Longevity myths

[9][10] Several parts of the Hebrew Bible, including the Torah, Joshua, Job, and Chronicles, mention individuals with very long lifespans, up to the 969 years of Methuselah.

[17] Those biblical scholars that teach literal interpretation give explanations for the advanced ages of the early patriarchs.

[20] The Bible's own (brief) explanation for these ages approaches the question from a different angle, explaining instead the relative shortness of normal lives in Genesis 6:3 (CSB): "And the Lord said, 'My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt.

Conservative apologist William Lane Craig believes that the longevity myths should be understood as 'mytho-history', where the ages of culturally significant figures were exaggerated to make a political or theological point.

[27] Chapter 2 of Falun Gong by Li Hongzhi (2001) states, A person in Japan named Mitsu Taira lived to be 242 years old.

During the Tang dynasty in our country, there was a monk called Hui Zhao [慧昭, 526–815[citation needed]] who lived to be 290 [288–289] years old.

According to the county annals of Yong Tai in Fujian Province, Chen Jun [陈俊] was born in the first year of Zhong He time (881 AD) under the reign of Emperor Xi Zong during the Tang Dynasty.

[30]Extreme lifespans are ascribed to the Tirthankaras, for instance: The term xian refers to deified persons who have achieved immortality.

The reigns of several shahs in the Shahnameh, an epic poem by Ferdowsi, are given as longer than a century: In Roman times, Pliny wrote about longevity records from the census carried out in 74 AD under Vespasian.

[61] In the only ten-king tablet recension of this list three kings (Alalngar, [...], kidunnu, and En-men-dur-ana) are recorded as having reigned 72,000 years together.

Based on these many legends, explorers and adventurers looked for the elusive Fountain of Youth or some other remedy to aging, generally associated with magic waters.

These waters might have been a river, a spring or any other water-source said to reverse the aging process and to cure sickness when swallowed or bathed in.