The Bible is a loose collection of different books written by different authors over a period of thousands of years. We shouldn’t be surprised that some of them say different things.

Neither commenter was advocating for having it both ways. I don't even find them at odds with one another. I happen to agree with both assertions.

OP: "millenia old book makes claim about life that is empirically uncontroverted in 2022" – i agree

Parent: "the bible is a collection of stories and contradictions should be expected" – i also agree

The first half of your comment could indeed be relevant in the right discussion, but this thread was not it. The rest then falls terribly flat and comes off needlessly aggressive and snide.

> Christians are easily confused

I would be embarrassed writing such things in a public forum.

Nobody in this subthread even claimed to be Christian, so I don’t know what your point is.

Are you serious? You’ve left behind petty stereotyping and are boldly venturing into bigotry here.

Save your incredulity. There is no shame in judging a fool. Bigotry is based on prejudice. That is to say strongly held beliefs not based on reason or evidence. Does that sound familiar to you?

Check out the book of Genesis. There is a specific point at which God changes the maximum human lifespan to 120 years, after which this does not occur.

So this is the definitive proof that Jeanne Calment is a fake!

The Bible is many different books combined. Some contain practical advice for living, others have philosophical rules of thumb, allegories, etc.

An alternative interpretation is that 120 years is the period of reprieve before the Flood.

Antediluvian lifespans were order of magnitude greater. Methuselah was, I think, over 900 years. After the flood the lifespans became significantly shorter.

or maybe they used lunar calendar, 900 years are actually months...

Then you have people becoming daddies at the ripe old age of ... 5.

Didn't this actually happen somewhere in Peru in between two worlds wars?