METHUSELAH.A Sethite, the father of Lamech, Gen_5:21 ff. (P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] ), 1Ch_1:3, Luk_3:37 = Methushael in J [Note: Jahwist.] s genealogy, Luk_4:18. The name is interpreted by Holzinger as man of the javelina fitting name for a time when the earth was full of violence.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
("he dies and it (the flood) is sent".) A name given prophetically by Enoch, or given after the event. Phoenician inscriptions use methu or betha ("a man"). The man who lived the longest - 969 years. He died in the year of the flood, possibly by it. It is suggestive that death enters into the name of the longest liver. No record of godliness is given, as in his father Enoch's case (Gen_5:21-27); faith is not always hereditary.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Methu'selah. (man of the dart). The son of Enoch, sixth in descent from Seth, and father of Lamech. Gen_5:25-27.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
the son of Enoch, and father of Lamech, Gen_5:21. He was born A.M. 687 and died A.M. 1656, being the very year of the deluge, at the age of nine hundred and sixty-nine, the greatest age to which any mortal man ever attained.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
mḗ-thū?sḗ-la, me-thū?se-la (מתוּשׁלח, methūshelaḥ, ?man of the javelin?): A descendant of Seth, the son of Enoch, and father of Lamech (Gen_5:21 ff; 1Ch_1:3; Luk_3:37). Methuselah is said to have lived 969 years; he is therefore the oldest of the patriarchs and the oldest man. It is doubtful whether these long years do not include the duration of a family or clan.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Methu?selah (man of the dust), son of Enoch, and remarkable as being the oldest of those antediluvian patriarchs whose great ages are recorded (Gen_5:21-22). At the age of 187 years he begat Lamech (the father of Noah); after which he lived 782 years, making altogether 969 years [LONGEVITY].
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Methuselah
(Ieb. Methushe'lach, מְתוּשֵׁלִח, man of the dart; Sept. and N.T. Μαθουσάλα; Josephus, Μαθουσάλας, Ant. 1:3, 3 and 4; Vulg. Mathusala and Mathusale; Auth. Vers. Mathusala, in Luk_3:37), the son of Enoch, and eighth of the Sethite antediluvian patriarchs (Genesis v. 21, 22, 25, 26, 27; 1Ch_1:3). He was born (according to the Hebrews text) BC. 3484. When he had attained the age of 187 years, his son Lamech was born, after which he lived 782 years, and died (BC. 2516) only a few months before the flood, at the extreme age of 969; which, being the greatest term attained by any on record. has caused his name to become a proverb of long life. SEE LONGEVITY.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.