What was the life expectancy during biblical times?

Question

What was the life expectancy during biblical times?

Answer 1

Pre-Flood - The oldest man was 900 years old.

Post flood - 110 years was the most a person could expect to live.

Answer 2

It depends where you were. In cities it was very low, lots of things around to kill you. In the country side it would have been much higher, when there were no rampaging armies out to get you, it would have been pretty close to what we have today.

Answer 3

I wouldn't look for fairy tales to determine the age.  There are plenty of skeletons.  I would guess that 60 would be very old.  There were some that lived longer and some that died early.  Most infants died.  Hunger and disease was rampant.

Answer 4

That is debatable.

In Roman times it was roughly 40-50 years.  But there were many people who lived beyond this average to 60, 70, or 80.  Infant and child death was a big factor in life expecctancy.  But if you lived past childhood and any wars, 50 sounded normal.

Before that life expectancy may or may not have been greater.  Of course, the bible says that early patriarchs lived upwards of 500 years in several cases.

Answer 5

During the times of Jesus you have to stop and think of what was going on. If you want to believe the Bible and take that as a whole then you believe what you will but, There was no modern medicine, drugs or really good food.

   People did not live that long, most probably a good long life, without disease was in the neighborhood of 60 years old, but, I would guess old age was closer to fifty years old.

   I would also say most people had something wrong with them, shortening their lives, arthritis, rheumatism, cancer, all the diseases we have today but, little to no treatments. Poor food and poor diets. I'm sure they suffered. They usually started life early, married at the early age of fourteen or so, had babies then. They were old at thirty.

   Be glad you were born when you were.

Answer 6

Of the 120 Billion (or thereabouts) Homo Sapiens that have ever lived, most didn't live past 50...

Cavemen usually didn't reach 30. Two thousand years ago, the average life expectancy would have been 40-50. Infant mortality, and women dying during childbirth was considerably higher...

Consider the medical advances in the past 100 years a blessing, although we still try and kill each other as much as ever...

Answer 7

Actually, it was pretty much the same as it is now.  70 and 80 year old people were not uncommon.

Answer 8

I am guessing around 15 - 22 years of age. You can read the bible maybe it will tell you.

Answer 9

Depends on which time in the Bible.  In the beginning it records people living nearly one hundred years, but after Noah, it began to reduce and eventually settled at seventy.