Rose Publishing - Deluxe Then and Now Bible Maps

The exodus is the story of Gods deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and how he brought them to the promised land. After Josephs death, Egypts pharaohs forgot Joseph and enslaved the Hebrews. One pharaoh even ordered that every newborn Hebrew boy was to be thrown into the Nile River! It was during this time that a Hebrew named Moses was born and saved from his own death. Taken out of the Nile by Pharaohs daughter, Moses grew up as a member of Pharaohs household. Years later, God called Moses to lead the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, far from Pharaohs grip.

First Kings 6:1 states that the exodus happened 480 years before Solomons fourth year (966 bc ). Working backward, this dates the exodus at 1446 bc .

In Judges 11:26, Jephthah (around 1100 bc ) claimed that Israel had been in Canaan for 300 years. Adding 40 years for the wilderness journey, this places the exodus around 1440 bc .

The Amarna Letters/Tablets (around 1400 bc ) are correspondence written between Egyptian officials and representatives in Canaan. These letters speak of a period of chaos in Canaan, which could be Joshuas conquest 40 years after the exodus. The letters also make mention of a group referred to in Akkadian as the hapiru social outcasts/nomads, slaves, or migrant workerspossibly the Israelites at that time.

The Merneptah Stele (around 1220 bc ) is an inscription recounting an Egyptian rulers victories. The stele makes mention of Israel as an established group in Canaan. The low date of 1290 bc does not provide enough time for Israel to be well established by the date of this stele.

The Dream Stele (1401 bc ) indicates that Pharaoh Thutmose IV was not the firstborn legal heir to the throne, hinting at the idea that the firstborn son of Pharaoh Amenhotep II (14531426 bc ) had died.

No references to Israel as a people have been discovered outside the Bible prior to the Merneptah Stele (around 1220 bc ).

The cities that the Bible says the Hebrews built while in Egypt (Pithom and Rameses; Ex. 1:11) were completed by Pharaoh Ramses II (13041237 bc ).

Biblical dating can be understood as symbolic, so the 480 years mentioned in 1 Kings 6:1 is a period of 12 generations (40 years per generation). Biblical dates may also be exaggerated or generalized, such as Jephthahs claim of 300 years (Judg. 11:26).

The time frames for the various judges mentioned in the book of Judges may have overlapped. This would account for a shorter period of time for Joshuas conquest, settlement, and the era of judges, making a low date possible.

As new archaeological discoveries are made, our understanding of this time period continues to grow. While there is not enough evidence to say for certain that the high date of the exodus is correct, both tradition and current research support this position more favorably than the low date.