October 11, 2007

• How Long Was Israel In Egypt?  Part 2

  So now let’s take a look at Israel’s “sojourning period” in more detail… comprising of the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

  The key time determinants for this period is:

  1.    25 years from Abram’s call to the birth of Isaac. (Genesis 12:4, 21:5)   (100 – 75 = 25)
  2.    Jacob was born when Isaac was 60 years old.  (Genesis 25:26)
  3.    Jacob was 130 years old when he entered Egypt.  (Genesis 47:9)
  4.    Jacob lived in Egypt 17 years and he died at 147.  (Genesis 47:28)

  The sum of the time between Abram’s call to Jacob entering Egypt is:  25 + 60 + 130 = 215 years.

  Now if the total time from Abram’s call and the Exodus (and subsequent
  giving of the law) is 430 years, this time constitutes exactly half of
  the total time. This would mean that Israel was in Egypt 215 years.

  This seems more sensible than trying to say Israel was in Egypt the
  entire 430 years since it would require Kohath and Amram to have
  children when they were approximately 175 years old at a time when that
  just wasn’t happening according to the biblical record. We would come
  to that conclusion knowing that we would subtract Moses’s age at the
  time of the Exodus from 430 years (i.e. 430-80 =350) and divide that
  number by 2 to get the average ages of Kohath and Amram to have
  children which seems implausible.

  Now let’s go back to the “four generations” to try to determine what went on during that time.
  1.    Joseph lived 110 years. (Genesis 50:26) Now he had entered
  Pharaoh’s service at 30 years old. (Genesis
         41:46)  This means he lived
  80 years beyond this. Also, Joseph works storing up food for 7 years to
  prepare
         for the 7 years of upcoming famine. Now Joseph tells his
  brothers, that there are 5 years left in the famine
        (Genesis 45:6) when
  he tells them to bring his father, Jacob, and everyone to Egypt. This
  means that Joseph
        was 39 when his family moved there. This means that
  the length of his life in Egypt after his family arrived is 71
        years.
  2.    In Exodus 1, we find that the oppression happens after Joseph
  dies and before this the sons of Israel were
         fruitful and increased
  greatly. So the first 71 years are relatively good. Given that any new
  Pharaoh right after
         the one which had the dream of the famine, would
  have most likely “knew” of Joseph, it is possible that
         another Pharaoh
  lived in between the first and the one that begins the oppression of
  Israel but we do not hear
         about this so this is this is only a
  “possibility”.
  3.    A new king of Egypt arises who “did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8)
  and begins the oppression. This is the
         Pharaoh who ruled at Moses’
  birth. This is a couple of generations after their entry into Egypt. He
  will die
         before Moses’ returns to Egypt for the Exodus.  (Exodus 4:19)
  This means that Moses will be facing a new
         Pharaoh, the one of the
  Exodus.
  4.    Given that the total time in Egypt is 215 years and Moses was 80
  years old at the Exodus, leaving 135 years
         of Israel being in Egypt
  before his birth. There was 71 years of relative peace and prosperity
  for Israel
         (Exodus 1:1-7) at the beginning, leaving about 64 years for
  oppression before Moses’ birth, yielding a total of
         144 years of harsh
  bondage and oppression enough to cover Amram’s life to Moses’ birth and
  Moses birth
         to 80 years old. If we assumed that Amram was born
  immediately before the oppression started. Then he
         would have been
  about 64 years old when he had Moses and 61 when he had Aaron, much
  more reasonable
         ages for fathering children during that time period.
  5.    Now Kohath, Amram’s father, was not born in Egypt but was a
  “little one”, a younger child (Heb. “tap”) was
         probably under 5
  years old (estimate). (Genesis 45:5-7)
  6.    So the tally for ages is as follows
         a.    215 years for the period of time in Israel
         b.    Moses was 80 years old at the Exodus. (Exodus 7:7)
         c.    Amram could have been 64 years old or older when Moses’ was born.
         d.    Kohath could have lived 71 years in Egypt before having Amram.
  This means that 71 years plus his
                age at their entry into Egypt, say 2
  or 3 years old would still have been reasonable for an age (73-74) to
  
                father children at this point in history.
        
  e.    71 + 64 + 80 = 215 years
        
  f.    Kohath’s and Amram’s ages are reasonable estimates. If we were to
  subtract a year or two from
               Kohath’s age and added the same to Amram’s
  life, the results would be the same.

  So it appears that the Septuagint’s translation was actually correct
  including the time period of sojourning in both Canaan and Egypt and
  appears to be a clarification of what was given in the Hebrew. This
  shows that the Hebrew scholars were aware of this when translating the
  Hebrew for the Septuagint and in the Samaritan Pentateuch. It was also
  the common understanding of those who lived in the New Testament period
  as testified by Stephen and the Apostle Paul in the cited verses.

  215 years of sojourning from Abraham to Jacob’s entry into Egypt
  215 years of Israel’s residence in Egypt, a good portion of which (64 +
  80 = 144 years, est.) was while they were under oppression.

  We need to remember that these years are estimates and could be off a
  couple of years here or there. However, the “books” have to balance in
  the end since we know that:

  
  And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all
  the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.  Exodus 12:41
  (NASB)

  The Lord went as far as to let us know that… however we calculate it with our estimates… the entire duration was exactly that amount of time down to the very last day.  I can almost feel the awe coming from Moses as he wrote those words down.

  How about the difference between 400 years and 430 years?

  In the most simplest case, this could be an issue of “rounding” much as
  anyone might do to speak about a number in the general vicinity of the
  one that is the precise one. However, there is one explanation that
  might make some sense without trying to read quite a few opinions on
  the matter instead of determining this by the scriptures alone (or to a
  large degree by that method). 

  There is a difference of 30 years between the two numbers. If one
  considers that 25 of those years could be Abraham waiting for Isaac’s
  birth and another 5 years for him to be weaned. Some sources say
  children were weaned at 5 years old.   Why choose the “weaning”? It makes more sense when one
  would consider that Ishmael’s mocking of Isaac at his weaning party in Genesis 21:8-9 (at
  a total of 30 years) would mark the start of the persecution of
  Abraham’s “descendants” (key word) (Genesis 15:13).  So the time period
  from Isaac’s weaning (Ishmael’s mocking) to the Exodus would be right
  around 400 years. There was some thought about an “immediate” trip to
  Mount Moriah yet it would be difficult for a 5 year old to haul any
  significant amount of firewood for the offering. Isaac is called a
  “lad” in the NASB (Heb. “na’ar” a masculine noun meaning young person,
  boy). It would seem that he is younger than the “young men” but it is
  difficult to determine exactly how old he was at the Mount Moriah
  event. If there is a better explanation taken directly from scriptures,
  it would be interesting to hear it.

  In conclusion, it seems that 215 years in Egypt and 430 years from the promise to the Exodus and the giving of the Law is the real answer based on all the evidence that I’ve found to this point. I did not share all of the information that I’ve found on this investigation since sharing all of it would have made the posts on this subject entirely too long. In the end, I’ve found God’s word to be as dependable as it ever was even in the face of ambiguity. Mr.Vee

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