Biblical Chronology: After the Genealogies Part 2

Now let's look at the other side of the issue.  This side says that the 430 years spent in Egypt begins with Israel's move to Egypt when Jacob (Israel) was 130 and Joseph was 39.  It then ends with the Exodus.

Arguments on this side include:

• The plainest reading of Exodus 12:40-41 (in the Masoretic Text, which is the foundation of all of our English Bibles) is dated this way.
• In the early church days, the scriptures being used were the Septuagint. Paul might simply be referring to what his copy of the scriptures said in Galatians 3:17. The differences between Septuagint and Masoretic texts are primarily in the areas of the chronology.
• Genesis 15:13 and Acts 7:6 have 400 years of oppression (or mistreatment) and enslavement.  We see no evidence for this during the time of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.
• Genesis 15:16 says that the 4th generation of those who are strangers in a different land will come out and return to Canaan.  Genesis 46:6-27 lists 4 generations who moved to Egypt.  How do we count those generations?  From Jacob himself?  From the youngest of those moving to Egypt?
• There were 70 men (not counting wives) who moved to Egypt.  There were more than 603,000 men of fighting age (over 20) who came out in the Exodus.  Population growth of this magnitude would require each generation...Levi, Kohath, and Amram...to have 37 children.  But scripture records much smaller numbers of children in these generations.
• From Numbers 3:14-37 we see the census of the males in the tribe of Levi.  Listing their generations, we see Levi, 3 sons, 8 grandsons, but if Aaron and Moses are truly in the next generation, a phenomenal number of children would have to be born to those 8 grandsons, for the population was 22,000 males!
• Other genealogies list more generations in the same timeframe.  Joshua 17:3 lists 6 generations from Joseph to the time of Joshua.  1 Chronicles 2:3-6 lists 6 generations from Judah to the time of Moses.  1 Chronicles 2:3-20 lists seven generations from Judah to the time of Moses following different individuals. 1 Chronicles 7:20-27 lists 10 generations from Joseph to Joshua.  (Joshua was a descendant of Joseph)
• Joseph lived long enough to see the 2nd generation of Manasseh's sons and the 3rd of Ephraim's.  Those children would be the same generation as Moses and his sons.  Amram's generation would have been the same generation as the youngest to come to Egypt with Jacob.
• There were 3 covenants with Abraham. Genesis 12 when Abraham was 75 and God instructed him to leave his family and home in Harah and travel to another land that is promised to him. Genesis 15 which is sometime just before Abraham is 85 and God promises the land to Abram, promises his descendants will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years, and come back to the land in the fourth generation. And Genesis 17 when Abram is 99 and God changes his name, promises the land again, and institutes the rite of circumcision. Which one of these covenants does Paul refer to? 
• Galatians 3:17 says the time of the confirmation or ratification of the covenant was the start of the 430 years.  The covenant was first given in Genesis 15:13-21 to Abram.  It was reiterated to Abram, and repeated for Isaac and Jacob, the last time being right before Jacob and his descendants entered Egypt in Genesis 46:1-5.  This was when the covenant was confirmed and when the 430 year count begins.

If we are to make a decision on this issue, it will have to be based on the strongest arguments.  To  me it seems that the plain reading of the 430 years spent in Egypt is more readily supported and that is what our timeline will use.  This places the Exodus 430 years after Jacob's 130th year, when all of Israel moved to Egypt at Joseph's request.

Jacob was born in 2168 AM and his 130th year would be 2298 AM. 

The Exodus would be in 2728 AM.

The Temple was begun in 3208 AM.

Solomon's reign began, therefore, in 3204 AM and lasted until 3244 AM, when the kingdom was divided.

At this point we will be able to put some dates BC into our timeline.