Jovial (8 December 2005)
"The 430 years of Exodus/Shemot 12:40"

The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritan Torah, and the Septuagint read, "the length of time the Israelites lived in Egypt and Canaan was 430 years." in Exodus/Shemot 12:40.  The Masoret text is sort of the odd man out in omitting "and Canaan."  Josephus says the same thing.  He says Israel was enslaved 215 years into the 430 year period on the "selfsame day".  Josephus said Israel spent 215 years free in Canaan, and then in Egypt, and then 230 years in slavery.  

But isn't there another scripture that says they would spent 400 years in slavery?  Yes there is.  But it says 400, not 430.  The "400 years" spoken of in Gen 15:13 was probably not a 400 year contiguous period, but the sum of all periods of slavery Israel underwent to Egypt (215 years), Babylon (70 years), the Phonecians, etc. Because when you add all those periods up, it comes out to right at 400 years , assuming the time spent in slavery was 215 years.  It breaks down to ...  

There's a more detailed breakdown at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jovial/learn/mc/timeline.htm#Y430 , part of an article where I examine a number of timing issues in the Scriptures.  I had fun digging into this a long time ago.  Rounding error makes it impossible to nail this stuff perfectly, but we can get a hi/lo window of time when we take a good hard look at the dates/etc scripture gives us.  

Shalom,

Joe
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