Our days were numbered to 120 years.

Jane Isley
May 22
2 min read

Updated: May 30

“Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” Genesis 6:3

A very fascinating verse.

One that really tickles my brain. I was reading Revelation a while back for something and ended up in Genesis and had a thought about this verse, that I will admit is just a theory of my own.

No one but God knows when He will return, not even Jesus. (1) Then we have this verse (Genesis 6:3) just hanging out there. I’ve read that many think this is a major contradiction of Scripture because Scripture gives us how long people lived past this point.

I don’t see a contradiction at all, and here’s why.

Noah lived another 350 years after the flood (2), and Genesis 11 gives us more ages that lived well beyond 120 years. So is it a contradiction? On the surface, it could appear that way, but something started to happen to people’s life spans after the flood.

People didn’t live as long as they used to. By the time we get to Abraham, life spans were significantly lowered. Abraham died a the age of 175 years (3) and he was described as “an old man and full of years.”

I will admit there are a lot of theories out there regarding the “120 years” verse and that number, but I have my own thoughts on the matter.

We still have the occasional person who lived beyond 120 years, granted, not many, but we still hear about it in the news once in a while. In 1997, a French woman passed away at the age of 122, This made news because they were able to verify her age with documentation. (4)

picture of Jeanne Calment at age 40 — Jeanne Calment

Wikipedia has a list of the oldest verified people who have passed away, some close to 120 years old. (5)

Here is my theory:

Only God knows everyone's age, there is no way in the world we could possibly know the oldest people still alive, what their ages are, and when they passed.

What if the last person to live to 120 years old passes, and that’s the time God will come back?