Jovial (16 December 2005)
"The 430 Years: Fixing a few errors"

Let me fix a few errors that were made in a few statements.

First off, it was said at http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/dec2005/johnc1212.htm "Isaac is born in 2048". Since Abraham was born in 1958, this would make Abraham 90 when Isaac was born, when the scriptures clearly say he was 100. Now when I pointed this out, someone responded by saying...

"Ninety years old and nine equals 99 plus one more year for "next year". Abraham was 100 years old and Isaac was still born 2048 years from Adam and exactly 400 years before the beginning of the Exodus. I guess some people have difficulty comprehending King James. (I never edit the Scriptures. They are "copy and paste" from the Blue Letter Bible.)"
(http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/dec2005/johnc1214.htm)

First off, we can do without the insults. Second, the problem is not with comprehending the math. I figured since you made the calculation that Isaac was born in 2048, that YOU misread the scriptures, because Abraham was born in 1958. Whether you did or didn't or whether you were relying on someone else's numbers, the math is still off because Isaac was born in 1958, not 1948. (One can put as much as 19 years of rounding error to those numbers , as I pointed out in http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jovial/learn/mc/timeline.htm#Pats,but it is assumable that the calculation of Isaac born in 1948 was not taking that into account.)

Also, Isaac was born 25 years after Abraham left for Egypt, not 30. So that's exactly 405 years before the exodus, not 400. That's simple math, and we can't go saying 405 equals 400 in order to get it to fit something it does not fit.

It was also said

"It is my personal opinion that it is ridiculous and futile for anyone to set a specific number of years as a "generation." "

I didn't specify a number of years as a "generation". A Generation is the passing of life from one generation to another. If that happened over a 400 year period, the average birth would be when the father is 100 years old. If it happened over a 215 year period, that would have happened when the father was, on average, 54 years. That's not an attempt to specify a number of years as a generation, it is simply simple math that shows that 4 generations cannot stretch over 400 years. If it did, then Isaac's birth was no miracle, but normal. All I was doing was showing how many years each generation would have to average to test whether it is feasible for concluding that 4 generations could stretch over the time period proposed. Common sense shows us it could not.

Now the Scriptures clearly say that Egypt came out of their period of slavery in the 4th generation. Are we going to believe that or not? They clearly say Abraham was not a slave, but free and in the Promised Land 378 years before the Exodus.

What ISN'T CLEAR is what the 400 years applies to. I mentioned at http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/dec2005/jovial1214-2.htm how it is unclear from reading Gen 15 whether the 400 years applies to....

• Interpretation #1:
  • that they will be strangers for an indeterminate time
  • that they will be enslaved for an indeterminate time
  • that they will be mistreated for 400 years
• Interpretation #2:
  • they will be strangers, enslaved, and mistreated, all 3 at the same time, for 400 years.

But let's face it...if we can interpret this statement EITHER way, the nwe haveto interpret it the way that makes sense in light of balancing it with everything else in Scripture.

If we go with interpretation #2, we cannot explain to a Bible Sceptic why Abraham was free and living in the Promised Land 378 years before the Exodus. We cannot explain how 4 generations could stretch over 400 years. If we go with interpretation #1, and apply the 400 years to separate periods of slavery, then we can explain this to a Bible Sceptic.

To go with interpretation #2 and narrow-minded ignore the fact that there are facts that contradict Interpretation #2 still leaves us defenseless to charges that the Bible is wrong. If we are going to defend the integrity of the Scriptures, then we have to take every passage of Scripture that can be interpreted in more than one way and interpret according to the mode that allows us to defend the integrity of the rest of what we read.

Shalom,

Joe
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