In 2014, while speaking at a legal conference in England, Professor Colin Blakemore told the attendees that he believed 120 was the maximum age people could live too. He described it as the “absolute limit to human lifespans.”

A neurobiologist, Blackmore, who has also been knighted for his work in medical research, is the former head of England’s Medical Research Council.

Blakemore was reacting to comments by some predicting that people’s life spans could triple. He said though medical research is extending how long people are living, there is a limit.

And certainly, recent medical advancements are allowing people to live longer:

• In 2014, the Global Age Index stated if the trend continues in 2050 21% of earth’s population will be over 60, compared to 12% today and 4% will be over 80, compared the current 2%.
• Over the past decade, the number of people over the age of 100 in England has increased by 71%.
• There are 14,000 people over the age 0f 100 in England compared to only 2,500 in the early 1980s.
• In 2004, there were 340 people over the age of 105 in England. This has risen to 710 in 2014.
• According to England’s Office of National Statistics, it expects that men and women born today will live to an average age of 78 and 82 respectively compared to 70 and 76 for those born in the early 1980s.

But even with these advancements, according to Blakemore the upper limit remains 120 years.

Though it has taken a few years, science is finally catching up to what the Bible stated about 5000 years ago.

In a judgment associated with the flood, God limited man’s life span to 120 years:

³ Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” (Genesis 6:3 NASV)

After Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, God judged people with death. But even then, humans were still living for hundreds of years such as Seth who lived to 912 (Genesis 5:8) and Mahalalel who was 895 years old when he died (Genesis 5:17) .

But after the flood we notice a gradual decline is life spans. It was not a straight trajectory down as there were bumps with children living longer than their parents as other factors such as disease and nutrition affecting longevity came into play.

But by Joseph’s day, ages were finally below 120 and remained that way. Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel, was 110 years old when he died (Genesis 50:22-26).

It seemed in addition to cursing the world with a flood, God twigged man’s genetic code limiting our lifespan to 120 years. It has taken a few thousand years for science to finally acknowledge this curse God placed on man for their sin.

Sources:

• We’ll soon all live to 120 years old — but this is probably the absolute limit, claims expert: Daily Mail