Age, Old
Age, Old
The reward of filial obedience, according to the fifth commandment; remarkably illustrated in the great permanence of the Chinese empire; wherein regard for parents and ancestors is so great that it has degenerated into superstition. Patriarchal times and patriarchal governments have most maintained respect for the old. The Egyptians followed the primeval law, which Moses embodies in Lev 19:32; “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God.” Their experience made them to be regarded as depositories of knowledge (Job 15:10); they gave their opinion first (Job 32:4). A full age was the reward of piety (Job 5:26; Gen 15:15); premature death was a temporal judgment for sin (1Sa 2:32); (spiritually, and as a taking out from the evil to come, it was sometimes a blessing; as in the case of Abijah, Jeroboam’s son, 1 Kings 14; Isa 57:1).
In the millennium, when there shall be a worldwide theocracy, with Israel for its center, the temporal sanction of exceeding long life (as in patriarchal times) shall be the reward for piety, and shortened years the penalty of any exceptional sin (Isa 65:20; Zec 8:4). The rulers under Moses required age as a qualification; hence they and those of the New Testament church are called elders (presbyters), until the word became a term of office, and not necessarily of age. Disobedience to parents and disrespect to seniors and “dignities” (Jud 1:8; 2Pe 2:10) are foretold characteristics of the last apostate age (2Ti 3:2-4; Rom 1:30).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Age, Old
The strong desire of a protracted life, and the marked respect with which aged persons were treated among the Jews, are very often indicated in the Scriptures. The most striking instance which Job can give of the respect in which he was once held, is that even old men stood up as he passed them in the streets (Job 29:8), the force of which is illustrated by the injunction in the law, ‘Before the hoary head thou shalt stand up, and shalt reverence the aged’ (Lev 19:32). Similar injunctions are repeated in the Apocrypha, so as to show the deportment expected from young men towards their seniors in company. Thus, in describing a feast, the author of Ecclesiasticus (Sir 32:3; Sir 32:7) says, ‘Speak thou that art the elder, for it becometh thee. Speak, young man, if there be need of thee, and yet scarcely, when thou art twice asked.’
Thus the attainment of old age is constantly promised or described as a blessing (Gen 15:15; Job 5:26), and communities as highly favored in which old people abound (Isa 65:20; Zec 8:4), while premature death is the greatest of calamities upon individuals, and to the families to which they belong (1Sa 2:32); the aged are constantly supposed to excel in understanding and judgment (Job 12:20; Job 15:10; Job 32:9; 1Ki 12:6; 1Ki 12:8), and the mercilessness of the Chaldeans is expressed by their having ‘no compassion’ upon the ‘old man, or him who stooped for age’ (2Ch 36:17).
The strong desire to attain old age was necessarily in some degree connected with or resembled the respect paid to aged persons; for people would scarcely desire to be old, were the aged neglected or regarded with mere sufferance.
Attention to age was very general in ancient times; and is still observed in all such conditions of society as those through which the Israelites passed. Among the Egyptians, the young men rose before the aged, and always yielded to them the first place. The youth of Sparta did the same, and were silentor, as the Hebrews would say, laid their hand upon their mouthwhenever their elders spoke. At Athens, and in other Greek states, old men were treated with corresponding respect. In China the deference for the aged, and the honors and distinctions awarded to them, form a capital point in the government, and among the Muslims of Western Asia, whose usages offer so many analogies to those of the Hebrews, the same regard for seniority is strongly shown. Among the Arabs it is very seldom that a youth can be permitted to eat with men. With the Turks, age, even between brothers, is the object of marked deference.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Age, Old
See Old Age
Old Age
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Age, Old
Age, Old. The aged occupied a prominent place in the social and political system of the Jews. In private life, they were looked up to as the depositaries of knowledge, Job 15:10, the young were ordered to rise up in their presence, Lev 19:32, they allowed them to give their opinion first, Job 32:4, they were taught to regard gray hair as a “crown of glory,” Pro 16:31; Pro 20:29.
The attainment of old age was regarded as a special blessing. Job 5:26. In pubic, main qualification of those who acted as the representatives of the people in all matter of difficulty and deliberation. See Elders.