Biblical Chronology: After the Genealogies Part 1

In Genesis 5 and 11 and in the selected other scriptures we looked at last week, we had what are called Chronogenealogies.  These are genealogies that have chronological information included that allow dates and timespans to be assigned to the people in the genealogies.  Genesis 5 and 11 contain that information in a very succinct form. 

But after Joseph there are genealogies although they contain no chronological information.  Without that, we are going to have to look for other types of details.

First, we will jump forward to the time King Solomon began the building of the temple in Jerusalem.  In 1 Kings 6:1 we have the record of Solomon beginning the construction work in the 480th year after the Exodus, in the second month.  It further states that this was the fourth year of the reign of Solomon.

Backing up, we find that Exodus 12:40-41 tells us that the Exodus was 430 years, to the very day, that Israel entered Egypt.

This looks simple, but it is on this latter point that scholars disagree.  The argument has run for hundreds of years, is sometimes heated, and is somewhat involved.  I will attempt to summarize the arguments on both sides.  There are 8 or 10 different scriptures involved, but for the sake of space, I will refer to those in the supporting arguments.  You can grab your Bible and read along with the arguments as I give them.

The issue hinges around Galatians 3:17.
¹⁷ My point is this: the law, which came four hundred thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.

Here are the arguments made by the first side:

• Paul is saying that the law came 430 years after God made the covenant with Abraham.  This is taken as referring to the first covenant God made with him in Genesis 12.  That was after the death of Abram's father Terah when Abram was 75 and was when God commanded Abram to leave Haran and go to the place He would show him.
• 1 Chronicles 6:1-3 says that Levi had a son named Kohath, whose son was Amram, whose son was Moses.  Exodus 2:1-2 and Exodus 6:16-20 repeat the same information, adding that Amram's wife was a daughter of Levi, and her name was Jochabed.
• Exodus 6:16-20 also tells us that Levi lived 137 years, Kohath 133 years, and Amram 137 years.
• Both the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Alexandrian Septuagint (but not the Vatican Septuagint) express Exodus 12:40 this way: "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, and of their fathers, which they sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt, was 430 years."

I'm going to let you mull that one over for a bit.  I'll come back next post to deal with the arguments on the opposing side, which are more extensive.