And the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied.

The bible one is interesting because it can’t just be a simple mis-conversion because the age range (80-900) means that some of the fathers would have to be 5 years old.

Could it be that some areas and/or generations used lunar months and another used solar years? 900 lunar months is roughly 73 years, which is not unreasonable for the oldest person ever recorded. Combining records from different sources would eventually mix these two measurements and call them both years.

Another thing I can think of is tribes, households, et cetera being referred to by their founder's name. Language or cultural ambiguity could cause there to be no difference in stating that "an individual lived for 80 years" and "a tribe lived for 900 years", allowing both measurements to be used in the same source.

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