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Summary
- Noah died at 950: Genesis 9:28–29 says he lived 350 years after the flood, and he was 600 when it came (Genesis 7:6).
- His 950 years are the third-longest life in the Bible, after Methuselah’s 969 and Jared’s 962.
- By the Hebrew numbers in Genesis, Methuselah died in the year of the flood and Noah’s father Lamech five years before it.
- By the Hebrew numbers, Noah died when Abram was 58 if Terah was 70 at Abram’s birth, or two years before Abram was born if Terah was 130, as one reading of Acts 7:4 requires.
- Lives fall steeply after the flood: Shem lived 600 years, Peleg 239, Abraham 175 and Moses 120.
- Augustine held that the early years were as long as ours; Answers in Genesis, ICR and Reasons to Believe take the ages as real lives, while BioLogos reads them as an ancient way of honouring ancestors.
- The Sumerian King List gives its eight kings before the flood reigns of 18,600 to 43,200 years.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- King James Version, quoted from BibleGateway: Genesis 2:17; 5:24; 6:3; 7:6; 9:1; 9:20; 9:28–29; 10:32; Psalm 90:10; Hebrews 11:7; 2 Peter 2:5. Ages also from Genesis 5:3–32; 7:11; 8:13–14; 11:10–32; 25:7; 35:28; 47:28; 50:26; Deuteronomy 34:7; also cited, Genesis 11:26, Acts 7:4 and 2 Peter 3:8.
- Genesis 5, 7:6, 9:28–29 and 11 in the Septuagint, tr. Lancelot C. L. Brenton (1844), eBible.org: Genesis 5, Genesis 7, Genesis 9, Genesis 11.
- Genesis 5, 6 and 11 with notes, New American Bible, Revised Edition, USCCB; notes on Genesis 6:1–4 and Genesis 11:10–26.
- Augustine, The City of God, book 15, chapters 11, 12, 14 and 24, tr. Marcus Dods, New Advent.
- Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 81, New Advent.
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies, book 5, chapter 23, New Advent.
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book 1, chapter 3, tr. William Whiston, Project Gutenberg.
- The Book of Jubilees, 4:30 and 10:15–17, tr. R. H. Charles, pseudepigrapha.com.
- “The Sumerian king list,” translation t.2.1.1, Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, University of Oxford, archived copy.
- Georgia Purdom and David Menton, “Ancient Biblical Lifespans: Did Adam Live Over 900 Years?”, Answers in Genesis.
- Brian Thomas, “Did Adam Really Live 930 Years?”, Institute for Creation Research, 14 July 2014.
- Reasons to Believe, “How Did People in the Bible Live So Long?”, 26 January 2026.
- John Walton, “Why Did People in the Bible Live So Long?”, BioLogos, 29 June 2026.
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