Israel s Exodus from Egypt Fred Acquistapace The classic story we have been taught by the clergy is very basic. As the story goes, Jacob and his entire family of 70 left Canaan, the land of milk and honey, because of a famine, and went to Egypt. Jacob s son Joseph was Second in Command over Egypt, only Pharaoh himself had greater power than Joseph. The family of Jacob multiplied profusely, even after the Egyptians made them slaves. In 430 years the 70 had become as many as 2,500,000 or 3,000,000. And then Moses came to Egypt and led the Jews out of slavery and into the wilderness for 40 years on a journey to the land promised to Abraham by God himself. That is briefly what we are told the Hebrew Scriptures teach, but I think we need to read it more carefully and find out what it really says. We have already discussed the promise made to Abraham about Canaan, but there is another part of the promise we need to study. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their s, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years and afterward shall they come out with great substance But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, Genesis 15:12-16 KJV.
Israel s Exodus from Egypt 2 Let s examine this promise carefully, point by point, and see how it played out. First of all we need to find out where they were to be strangers in a land that was not their s. That appears to have meant Egypt and that agrees with the scriptural account. Next they were to serve the people of that country. This is in agreement with the story that says the Jews were made slaves of the Egyptians. The next part says they would be afflicted for four hundred years. I had a problem with this because I didn t remember them being slaves for that long. I had to do some research, and I found something interesting. Genesis 15:13 says they shall afflict them 400 years. Luke has Stephen repeat that verse saying they shall bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years, Acts 7:6. Some quote another verse, Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years, Exodus 12:40. I looked outside of the Bible too, and found that Josephus also referred to a period of 430 years. They left Egypt four hundred and thirty years after our forefather Abraham came into Canaan, but two hundred and fifteen years only after Jacob removed into Egypt, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 2, chapter 15, section 2. So according to Josephus, the Jews spent only 215 years in Egypt. That meant there were 215 years from the time Abraham said he received the promise and Jacob went to Egypt. I needed to do some research and check this out. I did the math and found that Abraham was 75 when he got the promise, Genesis 12:1-4. It was 25 years later, when Abraham was 100 years old, when Isaac was born, Genesis 21:5. Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob was born, Genesis 25:26. Jacob was 130 when he and his family entered Egypt, Genesis 47:1-9. Adding it up from the time Abraham got the promise until Jacob entered Egypt I found: 25+60+130=215 years. Josephus was right.
Israel s Exodus from Egypt 3 Now I had to find out if 215 years in Egypt was correct. The genealogies show that Levi was born when Jacob was 67 years old, and that Kohath was born when Levi was 63 years old. That means Jacob was 130 years old when Kohath was born, and that was the year Jacob entered Egypt. Amram was born when Kohath was 66 years old, and Moses was born when Amram was 69 years old. Moses was 80 when the Jews left Egypt. Adding it up from the time Kohath was born as Jacob entered Egypt until Moses led the Jews out of Egypt I found: 66+69+80=215. Josephus was right again. Now I knew it was 430 years from the time Abraham received the promise until the Exodus began. The 400 years of affliction in Genesis 15:13 was wrong. The next part of the promise was that they shall come out with great substance, Genesis 15:14. This obviously referred to the greatest jewel theft in the history of the world. What do you mean you don t remember that? Read it again. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians, Exodus 12:35-36. But you say the Egyptians lent them the jewels. But you say the Jews only borrowed those jewels, they didn t steal them. When the Jews took the jewels they had no intention of returning them. Let s look at the last part of the last verse we quoted. And they spoiled the Egyptians. According to Strong s Exhaustive Concordance, to spoil meant to snatch away, whether in a good or bad sense, Remember, the Jews never gave back the jewels! The final part of the promise says, But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, Genesis 15:16. Was this part of the promise fulfilled? Did the Jews leave Egypt in the fourth
Israel s Exodus from Egypt 4 generation? We just saw that Amram was one of those in the first generation of Jews born in Egypt. Amram s son Aaron was in the second generation. Aaron s son Eleazar was in the third generation. Eleazar s son Phinehas was in the fourth generation, Exodus 6:16-25. It was in this fourth generation that the Jews left Egypt. That part of the promise was confirmed. But that confirmation raised as many questions as it answered. I now knew that the Jews left Egypt after only 215 years, and in only the fourth generation. What I didn t know was, How could the 70 Jews who went into Egypt become more and mightier than the Egyptians in such a short period of time? My first task was to find out just how many Jews left Egypt on the Exodus since no total figure is given. And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle, Exodus 12:37-38. This figure is amplified later to say that, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men, Exodus 38:26. This was to be my starting point. If there were 603,550 men 20 years old and older, there must have been about 600,000 women twenty years old and older too. To find out how many children were in each family I looked at the genealogies in Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers. I found that the number of sons averaged between two and three. Remember, Abraham and Sarah only had one son, Isaac. Isaac and Rebecca only had two sons, Jacob and Esau, but Esau didn t count. Even though Jacob had twelve sons, he also had four women giving birth to them. If each of the 600,000 couples had two children there would be 2,400,000 people. If each couple had three children there would be
Israel s Exodus from Egypt 5 3,000,000 people. Those are the same figures the ministers tell us were on the Exodus. When I thought about that, it took me back to my previous question. How could the 70 Jews who went into Egypt become 2,500,000 or 3,000,000 in four generations? The twelve sons of Jacob produced about fifty sons of their own, and as I studied their genealogies I found the average number of sons per family was still between two and three. How many people would such a birthrate produce in four generations? If the 50 couples each had two children per family, the first generation would total 100. If the 100 families had two children per family, the second generation would total 200. If the 200 families had two children per family, the third generation would total 400. If the 400 families had two children per family, the fourth generation would total about 800. Of course if each family had three children, the 50 would have become 150, then 450, then 1,350, then about 4,000 in the fourth generation. The average of 2.5 per family gives a figure of about 3,000. Some scholars think there was a misprint or mistranslation of the word thousand. They say the word should be family. So instead of six hundred thousand, it should be six hundred families. With a father, mother, and three children, 600 families would add up to be about 3,000 people. My estimate of the number of people in the Exodus would be 3,000 to 5,000, which would include the Jews and the mixed multitude. In any case that is a far cry from the millions the Hebrew Scriptures appear to teach, and the clergy preach. There is another reason to suspect the figure of millions to be an exaggeration. The story says when the Jews left Egypt, God led the people about and the children went up harnessed out of
Israel s Exodus from Egypt 6 the land of Egypt, Exodus 13:18. According to the note in the margin of the KJV, this word harnessed meant by five in a rank, that is, five abreast. I wondered why they traveled five abreast instead of ten or twenty abreast. That triggered a study about the roads of those days, to see if that information could help answer my question. What I found may surprise you. I learned that there were roads as far back as there were people traveling from one place to another. When there were commercial caravans going between cities or countries, trails became roadways packed down by the travelers as they were used over and over. Certain roads became highways to accommodate trade between Egypt, Canaan, Babylon, etc. The Hebrew Scriptures mention that on the Exodus, the Jews asked permission from Edom to go by the king s high way, but they were turned down, Numbers 20:17. Highways were about 15-18 feet wide so if two caravans met, they could pass safely. One of the best-known highways was the Appian Way built by Rome about 2,000 years ago. It was about 18 feet wide, and parts of it are still in use. With this information in mind, I could see that five people in a rank would form a column of people about 15 to 18 feet wide. Now I had something else to figure out. Assuming a figure of 2,500,000 people walking together, how long a column would that be? With five abreast and three feet between ranks, there would be 1,760 ranks per mile, or 8,800 people per mile. With 2,500,000 people, there would be a procession 284 miles long. With 3,000,000 people the procession would be 341 miles long. Of course this doesn t even take into consideration the hundreds of thousands of sheep, goats, donkeys, camels, and oxen. Remember, they were commanded to keep the Passover so they would need a male kid of the sheep or goats for every ten people. That means they would sacrifice at least 250,000 that day alone, Exodus 12:1-5. With
Israel s Exodus from Egypt 7 all the people and animals assumed, and traveling 14 miles per day, the last ones in the group would leave Egypt three weeks after the first ones left. Using my figure of 5,000 people there would be a column only about a half-mile long. The Hebrew Scriptures say the Jews wandered in the wilderness for forty years, Numbers 33:38, but maybe we should look at this story too. A straight-line trip from Goshen in Egypt, to Jericho in Canaan, is about 300 miles, and could be completed by a group of 5,000 in about two months. With a few stops along the way, a few delays, a few detours, a couple of wars, and even a visit to the mountain of God, I could see the trip taking a full year. In fact I suggest that is the amount of time it took them. I base this on the idea that the last thing they did in Egypt was to celebrate Passover, and one of the first things they did in Canaan was to celebrate Passover. I think these two Passovers were exactly one year apart, Joshua 4:19; 5:10. That makes a lot more sense than forty years wasted in the desert. I could go on and point out more irregularities in this story of the Exodus, but I hope by now you have learned enough to do this yourself. Remember, read the stories very carefully and you will surprise yourself on what you now find that you missed before. Let s summarize what we found in this story of the Exodus that you had heard but may not have understood. The Jews spent neither 400 nor 430 years in Egypt, but only 215 years. There were only four generations of Jews born in Egypt. There were not 2,500,000 or 3,000,000 people in the Exodus, but only about 3,000 to 5,000. The Exodus didn t last 40 years but only one year. From this study we learn again that this story in the Hebrew Bible is a lie, those who quoted it in the New Testament quoted a lie, and the clergy who promote it today are perpetuating that lie.
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