Methuselah

Genesis 5:21, 25-27

Wikipedia: Methuselah and מתושלח

Longest lived person in history. The oldest person whose age is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, given as 969 years. The name Methuselah has become a general synonym for any living creature of great age.

Methuselah is calculated to have died in the year of the Great Flood, using the numbers from the Masoretic Text. Rashi's comment on Genesis 7:4 said the seven days preceding the Flood constituted the mourning period for Methuselah, for the sake of whose righteousness the Flood was delayed.

God promised Enoch that judgment would not come as long as Methuselah lived.

Genesis assigns Adam the age of 930 years, which in the standard Ussher chronology makes Methuselah contemporary with Adam (for 243 years) and the last human link between Adam and Noah.

In a midrash version of Sefer haYashar or Book of Jasher,[4] Methuselah accompanied his grandson Noah in attempting to persuade the people of the earth to return to godliness. (Jasher 5:7) All other very long-lived people died, and Methuselah was the only one of this class left. (Jasher 5:21) God planned to bring the flood after all the men who walked in the ways of the LORD had died (besides Noah's nuclear family). (Jasher 4:20) Methuselah lived until the ark was built, but died before the flood, since God had promised he would not be killed with the unrighteous. (Jasher 5:21)

Methusalem, Metusela eller Metushelach (det första är hur namnet transponerats via grekiskan, det andra är 1917 års översättning och det sista är Bibel 2000 som ligger närmast det hebreiska originalet) var i judisk mytologi så som den förmedlas av Gamla Testamentet en patriark som sägs ha levat i 969 år. Han var far till Noas far Lemek.

Hans namn har översatts på två olika sätt: dels "Hans död skall sända den" och dels "Man av spjutet" eller "Man av pilen". Intressant nog så var hans far, Hanok/Henok/Enok, en profet samtidigt som han tycks ha dött samma år som syndafloden kom.