So if we get a single human who, without dispute as the oldest woman has some controversy as to the validity of her age, lives past the age of 120 will that be proof the bible is untrue and all it’s writings are false? Because I have a funny feeling now that people are much more documented we will pass the 120 year mark any time.
> So if we get a single human who, without dispute as the oldest woman has some controversy as to the validity of her age, lives past the age of 120 will that be proof the bible is untrue and all it’s writings are false?
No, it will prove that Biblical literalism is false, but that's a novel minority doctrine in Christianity that is already disproven by (among other things) the two conflicting creation sequences in Genesis.
Most of those are valid responses in textual criticism.
For example, in law one could fairly comment that:
1. Literalism isn't absolute - e.g the old British legal tradition of using England to refer to England & Wales
2. Laws supersede one another - new laws overriding old ones, constitutional laws taking primacy
3. Translation challenges occur - when documents like birth/death certificates, immigration papers, college transcripts, police clearances, marriage licenses, divorce decrees and etc are submitted in foreign countries for acceptance by courts and other institutions as legal record.
4. There is space for interpretation - See laws deliberately leaving room for interpretation with phrases like "reasonable force"
Despite these challenges, textual critics of legal writings are often able to successfully decide whether a given statement about a text is correct/incorrect.
Not really. Because it wasn't a hard limit. Even after the Bible records that God said this, it records people living to 450, 175, 120 years and so on. After God said, the span gradually reduced to well below 120. So, a case could be made that it wasn't a hard limit.
Well, the chapter prior to that one describes humans living for hundreds of years, so I don't think someone living past 120 will really introduce any more theological problems.
Figure this: If I come up with a theory that people can grow older than 120 years because of a golden teacup whizzing about somewhere in the Oort cloud, and we find a person older than 120 years, does that mean the golden teacup exists?
No one would care. We already have a 122 year old, no one's tossing their bible out over it. Conflicts in religious texts are common and always resolved one way or the other.
