"And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years" (Genesis 5:27).

"As long as Methuselah lived, the Flood did not come upon the world. And when Methuselah died, it was withheld for another seven days after his death to fulfill the period of mourning" (Avot d’Rabbi Natan 32:1).

The line of Adam is traced through his third son, Seth. Adam lived 930 years; Seth lived 912. But this was not unusual. These antediluvian years were characterized by great longevity. But Methuselah lived the longest of any of the Biblical personalities. This was insured by a Biblical dictum stated in the sixth chapter of Genesis. There God said: "My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for that he also is flesh; therefore shall his days be a hundred and twenty years.”

What earned Methuselah, Noah’s grandfather, the title of the world’s "oldest man?” There are no hints in the Biblical text. However, the rabbinic literature exalts him: "Methuselah was perfectly righteous. Whatever came out of his mouth ended with the praise of the Holy One, Blessed is He. He studied nine hundred orders of Mishnah” (Yalkut Shimoni, Bereishit 42).

The Talmud identifies the "seven shepherds” from the messianic vision of Micah as: David in the center with Adam, Seth, and Methuselah on his right, and Abraham, Jacob, and Moses on his left” (Sukkah 52b). Further, when Methuselah died, not only did the angels eulogize him in heaven, but God delayed the punishment of the generation of the Flood for the seven days of bereavement.

All the preceding suggests that Methuselah was a zaddik, a "righteous man.” And by implication, a more righteous man than his grandson, Noah, who was also called "righteous and whole-hearted,” but Noah’s righteousness is mitigated by the words "in his generation.” That is, Noah is exalted within a debased period of human civilization. Methuselah is and remains exalted in generations inhabited by great men. Thus his goodness and righteousness will always stand at the highest level of both human aspirations and Divine expectations.

He lived nearly a millenium, and his son, Lamech, begot Noah, who was to rescue humanity from its degradation and its virtual destruction. Only after Methuselah did the Lord perceive man as corrupt, and perhaps not worth saving. It was the life of Methuselah and his forebears, extending back in time through Seth and Adam, that encouraged Divinity to give his earthly creations a chance to start over. The Lord Himself would soon recognize that the quality of corruption, as much as the quality of goodness, adhered to every human soul succeeding Noah.