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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