Genesis 5: (1) A mystery of the ages in connection with the Flood is how Noah’s venerable grandfather Methuselah survived the universal cataclysm which destroyed all life except the Noah menage and menagerie in the ark. Methuselah did not die until a year or more after the Flood – fourteen years after according to the Septuagint. It is recorded that Methuselah was 187 years old when his son Lamech was born (Gen. 5: 25), and he lived for 787 years afterwards, dying at the ripe age of 969 years (5: 26, 27). Lamech was 182 years old when his son Noah was born (5: 28, 29). When the Flood began, Noah was in his six hundredth year, or, to be exact, he was 599 years, one month, and seventeen days old (v2: 11 ); and Noah lived for 350 years after the Flood, and was 950 years old when he died (9: 28, 29 ). Methuselah was alive when the Flood began and when it ended, if the Bible record is true: 1. From the birth of Lamech to the beginning of the Flood was (182 plus 599) 781 years; and from the birth of Lamech to the end of the Flood was 782 years. If Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech 782 years he survived the Flood. Or, again: (2) From the birth of Methuselah to the beginning of the Flood was (187 plus 182 plus 599 years) 968 years; the Flood ended a year later, when Methuselah was 969, and he died at that good old age. Or again: 3. From the birth of Methuselah to the death of Noah was (187 plus 182 plus 950 years) 1319 years. As Noah died 350 years after the Flood, from the birth of Methuselah to the end of the Flood was (1319 minus 350 years) 969 years, the age of Methuselah at his death, after the Flood. Doubt: As Noah shut his own aged grandfather out of the ark, where and how Methuselah spent that watery last year of his advanced old age.
The key to the question and subsequently to the answer of the query above lies with mention in the question, “according to the Septuagint.” Specifically, the charge is that “Methuselah did not die until a year or more after the Flood – fourteen years after according to the Septuagint.”
Our English Old Testament portion of our Bibles was translated from the Hebrew rather than from the Greek. Of four possible texts from which the Old Testament could have been translated into English – the Hebrew Masoretic, the Greek Septuagint (Alexandrinus), the Greek Septuagint (Vaticanus) or the Samaritan, the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew. (See the Wikipedia.) The Greek Septuagint and Samaritan texts are themselves translations from the Hebrew. Rather than appealing to translations for the purpose of translating the Bible into English, English Bible translations are usually made from the original languages (i.e., Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament). Resorting to a translation that stands between the original language and the destination language for translating into English can result in less accuracy of the English translation.
In addition, of the four texts cited above, only the Septuagint (Vaticanus) places the death of Methuselah after the flood of Noah’s day – and that by 14 years after the deluge. Each of the other three texts, including the alternate reading of the Septuagint, place the death of Methuselah either before the flood or in the year of the flood. The Masoretic text from which the Old Testament in our English language Bibles was translated places the death of Methuselah in the year of the flood.
It is a dishonest tactic often to which Bible critics resort to disregard translations that do not pose the purported problem and to not disclose that they are doing so. Not only must Christians give an answer to those who inquire about one’s Christian faith (1 Peter 3:15), but frequently the children of God must also defend the faith against attacks upon it (Philippians 1:7, 17).
Works Cited
Wikipedia. 2 Aug 2012. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah>.
