How long did people live... back then?

[alwaysreforming]

I have a friend who is one of the most ignorant and arrogant people around (a truly tiresome combination) who is always positing things that don't exist in order to establish his faulty premises.

One such is that he says in the days of Jesus people didn't live very long at all, maybe to age 40 if they were lucky. He says this, in part, to imply that Jesus' early death wasn't such a big deal since He had already lived an almost full lifespan.

I don't believe this for a number of reasons: one, Paul says not to put widows on the list unless they are over 60, which means that must have been a sort of "retirement age" back then.
Two, I think it is believed that John didn't die until he was 90 or so.

What do my learned brethren know about this topic?

 

[Anton Bruckner]

I think you can point to Caiaphas and Annus as examples of Priests of 1st century Jerusalem that lived pretty long.

Average does not equate to absolute. Each individual has his own unique circumstances that can put him way below the average or way above the average. Jesus was murdered, and it didn't matter if he had lived below, above or just at average. Murder is not a natural form of dying, and if murder is done upon a person who is at the average age of members of the society, it is no less murder. It is "murder, murder most fowl".

If we use your friend's argument, then it would be ok for us to go into nursing homes and kill 75 year olds, since they have lived a full life.

Anyway his point is moot for the above forementioned concept. Average does not equal absolute. Average is simply the sum of all the ages of the people in a particular area divided by the number of people of that particular area. It does not take into consideration the unique factors governing each individual.
e.g I could be born in a nice country side, with good health, and have a good diet despite my poverty and live to 80 years old, whereas my neighbor is born in the same circumstances with poor health whilst being rich. If my neighbor lives to 20, that would make the average age of us 50. Ludicrous since there is a great difference between us. But on the contrary if my neighbor was 45 and I was 55, then the average of 50 years old would have some credibility.