Nothing is known of Noah's early days. He first appears in Scripture when he is 500 years old (Gen 5:32). If we think him an old man, we should meet his grandfather, Methuselah. This patriarch lived 969 years (Gen 5:25-27), longer than any other person in the Bible. In fact, he died in the year of the flood: he was 187 years old when Lamech was born; Lamech was 182 years of age when Noah was born; and Noah was 600 years old when the flood came (Gen 7:11). You can do the math. It may be that Methuselah died in the flood.

How did they live such long lives in those days? It is possible that the word translated "year" meant a different period of time. Perhaps the numbers used were symbolic in nature. But the most likely option is that these men and women actually lived such life spans, well into the time of Abraham (cf. Gen 6:3, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years"). It would seem that God either needed or chose to populate the earth through such long lives.

Noah's name apparently means "rest." It came true for him and his Ark, but not for the rest of humankind.