Methuselah, in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), patriarch whose life span as recorded in Genesis (5:27) was 969 years. Methuselah has survived in legend and tradition as the longest-lived human. His prodigious age has been taken as literally 969 solar years, as a possible mistranslation of 969 lunar months or tenths of years (with his age then ranging from about 78 years to almost 97 years), and as a myth intended to create an impression of a distant past between Adam and Noah, as well as any number of other interpretations
Methuselah is the oldest person in the Bible, as he died at the age of 969 years old.
The following is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible:
‘When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him. When Methuselah had lived one hundred eighty-seven years, he became the father of Lamech. Methuselah lived after the birth of Lamech seven hundred eighty-two years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty-nine years; and he died. 5:21–27′
According to the Hebrew Bible, Methuselah begets Lamech and then lives 782 more years. When Lamech is 182 he begets Noah, and the Genesis Flood comes when Noah is 600 years old. This would imply that Methuselah dies the year of the Flood. (In the Septuagint, most of the ages in this section are different. Lamech begets Noah at age 188, and Methuselah lives 802 years after begetting him. He was also the oldest of all the figures mentioned in the Bible.Methuselah is mentioned once in the Hebrew Bible outside of Genesis, in 1 Chronicles 1:3. Methuselah is mentioned a single time in the New Testament, when the Gospel of Luke traces Jesus’ lineage back to Adam in Luke 3.
