20 August 2022 index-topical-hb

By one kind of calculation, we could calculate 720 years from the birth of Abram to the Exodus from Egypt. Abraham is 100 years old when Isaac is born, Isaac is 60 when Jacob is born, and Jacob is 130 when he leads his family into Egypt. Then the Israelites leave Egypt 430 years later.

The critical text that establishes the time in Egypt as 430 years is Exodus 12:40 -- "Now the time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years." This is according to the Masoretic Text.

But the Septuagint reads differently: "And the sojourning of the children of Israel, while they sojourned in the land of Egypt and the land of Chanaan, was four hundred and thirty years." (This is Brenton's translation.)

To make sense of this, we'd need to know what constitutes the beginning point of the "sojourning of the children of Israel". Galatians 3:17 makes this beginning-point the call of Abram at age 75, so on this reading the entire period from Abram's birth to the Exodus is compressed to a mere 505 years, and the time in Egypt is therefore compressed to a mere 215 years.