OT Timelines

[SoCalCoug]

I was reading Joseph Smith's Lectures on Faith, in the section where he lays out the OT chronology of Adam through Abraham, talking about who was still alive at the same time as whom, and how long they lived - with the extreme old ages lasting even until Abraham's time.

Given that much of the OT is likely symbolic rather than literal, what are the prevailing hypotheses or theories (other than the obvious one that they are literal) about the extreme ages of the pre-Abraham patriarchs in the OT?

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by SoCalCoug

I was reading Joseph Smith's Lectures on Faith, in the section where he lays out the OT chronology of Adam through Abraham, talking about who was still alive at the same time as whom, and how long they lived - with the extreme old ages lasting even until Abraham's time.

Given that much of the OT is likely symbolic rather than literal, what are the prevailing hypotheses or theories (other than the obvious one that they are literal) about the extreme ages of the pre-Abraham patriarchs in the OT?

I'm forgetting the source for this, but I've read that there's good evidence that the antediluvian patriarch's old ages are rooted in a Babylonian tradition of kings who lived to be thousands of years old.

For Abraham and Moses, I've long wondered about Psalm 90 (which was supposed to have been written by Moses!). It declares that humans get 70 or 80s years of life.