08.07. Time from the Exodus to the start of the Temple

In 1Ki 6:1 we are told that in the 480^th year after Israel came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon, he began to build the temple. So here we have another reference point. The fourth year of Solomon’s reign has been quite firmly established to be 967 BC (Steinmann 2011, Pg 37). This puts the Exodus at 1446 BC.

Putting all this together now we have

• The Exodus in 1446 BC

• Jacob (Israel) into Egypt in 1876 BC

• Jacobs birth is 2006 BC

• Isaac’s birth is 2066 BC

• Abraham’s birth is 2166 BC

From there it is a fairly simple matter of charting all of this.

There is one more issue to deal with and that is the textual evidence of the Patriarchal numbers.

There has been an obvious changing of some of the numbers of the pre-flood and post flood patriarchs. A number of the ages when sons were born have been changed. There were also some copying mistakes. By looking at the textual and extra-Biblical evidence, the original numbers can be reconstructed fairly well. The following chart represents the most likely original numbers. With the Masoretic text, we come up with a creation date of about 4174 BC and with the most probable reconstruction, we come up with 5554 BC. This provides us with the outside bounds of the date of creation, i.e. no farther back than 5554 BC and no less than 4174 BC. For a discussion on the textual evidence, please go to https://biblearchaeology.org/abr-projects-main/genesis-5-11-project

The other lifespan we are told about is that of Moses.

• Moses was about 40 years old when he killed the Egyptian (Acts 7:23)

• Moses was 80 years old at the time of the Exodus. (Exo 7:7)

• Moses was 120 years old when he died. (Deu 34:7)

Since the Exodus was in 1446 BC, Moses would have been born in 1526 BC and died in 1406 BC.