time of miracles and no laws of nature will be changed. Maimonides, a Middle-Age physician, believed that it might refer to scientific or technological longevity, long before the Industrial or Technocratic Age. The Messianic Era is a time when strife and war cease and the resource of the world are mobilized to serve humanity.
They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Isaiah 65:22
According to classical commentaries this means that man will enjoy the same longevity as a tree, enduring for many centuries.
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. Isaiah 25:8
One thought is that the majority of humanity will enjoy extremely long lives, but a small minority, death will be abolished forever. Others, however, maintain death will be abolished for all mankind.
Book of Remedies
King Hezekiah destroyed the "Book of Remedies" that included cures for all afflictions. The people were not turning to God but to the book and so King Hezekiah had it destroyed. It was considered a virtuous act to remind the people of their mortality and pray and repent less they become immersed in the material world and forget life's spiritual values.
Precipice of Immortality
Here we stand at the precipice of immortality. Ancient prophecies, legends, oral transmissions, and ancient books containing mystery 'recipes' for immortality in both camps; God's original design, and the Watcher's hacking the gift of immortality created by God.
Do we gain access to eternal life God's way or man's way (via removing God)?
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Celeste has worked as a contractor for Homeland Security and FEMA. Her training and activations include the infamous day of 911, flood and earthquake operations, mass casualty exercises, and numerous other operations. Celeste is FEMA certified and has completed the Professional Development Emergency Management Series.
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