According to the Genesis record, the antediluvian patriarchs, and their descendants lived extraordinarily long lives. However, according to most of the rest of the Bible and afterward to even our own day, the length of one’s life might be more like 70 years on average. Some live longer and some live shorter lives, but 70 seems to be about average. When one speaks of a generation in the Bible, the time under consideration might be shorter than the total number of one’s years. The Cambridge Dictionary defines the word as: “a period of about 25 to 30 years, in which most human babies become adults and have their own children.” I believe the Bible defines a generation to be somewhat close to this definition. For example, Jesus foretold the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century AD to be within a generation. He claimed his own generation wouldn’t pass away until his prophecy would be fulfilled (Luke 21:32; cp. Matthew 23:33-38), which from the time of his prophecy to its fulfillment was a little less than 40 years. If this is at least close to the truth for Jesus’ day and our own day, what might be considered a generation during the antediluvian era, when folks lived much longer lives, before they had children? How important might that be in terms of what the population of the earth was like just before the Flood?[1]
So, the Lord spoke with Noah and told him: “Come, all of you into the ark, because I have found you righteous in this generation” (Genesis 7:1). How should we consider Noah’s generation in terms of its length in time? Well, if we consider the definition of the Cambridge Dictionary, to be reasonable, the floodwaters began to cover the earth when Noah was 600 years old (Genesis 7:6), and his sons were adults and were married, but none of them had children. If this is accurate and logical then we may consider Noah’s entire life up to the time of the Genesis Flood to be “this generation” (Genesis 7:1). So, what does this mean?
According to the graph I submitted for consideration in my study of chapter five of the Book of Genesis,[2] the Flood occurred in the year 1656 (figured from the day of creation). This puts Noah’s birth in 1056. Of the ten patriarchs listed in Genesis 5, three: Adam, Seth and Enoch, weren’t living, when Noah was born. Yet, of the remaining seven, only Noah was found righteous. One of the patriarchs, Methuselah, died in the Flood, because only Noah was found righteous, and only he and his family were saved out of that wicked society that filled the earth with violence (Genesis 7:1; cp. 6:11).
Noah was commanded to take with him onto the ark representatives of all the kinds of animals and birds. He was to take them by pairs, the male and the female (cp. Genesis 6:19), seven pairs of clean animals and birds, and one pair of the unclean animals and birds (Genesis 7:2-3).
Once they were inside the ark, the Lord said the floodwaters would come within seven days. Once the judgment had commenced, it would rain for 40 days and 40 nights, and every living thing on the earth would be killed, except for those living in the ark (Genesis 7:4).
Therefore, Noah believed the Lord (Hebrews 11:7), and did everything he was commanded to do. He and his wife, and his sons and their wives entered the ark in order to escape the judgment of God, and he took with him pairs of both clean and unclean animals and birds into the ark with him. Noah was 600 years old when he entered the ark (Genesis 7:5-9), and after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth (Genesis 7:10).
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[1] See my earlier study: The Genesis Flood & the Morality of God, which is contained in the larger study: The Genesis Flood – Myth or Fact?
[2] See my earlier study: The So-Called Righteous Line.
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