How long were the Jews in Egypt?
I know the obvious answer would be 400 or 430, but I find that answer lacking and over simplified. Here are the possible answers that I have identified thus far.
Option 1: Moses stated in Exodus 12:40-41 that the children of Israel sojourned for 430 years, seemingly in Egypt.
Option 2: Genesis 15:13, 400 years, which Stephen quotes in Acts 7:6
Option 3: A more complicated one: Genesis 46:11, 1 Chronicles 6:1, 1 Chronicles 23:6-13, and Exodus 6:16-20 allows for a maximum time period of 352 years. How that number is derived is a bit tricky, but here is the explanation: Kohath was the son of Levi, the grandson of Jacob. Kohath was born before Jacob headed to Egypt, Kohath lived to be 133. Say Kohath was born just as Jacob left. Say Kohath fathered Amram in the last days of his life, in fact even with a nine-month pregnancy, say Amram was born 134 years after Jacob came down into the land. Amram lived 137 years. Say in the last days of his life, he father Moses. 134 + 137 + nine months is roughly 272 years after Jacob entered Egypt. Moses was 80 years old when Israel came out of Egypt, 272+80 is an absolute total maximum of time of 352 years from Jacob entered until Moses left. I mean the very upper maximum, could just as easy be as low as 120 years. The 352 is very unlikely since it involves guys having kids on there death bed. I similar time frame can be established by Moses mother, Jochebed, but I will spare you that one, because it’s a similar time span to this one.
Option 4: Galatians 3:16-17, 430 years between the given of the promises to Abraham and the giving of the law to moses. The law was given very shortly after they left Egypt, lets just say almost exactly right after for simplicity’s sake. I will spare spelling it right out, because I don’t want to type that much, but follow the genealogies from Abraham through Jacob, and it’s about 215 years from the promises to Abraham through the death of Jacob in Egypt, so 430 from Gal 3:17 minus 215, is that the sojourn in Egypt was 215 years about. This is not an exact number but I stress, a close approximation.
So I got four numbers, 430, 400, 215-sih, and under 352.
Supplemental information: Say they started with 30 breeding couples (Jacob’s grand kids and their spouses). 600,000 fighting men plus women and children and a mixed multitude went out. Lets say that is 2 million people. How long does it take to get from 30 couples to 2 million. Lets say that each family has 3 kids. 30 multiplied by 3 raised to the power of 10 is 1.77 million. So in ten generations 2 million is obtainable. Say that a generation is 30 years, that’s 300 years. So the population growth model is in the ball park, but would too hard to use to make any sense, because if the average was two kids or four kids instead or length of a generation, it would change quick, but it works out to a good ball park number.
Variables: Do you count Joseph’s time in Egypt. He was in Egypt maybe 30 years or so before the rest of his family, maybe a bit longer. Another lose end would be can you count the time in Canaan. Genesis 15:13, it does not indicate that they sojourn in the same nation. It could include the time they (Abraham, Issac and Jacob) sojourned in Canaan. Exodus 12:40-41 is different though, it seems to say 430 years in Egypt, but not directly.
What’s the answer
My final answer is 210 years. And it was not as important as it what the number is, as much as why are there so many different numbers in the Word.
First let me explain how 210 is derived You have to get very very literal. Let’s start with Genesis 15:13. I have a JPS Tanakh and it reads better to get this, but even in King Jim, if you read very literally, the 400 years will start with Abraham’s seed. So when Issac is born, the 400 year timer starts, and the sojourn in a land not their own. If you think about it, Issac, Jacob, Joseph right through to Moses, never lived in their own land. So it’s 400 from the born of Issac to the exodus.
From here we can get the calculation on how long the Jews were in Egypt. Issac was 60 when he had Jacob. Jacob was 130 when he moved to Egypt. 400 - (60 + 130) = 210. So 210 is the number of years the Hebrew people were in Egypt.
But what about the other Scriptures.
Exodus 12:40, again is defining the time of the sojourning, not a time in Egypt. This reads okay in the King Jim, a tanakh with a Hebrew lexicon helps bring it out, but even with just the KJV, paying attention to comma delimited phrase, it is easy enough to see that the 430 refers to the sojourning. For the record I don’t know Hebrew. Only enough about the grammatical structure and alphabet to use a various tools. I can not read Hebrew at all without a dictionary and in most cases a lexicon. But the 430 years refers to the total time of the sojourning, which this timer started with Abraham moved out of Ur. So the Genesis 15:13 timer starts with Issac’s birth, but this timer, 30 years longer, starts when Ab left Ur. Abraham was 100 when Issac was born, so the new information that is gather here, is that Abraham 70 when he left Ur.
Moses ancestors, Amram, Kohath, Levi. Remember how I established a maximum of 352 from these genealogies. 210 fits under that and also removes the need for guys to make babies on their death beds.
Anyway, low and behold, God’s Word is dead spot on accurate. Not like I didn’t know that, but I guess I know that better.
What about what Paul said about the 430 years between the giving of the promise to Abraham until the law was given. Well, previously I had thought that this would be defined as about 215 years. It’s hard to get an exact number on that, because we don’t know exactly when Ab got the promises, but the 210 matches nicely here.
In digging to find all of this stuff, my greatest discovery was seeing that Stephen had extra information, not found in the Bible, the Spirit of course, but still that’s an interesting discovery for me.
Also, if somebody would have asked me, how long were the Jews in Egypt, I would have said 430 years and I would have been wrong. 210 is the number.