Board Thread:Bible Questions/@comment-37652793-20181128224839/@comment-1777104-20181129224629

The time units in the Bible are days, months and years, just like in our time. Specific numbers are given for the ages of men at the birth of their significant sons--at least up to Abraham. The ages of those before the flood may have been "rounded" or bracketed (ending in 0 or 5) when they got so old no one could remember exactly!

It might be that the years were originally exactly 12 lunar revolutions around the month at 30 days per revolution. This is because the months are never given over 30 days anywhere in the text. Five months is said to be 150 days in one place. After the flood, months are assumed the same, but calendars begin to be "corrected" when dates did not line up with expected season changes. The moon had begun to cycle at 29.5 days rather than the expected 30 days.

At the time of the Passover, the new "year" switched to spring for religious observations related to the agricultural calendar. This put an extra month somewhere around February in years that didn't have an early harvest of Barley. The feast of Trumpets began the fall harvest period in the seventh month after this new beginning.

As for the old ages, these are confirmed to be true when Jacob tells the Pharaoh that he was 130 years old, but that his forefathers lived a lot longer. Just as Jacob knew the age of his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham, so the ages of previous generations were known as history.

The reader of the Bible cannot help but admit that a straight reading of the text presents long ages for individuals both before and after the flood. Only a world-wide "climate change" type of event could reduce these ages by a factor of ten or so. That event is recorded as the Great Flood of Noah's time.