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Genesis 5 describes Methuselah with a lifespan of 969 years in the Hebrew Bible but 720 years in the Samaritan Pentateuch. The Samaritan version shortens the lives of the patriarchs before Noah to fix the timeline, so they die by the year of the flood.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 5:27
Hebrew Bible
26 Methuselah lived 782 years after he became the father of Lamech, and he had other sons and daughters. 27 The entire lifetime of Methuselah was 969 years, and then he died. 28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah, saying, “This one will bring us comfort from our labor and from the painful toil of our hands because of the ground that the Lord has cursed.”
Samaritan Genesis 5:27
Samaritan Penteteuch
Samaritan
26 And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech six hundred fifty and three years, and begat sons and daughters: 27 And all the days of Methuselah were seven hundred and twenty years: and he died. 28 And Lamech lived fifty and three years, and begat a son: 29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
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Notes and References
... The relatively earlier chronology for preflood patriarchs reflected in the Samaritan Pentateuch edition of Genesis 5 connected with the implicit flood-focus of much of the previously discussed Toledot book. As we have seen, that book distinguished between pre- (Genesis 5*) and postflood (Genesis 11:10-26) primeval patriarchs, while orienting its Toledot section about Noah around a dating of the flood (Genesis 9:28-29; compare 7:6). In accordance with this general flood orientation in the Toledot book, the chronology of the last five preflood patriarchs that is reflected in the Samaritan Pentateuch features a contrast between Enoch and Noah (who were spared death in the flood) on the one hand and Jared, Methusaleh, and Lamech (who die in the flood) on the other. ...
Carr, David M.
The Formation of Genesis 1-11: Biblical and Other Precursors
(p. 101) Oxford University Press, 2020
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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