Exodus When? (Part 2)

Our previous article presented archaeological evidences for an Exodus late date (ca. 1260 BCE). If we only consider the Torah, there would be little or no disagreement. The place names and other evidences confirmed by archaeological data are overwhelming. Even secular scholars agree: “If there was an Exodus, the late date is when it would have occurred.” So what is the issue? It comes down to dates, numbers, and which verses are read literally. These things can be mind-bending. Here we go.

Jephthah, the Outcast¹

Judges 11 is about Jephthah. He was illegitimate in birth but was adopted into a good family. Later his jealous siblings chased him away, forcing him to team up with robbers. The story doesn’t end here. When war with the Ammonites becomes imminent, his oppressors beg him to return and lead. Why? Jephthah was known to be a valiant warrior.

He first tries diplomacy. Apparently, the Ammonites demand justice for an ancient grievance. They charge that land was stolen from them by the Israelites after they emerged from Egypt. Jephthah counters: “The Israelites took the land from the Amorites, not either the Ammonites or Moabites.” He seems to think that these two groups are interchangeable. Then he inflames the situation by asking: “Won’t you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess?”² Chemosh³ is not the god of the Ammonites, Milcom is.⁴ Oops. It’s no wonder that the Ammonites reject his argument. War followed.

What does this have to do with the Exodus? In the same correspondence with the Ammonites, Jephthah asserts that the Israelites have occupied the contested land for three hundred years. This is an indicator that early Exodus date proponents (ca. 1446 BCE) use as proof. If Jephthah lived at 1100 BCE, this would move Joshua’s time back to 1400 BCE. But when did Jephthah live? We don’t know. Was he exaggerating to make his point? Perhaps.

Using Jephthah as a proof text is circular: First assume when Exodus occurred, date Jephthah by subtracting 300 plus 40 years in the wilderness, and then conclude that Jephthah confirms the assumption. Numbers 11 certainly is an interesting time marker. But Jephthah’s correspondence cannot be used to conclusively date the Exodus.

The Biblical Date of the Exodus⁵

1 Kings 6:1 reads:

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build Yahweh’s house (1 Kings 6:1).

We know when Solomon ruled; his fourth year was 966 BCE. If we add four hundred eighty to this, we come to 1446 BCE. To many, this clearly is the biblical date of the Exodus. Only those who don’t believe the Bible will disagree. Seems conclusive, doesn’t it? But there is more to consider.

Chronology

Luke records a speech by Paul (with relevant parts highlighted below):

Men, Israelites, and those fearing God, listen: the God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and He exalted the people in their sojourning in the land of Egypt, and He brought them out of it with a high arm; and about a period of forty years He endured their conduct in the wilderness, and having destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He divided their land to them by lot. And after these things,about four hundred and fifty years, He gave judges—until Samuel the prophet; and thereafter they asked for a king, and God gave to them Saul, son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years (Acts 13:16–21).

If we add 40 (wilderness) + 450 (judges) + Saul (40) + David (40) + 4 (first four years of Solomon) + 966 (temple dedication), we get 1540 BCE for the biblical date of the Exodus. What is going on? Does the Bible contradict itself? How can there be multiple biblical dates for the Exodus?

There is an explanation. Paul is not trying to provide an exact chronology. Notice the word about appears twice. He is speaking to Jews in a synagogue of Antioch using Jewish traditional biblical history to introduce the audience to Jesus. When the Bible records someone’s speech, it is a mistake to insist that every detail must be infallible. That level of literalism goes too far. But, let’s dig deeper.

From where does Paul get four hundred and fifty years? He simply adds up all of the numbers given in the book of Judges (410) plus the time Eli was Judge (40). This does not allow the possibility for overlapping numbers. At times Israel had more than one judge.

What about Saul ruling for forty years? This is impossible if the Old Testament accounts are accurate.⁶ The ark of the covenant was captured by the Philistines (1 Sam 4:1–11) and then returned to Kirjath-Jearim seven months later (1 Sam 7:1) where it stayed for twenty years (1 Sam 7:2). David moved the ark to Jerusalem seven years into his reign (2 Sam 5:5) after defeating the Jebusites (1 Chr 13:5–14).

The ark was captured before Saul was anointed and returned seven years into David’s rule. All this took place within twenty years. Saul’s reign therefore was at most thirteen years (20 – 7) not forty. Again, we ask: “Was Paul wrong? The answer is no. Paul did not know how long Saul reigned. He used an idiom known throughout the ancient Middle East. The number forty commonly means a long but unspecified period of time. I’ll provide a few examples in the paragraphs that follow.

Moabite Stone (Mesha Stele)⁷

This discovery was made by Frederick Augustus Klein in 1840 CE. It corroborates conflicts between Moab and the northern tribes of Israel⁸ and proves that Omri and Ahab are historical kings. (The figure shown below includes a partial translation.) The last part is interesting. It states that Omri’s reign plus half of Ahab’s totals to forty years. This is incorrect. The total should be twenty-three years. The Bible tells us that Omri ruled twelve years⁹ and half of Ahab’s reign was eleven¹⁰. King Mesha was not being literal with his use of the number forty.

I am Mesha, . . . the king of Moab, from Dibon. My father was king over Moab for thirty years, and I was king after my father.

Omri was the king of Israel, and he oppressed Moab for many days, for Kemoš (Chemosh) was angry with his land. And his son succeeded him, and he said – he too – “I will oppress Moab!” In my days he did so, but I looked down on him and on his house, and Israel has gone to ruin, yes, it has gone to ruin forever!

Omri had taken possession of the whole land of Medeba, and he lived there in his days and half the days of his son, forty years, but Kemoš restored it in my days.

Moses and the Donkey¹¹

Moses died at the age of one hundred twenty (3 × 40).¹² He was in Egypt forty years¹³, among the Midianites for another forty, and then forty more with the children of Israel in the wilderness.¹⁴ Shortly after he fled (at age forty), he met and married Zipporah and started a family. Exodus 4:20 states:

Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God’s rod in his hand.

The poor donkey had to carry a wife and two presumably grown sons. One could also ask: “Why does the Bible state that Moses lived to one hundred twenty. Genesis 6:3 provides the answer.

My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.

One hundred twenty is the ideal lifespan. For a similar reason, the ages of Joseph (first one down to Egypt from Canaan) and Joshua (first one back to Canaan from Egypt) has their lifespans set at one hundred ten, the ideal age of death for Egyptians.¹⁵

Moses on the Mountain

He (Moses) was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water (Exodus 34:28). How did Moses survive? Of course, we could argue that God performed a miracle. I doubt it. The text doesn’t identify Moses’s non-eating as a miracle. A better approach than using the “God can do anything” argument is to consider what the author is trying to convey. In my opinion, it is this: Moses was on the mountain for many days fully consumed by God’s presence.

More Examples

Elijah went forty days without food or water at Mount Horeb.¹⁶ Jesus ate nothing for forty days while being tested by the devil.¹⁷ It rained for forty days and forty nights during the flood.¹⁸ The spies checked out the promised land for forty days.¹⁹ Goliath tormented Israel for forty days.²⁰

We can safely say that forty often symbolizes an inexact period of testing or refinement.²¹ It can designate a transfer from one period to another.²² Or, forty can be a symbol that ties an event to one in the distant past. We don’t need to dogmatically insist that forty must be exactly forty in every case. The authority of scripture does not depend on such a rigid requirement. A good practice is to pause when we see forty or its multiples. Ask the question: “Is there a point to the symbolism that is present?”

One could object to all of this. The number forty sometimes can be both symbolic and literal. Besides, 1 Kgs 6:1 calls for four hundred eighty years, not forty.” True. Note though that 480 = 12 × 40. Could there be a possible reason for the twelve?

Genre

The Bible is a library of texts written by many authors who compose their material using many genres. These include poetry, narrative, story, polemics, history, apocalypse to name a few. Ancient authors do not hesitate to combine different genres within the same work. When it comes to 1 Kgs 6:1, the genre falls under the category temple dedication and construction.²³ Such a dedication includes the following components:

The object being dedicated (e.g., a temple) and its location.
The King or leaders responsible for the construction.
The date of construction.
A time link to some important event in the past (e.g., the Exodus).

There are many examples of these in the ancient Middle East (see picture at the top of this article of the Sippar Dedication Cylinder of Nabonidus). Recently Titus Kennedy (an early Exodus date supporter) analyzed twenty of these. Sixteen of the time links from construction to the past event are very accurate. However, two dedication inscription estimates are faulty. Another of the twenty expresses the time link in terms of generations, not in years. What if the four hundred eighty of 1 Kgs 6:1 is to be interpreted to mean twelve generations of unknown lengths each using the number forty as a placeholder. Could that be possible? Is there proof?

Genealogies

The Bible contains quite a few genealogies that most of us skip over when reading. They are important though. They can help ground scripture with historical events. Consider the genealogy of David, Israel’s famous king.²⁴ It appears in Ruth 4:18–22, 1 Chr 2:1–15, Matt 1:1–6, and Luke 3:31–33. All of these agree. The father to son sequence is:

Judah, Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David.

Note that Boaz was conceived by Rahab²⁵ during the time of Joshua, perhaps forty to fifty years after the Exodus. Obed was conceived by Ruth somewhere during the period of Judges. This means that four hundred eighty years from Exodus to Solomon’s temple requires conception dates for Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, and David to average eighty-eight years old ((480 [1 Kgs 6:1] – 40[time in wilderness])/5). This genealogy presents a legitimate challenge to the four hundred eighty years in1 Kgs 6:1, but doesn’t provide us a reasonable interpretation for the verse. One might also argue that there are missing generations between Obed and Jesse. We need to keep digging.²⁶

Generations of Priests

Perhaps 1 Kgs 6:1 is focusing on generations of priests. We have such a genealogy in 1 Chr 6:1–15. The father to son list is:

Levi, Kohath, Amram, Aaron, Eleazar, Phinehas, Abishua, Bukki, Uzzi, Zerahiah, Meraioth, Amariah, Ahitub, Zadok, Ahimaaz, Azariah, Johanan, Azariah (who served in as high priest when Solomon’s temple was built), Amariah, Ahitub, Zadok, Shallum, Hilkiah, Azariah, Seraiah, Jehozadak (who was taken into captivity when the temple was destroyed).

Phinehas was born in Egypt before the Exodus.²⁷ Azariah was the twelfth generation of those born after the Exodus.²⁸ The scholar Josh Berman writes:

The figure of 480 years between the Exodus and the beginning of work on the Temple may be a way of stating that twelve generations had passed, where forty years stands as a trope for a generation.²⁹

Pushback

We now have a plausible interpretation for 1 Kgs 6:1, but in complex biblical study there is usually pushback. We can’t ignore this if we seek truth. 1 Chronicles 6:31–38 provides another genealogy containing many more generations from Heman (living at David’s time) than the twelve cited above. This is a challenge to those supporting a late Exodus date which is three hundred years before the building of Solomon’s temple. Assuming even fifteen relevant generations, the average conception date then would be twenty (300 / 15). A longer genealogy list fits better with the early Exodus date where the average conception date would then be about thirty-two (480 / 15).

Okay. Good point. Let’s look at this genealogy more closely. 1 Chronicles 6:31–38 presents son to father relationships from Heman who presided over song after the tabernacle came to rest in Jerusalem. This would be seven years after David began to rule there.³⁰ The list follows:

Heman, Joel, Samuel, Elkanah, Jeroham, Eliel, Toah, Zuph, Elkanah, Mahath, Amasi, Elkanah, Joel, Azariah, Zephaniah, Tahath, Assir, Ebiasaph, Korah, Izhar, Kohat

There are some peculiarities. According to 2 Chr 29:12, Mahath son of Amasi and Joel son of Azariah were Kohathites alive during the time of Hezekiah. Why then do they appear here living centuries before the time of David? What are the odds that two pairs of descendants of Kohath serving in the same capacity having identical father/son relationships existed two separate times in history? Perhaps, the insertion is simply a scribal error. Or maybe those four were inserted into 1 Chr 6 for another reason.

What happens if we remove those four names from the above list? Counting from Heman to but not including Assir (born in Egypt³¹) leaves us with twelve names, the same as the genealogy described above. There is another oddity. The same chapter of Chronicles 6 includes two other genealogies of singers serving in the temple with Heman at the time of David. Those lists are shorter (1 Chr 6:39–43 and 1 Chr 6:44–47). I think we can safely say that the list in question is an anomaly.

Conclusion

Those who hold to the reliability of the Old Testament hypothesize two possible dates for the Exodus (ca 1260 or 1466 BCE). It all depends on which Bible verses we read literally. Those preferring the late date emphasize the place names (e.g. Ramses and Pithon) in the book of Exodus. Early date proponents emphasize what they call the plain reading of 1 Kgs 6:1. This article presented details concerning this ongoing debate. You, the reader can decide for yourself which view you find convincing.

There is more to say about numbers and their use in the Bible. Sometimes this gets dizzying, but important. The phrase “The Torah has seventy faces” frequents Jewish circles. Perhaps we can uncover one of those faces in the next article. Stay tuned.

References

Judg 11–12.
Judg 11:24.
Num 21:29; 1 Kgs 11:7; 1 Kgs 11:33; 2 Kgs 23:13; Jer 48:46; Jer 48:13.
1 Kgs 11:5; 11:33; 2 Kgs 23:13.
Lawrence Geraty, “The Biblica Dates for the Exodus, Biblical Historical Context”.
1 Sam 13:1 is a corrupted text where translators cannot agree on the rendering. Some say Saul reigned forty-two years; others say two years. The verse is missing from the Septuagint version.
William Brown, “The Moabite Stone [Mesha Stele]”, World History Encyclopedia, (2019)
2 Kgs 3.
1 Kgs 16:23.
1 Kgs 16:29.
James Hoffmeier, Five View on The Exodus: Historicity: Chronology, and Theological Implications, 54–55.
Deut 34:7.
Exod 7:7; Acts 7:23.
Deut 34:7; Exod 7:7.
John Walton, Victor Matthews, Mark Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament.
1 Kgs 19:8.
Luke 4:2.
Gen 7:4.
Numbers 13:25.
1 Sam 17:16.
Gen 7:4; Exod 16:35; Num 13:25; Judg 3:11; 5:31; 8:28; Judg 13:1; 1 Sam 17:16; 1 Kgs 19:8; Ezek 29:12.
Michael David Coogan, A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in Its Context, Oxford, (2008), 116.
Titus Kennedy, “Temple Dedication and Construction Texts of the Ancient Near East with Elapsed Years: Implications for Long Duration Chronologies”, Discovery Institute (2024).
Christopher Eams, “Can the Book of Ruth’s Genealogy Be Reconciled With an Early Exodus?”, Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology
Matt 1:5.
Josh Berman, Ani Maamin, 76–79.
Exod 6:16–25.
Septuagint verse 1 Kgs 6:1 indicates four-hundred forty, not four hundred eighty. If Azariah is removed from the genealogy, eleven generations agree.
Josh Berman, Ani Maamin, 78.
2 Sam 5:5.
Gen 6:24.