GeoCreationism.com

In  Does my Date for the Flood Hold Water? (Part 2), I attempted to show that with a flood date of 2807 BC, I could make reasonable assumptions about the dates in the Bible, and I could arrive at the independent, secular dates computed for the building of Solomon’s Temple.  However, I made a mathematical error.  I failed to notice that the traditional date for starting the temple was 135 years more recent than computed at http://www.creation-science-prophecy.com/, not less recent. Here is a modification of the timeline with that blind correction, but no analysis:

1. 2807 BC - Flood Begins
2. 2808 BC - Flood Ends
3. 2380 BC - God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen. 11:10-32, 12:1-4)
4. 2185 BC - Joseph moved to Egypt (20 years before the rest Israel, but started 430 years)
5. 1755 BC - Israel taken out of Egypt (430 years later)
6. 1715 BC - Israel taken out of desert (40 years later)
7. 1275 BC - Solomon begins building Temple (480 years after leaving Egypt, 1 Kings 6:1)
8. 997 BC - Solomon begins building Temple (secular dating)
9. 960 BC - Completion of the Temple (secular dating)

So, it would seem that with my correction, I cannot reconcile the beginning of building Solomon’s temple. My two possible dates are 278 years apart!

I can deal with some of this, by going back to the customary beginning of the 430 years… the arrival of Jacob in Egypt.  However, it doesn’t help that much…

1. 2807 BC - Flood Begins
2. 2808 BC - Flood Ends
3. 2380 BC - God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen. 11:10-32, 12:1-4)
4. 2165 BC - Jacob moves to Egypt (started 430 years)
5. 1735 BC - Israel taken out of Egypt (430 years later)
6. 1695 BC - Israel taken out of desert (40 years later)
7. 1255 BC - Solomon begins building Temple (480 years after leaving Egypt, 1 Kings 6:1)
8. 997 BC - Solomon begins building Temple (secular dating)
9. 960 BC - Completion of the Temple (secular dating)

This still leaves me with 258 years unaccounted for.  Let me come back to that.

Jacob died 17 years after moving to Egypt (Gen. 47:28).

I realized something yesterday, after posting.  Joseph was around 37 years old when Israel moved to Egypt.  He then lived another 73 years, dying at 110 years of age(Gen. 50:26).  Now, the fact that Israel was supposed to be in Egypt 430 years, and 400 of them as slaves, it suggests that they should have been slaves for 43 years already when Joseph died… but they were not.  When did they become slaves?  According to Exodus 1…

 6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

 8 Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

 11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

In other words their slavery did not start until after Joseph’s generation died.  How long could this have been?  I think the key lies in Exodus 6…

 16 These were the names of the sons of Levi according to their records: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived 137 years.
 17 The sons of Gershon, by clans, were Libni and Shimei.
 18 The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years.
 19 The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi.
       These were the clans of Levi according to their records.
 20 Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.

Now, the author of http://www.creation-science-prophecy.com sees the straightforward wording that Levi was Kohath’s direct father, and Kohath was Amram’s.  He therefore overlaps their lives to fit a span of 215 years (because he believes the 215 years spent in Canaan were the first of the 430 cited in Exodus 12:41 and Galatians 3:17).  I had attempted to place them back-to-back.  The problem?  Neither approach results in a 400-year slavery that begins some time after Joseph’s death.

Well, the thing to notice here is that while ages are given, they are total life spans of the individual.  They are missing the age of each as their son was born.  I take this to mean that even though the word “son” is used to describe the relationship, it would seem more likely to have meant “significant descendant”.  The result? We don’t know how far apart these lives were.  This is actually good.  It lets us approach this time window from both ends, which will help us close in on an answer.  So, what do we know so far? (Note that I am taking the secular dating for the temple on its face):

1. 2807 BC - Flood Begins
2. 2808 BC - Flood Ends
3. 2380 BC - God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen. 11:10-32, 12:1-4)
4. 2165 BC - Israel (i.e., Jacob) moves to Egypt
5. ??? BC - Israelites enslaved
6. ??? BC - Israel taken out of Egypt
7. 997 BC - Solomon begins building Temple (secular dating, 480 years after leaving Egypt, 1 Kings 6:1)
8. 960 BC - Completion of the Temple (secular dating)

Now, let’s work back from the temple.  If the temple began in 997 BC, then Israel was led out of Egypt 480 years before, in 1,477 BC.  If the Israelites were really slaves for 400 years, then they became slaves in 1877 BC.  Let’s fill in these dates…

1. 2807 BC - Flood Begins
2. 2808 BC - Flood Ends
3. 2380 BC - God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen. 11:10-32, 12:1-4)
4. 2165 BC - Israel (i.e., Jacob) moves to Egypt
5. 1877 BC - Israelites enslaved
6. 1477 BC - Israel taken out of Egypt
7. 997 BC - Solomon begins building Temple (secular dating, 480 years after leaving Egypt, 1 Kings 6:1)
8. 960 BC - Completion of the Temple (secular dating)

Okay, I want you to notice something.  The time between Israel moving to Egypt to the enslaving of the Israelites computes out to window of 2165-1877 = 288 years.  This was my ah-ha! moment. If this is a real period of time, then it very coincidentally equals 73 + 215.  73 is the number of years Joseph lived with Israel in Egypt.  215 years is the time the cited author above says Israel lived in Egypt after arriving from Canaan.  Let us see what this is trying to tell us:

1. 2807 BC - Flood Begins
2. 2808 BC - Flood Ends
3. 2380 BC - God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen. 11:10-32, 12:1-4)
4. 2165 BC - Israel lived in Canaan 215 years
5. 2092 BC - Israel lived under Joseph’s protection and rule for 73 years
6. 1877 BC - Israel lived in peach in Egypt for 215 years
7. 1477 BC - Israel spent 400 years enslaved
8. 997 BC - Solomon started building temple 480 years after leaving Israel
9. 960 BC - Completion of the Temple (secular dating)

Do you see it?  It turns out that the 430 years does in fact break up into two periods of 215 years, one in Canaan and one in Egypt… just like our author above suggests.  However, these periods of 215 years were separated by 73 years, the precise time they lived under Joseph in Egypt.  Next, notice that the 400 years of enslavement do not count toward the 430 years of living in Egypt.  Apparently, those 430 years of living meant living as free men, not as slaves, and not even under the admittedly benevolent thumb of Joseph.  By splitting the 430 years in half like this, and putting it sequence with the 400 years spent as slaves, we arrive at a precise alignment of the secular recording of Solomon’s temple, and the secular dating above of Noah’s flood!

To me this is an incredible validation of science, history, and the Bible, working in perfect harmony.  It doesn’t get better than this!

Now, let me address one last pair of scriptures that some might still find troublesome.  They are the basis for 430 years.  Exodus 12:41 and Galatians 3:17.

Exodus 12:40-41
 40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisions left Egypt.

Galatians 3:17
17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

Basically Exodus 12:40-41 is talking about the actual exodus from Egypt.  Galatians 3:17 is a clear reference to that, saying God’s law was introduced 430 years after God’s covenant with Abraham.  It couldn’t get any clearer, right? And yet, the dates above line so precisely.  What could it mean?

If tells me that even while God was watching over the Israelites, He left their presence upon Israel’s enslavement, and didn’t re-enter until Moses was born.  To God, being outside time (even while over it), these 400 years elapsed instantaneously for Him… from an earthly perspective.  It also means that the 73 years under Joseph did not count either, because they were under his rule, which is why they split the 430 years so evenly.  It means that something was lost in the translation.  Some people might point at this as proof against the Bible.  To me, it’s proof that we just don’t understand everything in it… but these numbers only make sense if the Bible’s numbers are true in some respect.

To me, this is just awesome.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 at 6:33 am and is filed under Bible Commentary, The Science, The Flood, The History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.