CHRONOLOG Y, (3) From the Call of Abraham to the Exodus. Prom the Call of Abraham to the birth of Isaac (Abraham being then aged 100, Gen. xxi. 5). 25 years Age of Isaac at the birth of Esau and Jacob (Gen. xxv. 26) . . . . . . 60 ,, Age of Jacob when he went down into Egypt (Gen. xlvii. 9) . .... 130 ,, The period of the Patriarchs’ sojourn in Canaan was thus ....... 215 ,, But the period of the Israelites’ sojourn in Egypt, according to Ex. xii. 40, 41, was . . . 430 ,, We thus get— From the Call of Abraham to the Exodus (Heb. text) ..... 215+ 430 = 645 years From the Flood to the Call of Abraham (Heb. text) ........ 365 ,, From the Creation of Man to the Flood (Heb. text) 1656 ,, From the Creation of Man to the Exodus (Heb. text) . ■ . . . . . . . 2666 ,, On these figures the following remarks may be made :— '(i.) In Genesis the chronology of the Priestly Code (“ P ”) is not consistent with the chronology of the other parts of the book (“ JE ”). Three or four illustrations will suffice : (a) The author of Gen. xii. 10-20 evidently pictures Sarai as a comparatively young woman, yet, according to P (xii. 4, xvii. 17) she was 65 years old. (b) In Gen. xxi. 15 it is clearly implied that Ishmael has been carried by his mother, yet according to xvi. 16, xxi. 5, 8, he must have been at least 15 years old. (c) In Gen. xxvii. Isaac is to all appearance on his deathbed (cf. ver. 2), yet according to P (xxv. 26, xxvi. 34, xxxv. 28) he survived for eighty years, dying at the age of 180. Ussher and others, arguing back from the dates in xlvii. 9, xlv. 6, xii. 46, xxxi. 41, infer that Jacob’s flight to Haran took place in his 77th year. This reduces the 80 years to 43 years, though that is scarcely less incredible. It involves, moreover, the incongruity of supposing that thirty-seven years elapsed between Esau’s marrying his Hittite wives (xxvi. 34) and Rebekah’s expressing her apprehensions (xxvii. 46) lest Jacob, then aged seventy-seven, should follow his brother’s example. (d) In Gen. xliv. 20 Benjamin is described as a “ little one ”; in P, almost immediately afterwards (xlvi. 21), he appears as the father of ten sons; for a similar anomaly in xlvi. 12, see the Oxford Hexateuch, i. p. 25 n. (ii.) The ages to which the various patriarchs lived (Abraham, 175; Isaac, 180; Jacob, 147), though not so extravagant as those of the antediluvian patriarchs, or (with one exception) as those of the patriarchs between Noah and Abraham, are much greater than is at all probable in view of the structure and constitution of the human body, (iib) The plain intention of Ex. xii. 40, 41 is to describe the Israelites as having dwelt in Egypt for 430 years, which is also in substantial agreement with the earlier passage, Gen. xv. 13 (“shall sojourn in a land that is not theirs, . . . and they shall afflict them 400 years”). It does not, however, accord with other passages, which assign only four generations from Jacob’s children to Moses (Ex. vi. 16-20 ; Num. xxvi. 5-9 •, cf. Gen. xv. 16), or five to Joshua (Josh. vii. 1); and for this reason, no doubt, the Sam. and LXX. read in Ex. xii. 40, “ The sojourning of the children of Israel in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, was 430 years,” reducing the period of the sojourn in Egypt to half of that stated in the Hebrew text, viz., 215 years. This computation attained currency among the later Jews (Josephus and others; cf. the “400 years” of Gal. iii. 17). The forced and unnatural rendering of Ex. xii. 40 in the A.Y. (contrast R.Y.), which was followed by Ussher, is intended for the purpose of making it possible. (iv.) The interval between Abraham and the Exodus appears to be
BIBLICAL
75
greater than is permitted by the synchronisms with external history. It is difficult (see below) to place the Exodus much earlier than c. 1200 b.c. • If, however, the Amraphel of Gen. xiv. is rightly identified by scholars with the Babylonian king Khammurabi (whose reign is assigned variously by Assyriologists to dates ranging between 23762333 B.c. to 2120-2065 b.c.),1 and if, further, the part ascribed to Abraham in the same chapter is historical, the interval between Abraham’s entry into Canaan and the Exodus cannot be less than c. 900 years, and may very possibly be more, as against the 645 years allowed by the Hebrew text, or the still shorter period of 430 years allowed by Ussher’s computation. From the facts that have been here briefly noted it must be evident how precarious and, in parts, how impossible the Biblical chronology of this period is. (v.) It has been observed as remarkable that 2666, the number of years (in the Hebrew text) from the Creation of Man to the Exodus is, in round numbers, just two-thirds of 4000; and the fact has suggested the inference that the figure was reached by artificial computation. The Date of the Exodus.—Is it possible to determine this, even approximately, upon the basis of external data ? (i.) The correspondence between the Egyptian governors established in different parts of Palestine and the Egyptian kings Amen-hotep III. and IV. of the 18th dynasty, which was discovered in 1887 at Tel el-amarna, makes it evident that Palestine could not yet have been in the occupation of the Israelites. It was still an Egyptian province, and the Babylonian language, in which the correspondence is written, shows that the country must have been for a considerable time past, before it came into the possession of Egypt, under Babylonian influence. One of the kings, now, who corresponds with Amen-hotep IV. is Burnaburiash II., king of Babylon, and Egyptologists and Assyriologists are agreed that the date of these monarchs was c. 1400 B.c. The conquest of Canaan, consequently, could not have taken place till after 1400 B.c. (ii.) It is stated in Ex. i. 11 that the Israelites built in Egypt for the Pharaoh two store-cities, Pithom and Raamses. The excavations of M. Naville have, however, shown that Ramses II. of the 19th dynasty was the builder of Pithom; and though the other city has not at present been certainly identified, its name is sufficient to show that he was its builder likewise. Hence the Pharaoh of the Exodus is commonly supposed to have been Ramses IP’s successor, Merenptah. Egyptian chronology is unfortunately imperfect, but Professor Petrie, who has paid particular attention to the subject, and who assigns the reign of Amen-hotep IV. to 1383-1365 b.c., assigns Ramses II. to 1275-1208 b.c.2 In Merenptah’s fifth year the Delta was invaded by a formidable body of Libyans and other foes;3 and it has been 1 Early Babylonian chronology is itself, in some of its details, difficult and uncertain, the figures given in the two important dynastic lists discovered by Mr Pinches in 1874 and 1880 (see Records of the Past, 2nd ser. vol. i. p. 13 ff.) not harmonizing completely with statements made by later Assyrian and Babylonian kings as to the years which had elapsed since the reigns of certain of their predecessors. The figures in the dynastic lists would lead most naturally to such dates as 2376-2333 B.C. (Sayce, Early Israel, 1899, p. 281), 2342-2288 (R. W. Rogers, Hist, of Babylonia and Assyria, New York, 1900, i. 338 —at least approximately, p. 387 n.), 2287-2232 (Maspero, Struggle of the Nations, 1897, p. 27), c. 2285 (L. W. King, Encycl. Biblica, 1899, i. 445) ; but other scholars argue with much force that there are errors in some of the transmitted figures, and so arrive at the dates 2248-2194 (Lehmann, Zwei Hauptprobleme der Altor. Chronologie, 1898, p. 99 and tab. 3), 2120-2065 (Rost, Untersuchungen zur Altor. Gesch. 1897, p. 23), or 2130-2087 (Hommel, Expository Times, x. 1898, p. 210 /.). On Khammurabi himself, see further Maspero, op. cit. pp. 39-44 ; and on the chronological question Rogers, op. cit.2 pp. 312-348. __ nfh on Petrie, Hist, of Egypt, i. (1895), p. 251 ; ii- (189/), p. 29. 3 See Merenptah’s account of the defeat of these invaders m Maspero, op. cit. pp. 432-437.
