Introduction
When was Joseph in Egypt? Can we identify the Pharaoh of Joseph? Is there any archaeological evidence for Joseph? Joseph is critical to the biblical timeline because the genealogy provided in Genesis ends with Jacob. Identifying when the events in the Joseph story took place, and therefore when Jacob arrived in Egypt is critical to our ability to extend the timeline back before the exodus. As with the exodus, no conclusive archaeological evidence of Joseph has been found. But could this be because we have been looking in the wrong place, or rather the wrong time?
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph
There are two main theories as to where to date Joseph, and they are known as the short sojourn and the long sojourn. To begin to understand what those terms mean we need to start with some scripture. Exodus 12:40-41 states:
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40Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years – on that very same day[1]- it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
This follows the Masoretic text, which is the version of the ancient Hebrew used as the basis for most Christian bibles. However, the Septuagint, a translation from Hebrew to Greek from the third century BC states:
Now the residence of the sons of Israel during which they dwelt in the land, Egypt, and in the land of Chanaan, was four hundred and thirty years.(Exodus 12:40, Septuagint – NETS)
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Josephus, writing in the first century AD, supports the Septuagint version of events in his history of the Jewish people:
They left Egypt in the month Xanthicus, on the fifteenth day of the lunar month; four hundred and thirty years after our forefather Abraham came into Canaan, but two hundred and fifteen years only after Jacob removed into Egypt (Josephus, Ant II 15:2)
The sojourn in Egypt was in fulfillment of the prophecy given to Abraham when God made His covenant with him:
13Then He said to Abram:“Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come outwith great possessions. 15Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.(Genesis 15:13-16)
In the New Testament we find a couple of additional references to the length of time the children of Israel spent in Egypt.
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But God spoke in this way: that his [Abraham’s] descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years. (Acts 7:6 – Stephen’s speech)
And this I say that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. (Galatians 3:17)
This seems clear enough, just count back four hundred and thirty years from the exodus and we are there. The issue though is what is the starting point? The final verse from Galatians, the Septuagint, and Josephus have been used to date the beginning of the four hundred or four hundred and thirty years from the date of Abram’s arrival in Canaan at the age of seventy-five, from Abraham’s brief sojourn in Egypt, from the renewal of the covenant when Abraham was 99 years old, or from the birth of Isaac a year later. This is known as the short sojourn: the time that the children of Israel were actually in Egypt is reduced by the time from the covenant or the birth of Isaac until the family of Jacob physically arrived in Egypt. The long sojourn theory takes the literal interpretation of Exodus 12:40-41 and starts counting from Jacob’s arrival. Thus, in order to understand the two main theories on where to date Joseph, we have to go back a little further, to Abraham and Isaac, and see what this means in terms of our timeline.
Based on what we find in Genesis, we can derive the relative dates shown in Figure 1. Abraham arrived in Canaan at the age of seventy-five (Genesis 12:4). Isaac was born twenty-five years later when Abraham was one hundred years old. Isaac was sixty years old when Jacob was born (Genesis 25:26). Isaac then lived an additional one hundred twenty years and died at the age of one hundred eighty (Genesis 35:28).
Jacob lived for seventeen years after arriving in Egypt and lived a total of one hundred forty-seven years (Genesis 47:28). Therefore, Jacob arrived in Egypt at the age of one hundred thirty, having buried his father Isaac ten years earlier.
Source: https://t-tees.com
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