Timeline of the Egyptian Exile

Timeline of the Egyptian Exile

400 Years?

How many years were the Children of Israel enslaved in Egypt? If this were a question asked on the game show Family Fued, the first contestant’s answer would most likely be 400. And the host would say, “Survey says…” Ding! 93 points! Or maybe even more. The years of slavery is almost universally known by Christians as 400 years, and there is Scripture to back it up.

But if the first contestant were Jewish, their answer would be much different, and it would depend on the nuance of the question. If the question were how long were the Chldren of Israel in Egypt, the answer would be 210 years. Whereas, if the question were how long were the Children of Israel enslaved, the answer would be somewhere in the range of 86 to 116 years.

How can the answers between Christians and Jews be so different when both groups are using the same Bible? Ultimately, the answer to this question is the difference between a literal reading of the Bible and a literate reading of the Bible. The Christians have come to their conclusion based on a literal reading of a few verses, while the Jews have reached theirs based on a literate reading of all the verses.

Let’s take a look at the basis for both views.

The Christian Timeline

Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions." - Genesis 15:13-14 (ESV)
The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. - Exodus 12:40-41 (ESV)

These two passages are the basis for the Christian view of the exile in Egypt, and they present a strong case: the passage from Exodus gives the entire time in Egypt as 430 years, and the passage from Genesis explains that 400 of those years were in slavery.

It is because these passages give clear dates that fit together consistently that the Christian view of 400 years of slavery is so widely accepted. With pastors and Sunday School teachers giving this account along with a similar time frame shown on many published Biblical timelines, this appears to have a strong case.

However, the case begins to fall apart very quickly when we begin to consider additional scriptures that tell the story.

The Thirty Year Gap

The thirty year gap (shown above), at first glance, seems to support the idea that time passed between their arrival and when the enslavement began:

Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation…Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph…Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens… - Exodus 1:6,8,11 (ESV)

But does thirty years actually cover the death of Joseph and all his brothers (all that generation)?

So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years. - Genesis 50:22 (ESV)

Joseph was 39 years old when his father, Jacob, and his brothers came to Egypt. Joseph lived another 71 years after their arrival, and only after that could a king arise who did not know him.

Additionally, Joseph was not the last of his brothers (of that generation) to die, so it would be at least 94 years before the enslavement could begin. The last of the twelve brothers to pass away was Levi, who died 23 years after Joseph, at the age of 137 (Exodus 6:16).

Because of this, you will often see timelines showing the enslavement beginning around one hundred or more years after the arrival in Egypt, but still keeping the total time in Egypt as 430 years, adapting the 400 years of affliction into a more vague approximation of the time in Egypt.

While there is a possibility of the 400 years being an approximation, the difficulties only increase from here as we look further.

The Fourth Generation

Let’s revisit the Covenant Between the Parts, including two additional verses to what we read earlier:

Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” - Genesis 15:13-16 (ESV)

God said Abraham’s offspring would return to the land in the fourth generation. The apparent meaning of this is the Children of Israel would leave the land of Canaan and then return in the fourth generation. Is there a scriptural record of four generations between the descent to Egypt and the Exodus? Yes!

These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the years of the life of Levi being 137…The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, the years of the life of Kohath being 133 years…Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father's sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years. 
- Exodus 6:16-20 (ESV)

These are the four generations of the Children of Israel who dwelled in Egypt: Levi, Kohath, Amram and Moses. When Jacob and his family descended to Egypt, two generations (Levi and Kohath) were with him, while the third and fourth (Amram and Moses) were born in Egypt.

They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters. All his offspring he brought with him into Egypt. Now these are the names of the descendants of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons…The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. - Genesis 46:6-8,11 (ESV)

From these verses, we have the four generations of the Children of Israel who lived in Egypt and the years of each person’s life. Moses was eighty at the time of the Exodus (Exodus 7:7). Why is this significant? Because this presents a mathematical impossibility for the Children of Israel to have been in Egypt for 400 years, let alone 430 years.

If we add the years of each one’s life, the maximum number of years we can reach is 350.
Kohath (133) + Amram (137) + Moses (80) = 350

Even to reach this number (350) is an impossibility. It would require Kohath to have been an infant when he came to Egypt (apocryphal sources suggest he was eight), and it would require Amram and Moses to be born in the final year of each of their fathers’ lives, which is farfetched and at odds with apocryphal sources. Even still, it would require the Exodus to be 80 years before the 430 years were completed.

The time of the Children of Israel in Egypt was far less than 430 years. So how long was it?

The Jewish Timeline

According to Rashi, the Jewish understanding is the Children of Israel were in Egypt for 210 years, and the 430 years referenced in Exodus 12:40-41 is referring to the time from when the promise was given to Abraham at the Covenant Between the Parts in Genesis 15 to the time of the Exodus from Egypt.

This timeline is consistent with what the Apostle Paul wrote in his epistle to the Galatians.

In Galatians 3, Paul is speaking about the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant, and in verse six, he refers to Abraham believing God and it being reckoned to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). He continues this topic:

To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law [Torah given at Sinai], which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God [Covenant Between the Parts], so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. - Galatians 3:15-18 (ESV)

The Torah was given only seven weeks after the Exodus, thus Paul’s writing is in alignment with the view that the Exodus was 430 years (Exodus 12) from the Covenant Between the Parts (Genesis 15).

400 Years in a Land Not Their Own

The 400 years spoken of in Genesis 15 were not the number of years of slavery, but 400 years in which Abraham’s offspring would be in a land not their own – this begins with the birth of Isaac and includes time in the land of Canaan and time in Egypt.

How did they come to that conclusion? Part of where the Christian interpretation goes off track is in how Genesis 15:13 is translated. The Hebrew text doesn’t have punctuation, so translators have to translate according to their understanding, and in this case it was off.

Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 
- Genesis 15:13 (ESV)

A more accurate translation would be as follows:

Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs – and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted – four hundred years. 
- Genesis 15:13

The mentioning of servants and affliction was commentary on what the 400 years of being strangers in a land not their own would be like, not that the affliction would be for 400 years.

Time in Canaan and Egypt

The 400 year timeline began with the birth of Isaac, thirty years after the promise given to Abraham. Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob was born (Genesis 25:26) and Jacob was 130 years old when he went down to Egypt (Genesis 47:28). Together, that accounts for 190 years of Abraham’s offspring being in the land of Canaan, leaving 210 years for his offspring to be in the land of Egypt.

When combining all of the scripture passages regarding the Children of Israel and the story of the Exodus, this is the resulting timeline:

One More Difficulty

The Jewish timeline presented here fits all of the Scripture together with a literate understanding, but there is one verse we have yet to address that isn’t able to be taken literally.

The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. - Exodus 12:40-41 (ESV)

Once again, we encounter a passage that can be translated differently based on the Hebrew text. An alternate reading is this:

The habitations of the Children of Israel, which they dwelled in Egypt, was thirty years and four hundred years. It was at the end of thirty years and four hundred years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. - Exodus 12:40-41

The Hebrew text breaks the thirty and the four hundred into separate values rather than combining them. The Hebrew text also allows for the statement about dwelling in Egypt not to have applied to all four hundred and thirty years, but rather for it to have had a prominent place in the four hundred and thirty years.

This passage, and the passage from Genesis 15 are examples of the need to have a literate reading of Scripture above a literal reading of Scripture, especially when working with a translation. A literate reading requires the combination of related texts, and often insight from the Hebrew text, in order to understand the full meaning of an individual passage.

Now you know the answer to the question, How many years were the Children of Israel enslaved in Egypt? And if you ever find yourself being asked this question on Family Fued, be sure to say 400. Get the points.