Methuselah

Methuselah (Heb. Methushelach, possibly “man of the dart” or “when he dies, it shall be sent”) is the eighth name in the Genesis 5 genealogy: son of Enoch, father of Lamech, grandfather of Noah. He is best known as the longest-lived human being in scripture, dying at 969 years (Gen.5.27). The narrative places him as the last living link between Adam, whose life overlapped his own by more than two centuries, and the flood generation. Adding the chronological numbers in Genesis 5 yields the striking observation that Methuselah died in the very year the flood came, suggesting (as many evangelical readers have noted) that his unusually long life was itself an act of divine patience. His father Enoch “walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Gen.5.24), making Methuselah the son of one of only two figures in the Old Testament who did not see death. Methuselah is named again in the chronicler’s register (1Ch.1.3) and in Luke’s genealogy of Jesus (Luk.3.37).