Title Author Date

Dating the Israelite Exodus Tuesday, Monday Nov 04, 2004

Greetings All,
Below is a chart showing some interesting and relevant information (with appropriate references given, of course) which places the Israelite Exodus from Egypt in 1536 BCE. The anchor for deriving this date is Pharaoh Shishak's invasion of Judea in 925 BCE, some 41 years after construction on the First Temple was begun. This late 16th century date for the Exodus means that the Pharaoh confronted by Aaron and Moses must have been a Hyksos Pharaoh of the 15th dynasty (possibly Apophis), and not Rameses II as is usually assumed. Perhaps some here would like to research this possibility further.

THE ERA OF THE JUDGES: 1536 - 1051 BCE
NAME OF JUDGE NON-JUDGE SUM OF DATE JUDGE ERA ERA YEARS BCE REFERENCES
(Exodus) - - - 1536 Deut. 12:40-42
Moses 40 0 40 1496 Deut. 8:2; 34:7
Joshua 251 0 65 1471 Jew. Ant. 5.1.29
Anarchy 0 18 83 1453 Jew. Ant. 6.5.4
Cushan-rishathaim 0 8 91 1445 Judg. 3:8
Othniel 40 0 131 1405 Judg. 3:11
Eglon/Moabite 0 18 149 1387 Judg. 3:14
Ehud 80 0 229 1307 Judg. 3:30
Shamgar 0¼ 0 229 1307 Judg. 3:31
Jabin/Canaanite 0 20 249 1287 Judg. 4:3
Deborah/Barak 40 0 289 1247 Judg. 5:31
Midianites 0 7 296 1240 Judg. 6:1
Gideon 40 0 336 1200 Judg. 8:28
Abimelech 3 0 339 1197 Judg. 9:22
Tola 23 0 362 1174 Judg. 10:2
Jair 22 0 384 1152 Judg. 10:3
Ammonites 0 18 402 1134 Judg. 10:8
Jephthah 6 0 408 1128 Judg. 12:7
Izban 7 0 415 1121 Judg. 12:9
Elon 10 0 425 1111 Judg. 12:11
Abdon 8 0 433 1103 Judg. 12:14
Samson (20) (0) 433 1103 Judg. 16:31
Philistines 0 40 473 1063 Judg. 13:1
Samuel 12 0 485 1051 Jew. Ant. 6.13.5
Subtotal 356¼ 129 - - Saul 183 224 525 1011 Acts 13:21
David 40½ 0 565¾ 970 2nd Sam. 5:4, 5
First Temple 3¼ 0 569 967 1st Kings 6:1
Total 418 151 - -

There is a total of 569 years between the Exodus and the fourth year of Solomon's reign when construction on the First Temple was begun. Assuming that Pharaoh Shishak (Shoshenq I) invaded Judea in 926/5 BCE in Rehoboam's 5th year, some 41 years after construction had begun on the First Temple, we have: 926 + 41 + 569 = 1536 BCE as the year of the Israelite Exodus from Egypt.

Ciao,
Monday Tuesday

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Title Author Date

Dating the Israelite Exodus Rubin, Ephraim Dec 05, 2004

Dear Sir/Madam--

Your chronological table has been somewhat garbled by either your or our
mail program, but in essence, if you are counting by the time intervals
specified for each Judge and for "Judge-less" periods, then you will arrive
at over 560 years for the period from the Exodus until the building of the
First Temple (the total figure is in any event somewhat problematic, since
no exact values are given for some periods). If you go by I Kings 6:1,
however, it says that the period in question spanned only 480 years! That
would bring you to c. 1445 BCE for the Exodus -- in other words, to the
reign of Thutmose III, the first Egyptian king who established a really firm
grip on Canaan. A poor time for an Exodus from Egypt into Egyptian-dominated
Canaan, indeed.
But actually, things are not much better with the date c. 1525 BCE based on
the figures for Judges. For while at that time the Egyptians were busy
driving out the Hyksos [was it a Hyksos pharaoh that brought on Egypt the
Ten Plagues and thus irritated the indigenous inhabitants? :-) ], they had
established their grip on Canaan by 1479 BCE (Thutmose III), and how is it
that the Egyptian presence of 300 years is not mentioned in a single word in
the whole Joshua-Judges?
Incidentally, Exodus 1:11 mentions the city of Ra'amses which the Israelites
built in Egypt, and that could be only Pi-Ramesse, the royal capital of
Ramesses II (reigned c. 1279-1213 BCE). And Ramesses II's son, Merneptah
(reigned c. 1213-1203 BCE), is the first to mention the Israelites he
encountered on his campaign in Canaan. But still, the absence of any
reference to the Egyptians in Canaan (where they stayed at least until
Ramesses VI, reigned c. 1143-1136 BCE) from Joshua-Judges is puzzling. The
Israelites could have stayed out of touch with the Egyptians if they eked
out a modest living as a rural community in the central mountains of
Palestine, where the Egyptian presence was probably nonexistent, but not if
they set out on a country-wide conquest campaign.

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