With the exception of the Apostle John, none of the writers of the New Testament grew old. And he didn’t write on the subject because there was really no need. From the time of the worldwide flood (circa 4300 B.C.) until the early 1900s, scientists estimate the average life expectancy was thirty-five, plus or minus five years. In the Jewish culture, that number was slightly higher, around fifty years, perhaps because of the dietary laws that God gave them. These Old Testament instructions emphasized a diet of mostly fruit and vegetables, with light amounts of lean meat at celebrations and feast days. It was in contrast to the fatty, proteinaceous diets of other civilizations, as reflected by Daniel and his friends refusing to eat the foods of their Babylonian captors.
These numbers don’t mean everybody died before or at age fifty, but that the majority of people didn’t expect to live as long as we do. The term ‘elder’ in the New Testament applied to men who were much younger than we anticipate today. There were exceptions, of course. Moses was given extra years because God’s mission for him was after he was already forty. Likewise, it is thought that John was in his nineties when he wrote the Book of Revelation, again, to accomplish God’s purpose. So lifespans equivalent to our own were possible in ancient times but not as likely and this affected Jewish society in indirect ways.
For example, girls were married almost as soon as they were able to bear children. Men started working in the fields at age five and they were legally considered adults at age thirteen. The education system stopped for almost everyone at the sixth grade and the only subjects considered important enough to teach were the Bible, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Vocational skills such as animal husbandry, housekeeping, and agriculture were taught on the job before a child reached his teen years. In many ways, life’s milestones were accelerated compared to our lives of longevity and relative ease today.
That is not to say that an easy life promotes life expectancy. In the United States, where two out of three citizens are clinically overweight or obese and lack exercise, it is expected that our ceiling is about to peak, as diabetes, cancer, and heart problems take their toll. Further, the increase in life expectancy we have experienced in the last hundred years is attributed primarily to medications that cure infection, the primary killer in ancient times. Widespread disease wasn’t encountered until the fourteenth century’s bubonic plague because people considered travel to be expensive and dangerous, reducing their role as vectors of infection. And even then, people weren’t the carriers of that disease— rats were.
In Jewish society, if a person contracted an infection with no known cure, leprosy, for example, they voluntarily quarantined themselves for the rest of their lives to benefit their tribe or village. Compare that behavior to how AIDS victims in our time continue to spread infection for their own pleasure.
Mental aberrations were handled differently as well. In ancient times, old age dementia was rare, but babies born with limited faculties and people who survived strokes were not. A place was found for them in society were they could be productive. It was never suggested that a person with Downs Syndrome, for example, should be euthanized or that a partially paralyzed stroke victim should be left to die of starvation in the woods. These are modern solutions that reflect man’s selfish heart. The Jews were compassionate. Even Gentiles in ancient times treated people with mental problems as touched by the gods, special people not to be harmed.
So while man’s life expectancy has increased in recent decades, has his character improved? Is he doing worthwhile things with the extra time he has been given? Here, it is hard to answer because the definitions of ‘character’ and ‘worthwhile’ have changed. From a Biblical point of view, character is manifested in a person who is following God’s principles for a good life, and worth is determined by how much a person is Christ-like. A secularist would say that character reflects notoriety and worth is a monetary term. As a result, maybe two divergent answers are required. A Christian should say that we aren’t using our extra time well since more than half of people with Christ’s label don’t even know the mission he has given to them, to spread the gospel throughout the world. That is being accomplished by only a small fraction of his church. The rest are wasting their time on things that make them indistinguishable from the world where secular people are seeking fame and fortune, the result of their definition of character and worth, and success, for them, is measured in more days of happiness than sadness.
Unfortunately, many Christians in old age are applying the same secular standard to their lives. They struggle against physical ailments, loneliness, and boredom which prevent them from being happy. Without focusing on the Biblical instruction on what is truly important, they are subject to unhappiness. According to the Bible, a good life is the result of following Christ, who put aside a life of ease to reach people with his message. There are many ways that people in old age can do this in spite of illness, isolation, and monotony. But it requires redefining their standard of happiness to be in keeping with the purpose Christ has given. For non-believers, the first step toward this goal is to study the Bible and believe the gospel message. For believers, the first step is to worry less about their longevity and more about pleasing Christ with the extra time they have been given. It could be that believers have been given longer lives in this century to accomplish Christ’s commission. By implication, maybe God isn’t planning on offering the gift of salvation for much longer. To support this idea, some youthful Christian missionaries claim the gospel message will reach everyone in the world in their lifetime. So let’s look at old age as a blessing and not a curse, a last minute chance to be involved in Christ’s great commission. In this way, it is possible to be happy while suffering.
