The data for the period from the birth of Abra- ham to the Exodus are given in the notice of the age of Abraham at the birth of Isaac (Gn 21'), and of Isaac at the birth of Jacob (Gn 2.5'-"), and of Jacob at his descent into Egypt (Gn 47'), and
• More exactly, according to the statement of Gn 11*^ that Arpachshad waa born ' two years after the Flood,' the years of Bhem's life before the Flood are 98 years. But the ' two years after the Flood * Is probably a (floss inserted by eome one who, overlooking the round and systematic character of the data of the lives of the patriarchs, desired to make the birth of ArpAch- Khad correspond exactly to the deta/led statemente of the duration of the Hood (On 7« 813. 14).
Age of Abraham on leaving Baran . . Age of Abraham at the birth of Isaac Age of Isaac at the birth of Jacob . . Age of Jacob at the descent into Egypt . Years of the patriarchal sojourn in
Canaan
Years of the patriarchal sojourn in Egypt Years of the sojourn in Egypt according
toLXX
From the birth of Abraham to the Exodoi From the Flood to birth of Abraham From the Creation to the Flood
From the Creation to the Exodus . ,
How nearly these numbers represent the actual duration of the beginnings of the people of Israel, and of their sojourn in E^pt, cannot now be determined. They are evidently from the same original source as the previous tables, and there is no reason to suppose that authentic historical records underlie them.* Some early hist, reminiscences, however, may be preserved in them. The number 400 for the years of the oppression in Egypt appears in Gn 15'*, which belongs to one of the earliest sources of the Hexateuch.
I'he Period of the Sojourn in Eqijpt. — The descent of the children of Israel into tigypt, according to the story of Joseph, took place when a Sem. foreigner might be received at the Egyp. court with favour, and his people readily granted posses- sions in the land. The reign of the Hyksos or Shepherd-kings meets this condition, and the descent of the children of Israel at that time is both an ancient tradition and the view generally accepted by biblical scholars. The period of the Hyksos rule, owing to the obscurity and uncer- tainty of Egyp. chronology, cannot be very detinitely determined. It lasted several centuries, and terminated not later than 1530 B.C.t A famine is recorded as occurring during the reign of Aphophis or Apepi, one of the last of the Hyksos rulers ; and this monarch may have been the Pharaoh of Joseph. He is so mentioned by George Syncellus, a historian of the 9th cent. A.D. ; and the supposition is received with favour by Sayce, Brugsch, Kittel, and others. It is, however, only a supposition.
The Pharaoh of the oppression, under whom the children of Israel built the treasure cities Pithom and Raamses (Ex 1"), was Bamses ii. This fact, long conjectured, has been definitely settled by Naville's identification of Pithom, and discovery that it was built by Ramses II. The Exodus has usually been assigned (by Brugsch, Ehers, Rawlinson, Sayce, and others) to the reign of Menephtah (Merenptah) or Seti 11.. the im- mediate successors of Ramses ll. Since, however, both of these kings were no mean sovereigns, and apparently controlled both Pal. and tli»* Sin. Peninsula, it may be better (with Kittel Maspero, Wiedemann, and others) to assign
• According to the documentary hj-potheais of the composi- tion of the Pent, or Hex. they belong to the priestly docuijunt now generally regarded as the latA-st portion of the Pentat«Hi'-ii.
t This is the date given by Ed. Meyer aa the lates^t pos.siMe, and is thus accepted by Wei. lei and Erman. Other dates given for the close of this period or the beginning of the New Kinpirs are Wiedemann, MM; Brugsch, 1708 ; Mariette, 1703; BawUnsnn 1640: LciKius. IMl.
CHEONOLOGY OF OLD TEST.
CHRONOLOGY OF OLD TEST. 399
the Exodus to the period of roj'al weakness and peneral anarchy following their reigns at the close of the lOlli dynasty (not later, according to Meyer, than 1180 B.C.; according to Kawlinson and otbera, about a cent, earlier). M'Curdy {Hist., Proph., and the Hon.) places the Exodus in the 20th dynasty, in the latter part of the reign of Ramses in., or immediately after his reign. He does not think the E''yp. control in the Sin. Pen- insula or in Pal. to have been suliiciently relaxed at an earlier period for either the Exodus or the conquest of Pal. to have been possible. He gives the dat« about 1200 B.C. The children of Israel, however, during the reign of Ramses III. (1180- 1148) may have been wandering in the desert and taking possession of the country E. of the Jordan. This would allow about 50 years from their dejiar- ture from Egypt to their entrance into W. Pal., corresponding roughly with the biblical 40 years. This much at least seems certain, that Pal. was for many centuries an Egyp. province, and that the conquests under Joshua cannot well have begun until the close of the 19th dynasty, and probably the close of the reign of Ramses III. The view of some writers (F. C. Cook, Conder, Kohler, Sharpe, and others), who have a-ssigned the Exodus to earlier periods, is refuted by Naville's discovery of Pithom, built by Ramses II.; by the Tel el- Amama tablets, which show that Pal. was thoroughly an Egyp. province during the 18th dynasty ; and by the fact of the control exercised by Set! I. and Ramses ll. over Pal. within the 19th dynasty.*