culties, which have already been felt at a very early period of Biblical exegesis, it has been asserted, by almost all Rabbinical interpreters, that the 430 years include the time from the revelation of God to, and His covenant with, Abraham, as related in Genesis xv., and their computation is as follows:-between that revelation (or the departure of Abraham from Chaldea), and the birth of Isaac lies a period of 25 years (compare Gen. xii. 4. and xvii. 1, 21); Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob was born (Gen. xxv. 26); Jacob had attained his 130th year when he immigrated into Egypt (Gen. xlvii. 9); so that these extreme points make a period of 215 years (25 +60 +130); and the sojourn in Egypt also is limited to 215 years (430215). See Rashi on Gen. xv. 13, and Exod. xii. 40. This device was already adopted by the Septuagint version (Codex Vaticanus), which renders Exod. xii. 40. thus: Ἡ δὲ παροίκησις τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, ἣν παρῴκησαν ἐν γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ ἐν γῇ Χαναὰν, ἔτη τετρακόσια τριάκοντα, But the sojourning of the children of Israel, during which they dwelt in Egypt and in the land of Canaan was 430 years." The Samaritan text expresses this sense still more distinctly: "and the sojourn of the children of Israel and of their fathers (D) in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt, was 430 years;" and this reading is literally adopted in the Alexandrian codex of the Septuagint. And so that verse is paraphrased by Targum Jonathan also: "and the days which the children of Israel stayed in Egypt were thirty times seven years (r), that is, 210 years; but 430 years had elapsed from the time, when God spoke to Abraham, on the 15th day of Nisan, between the dissected parts of the animals" (Gen. xv. 10-14).'

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Now, against these alterations of the Samaritan and Septuagint versions, which have, no doubt, the same source,

1 See also Galat. iii. 17; Augustin, Quæst. in Exod. xii. 40; Deyling, Obss. i. p. 69; Ebn Ezra, Rashbam, Nachmanides, Kennicott, Clarke and many others ad locum. Hales (Chron. II. i. 200) calls these insertions absolutely necessary to adjust the chronology of this period." Josephus computes, in one passage (Antiq. II. xv. 9), the 430 years from the emigration of Abraham into Canaan, assigning 215 years to the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, whilst in two other passages (Antiq. II. ix. 1; and Bell. Jud. V. ix. 4) he says distinctly, that the sufferings of the Hebrews in Egypt lasted 400 years. Other variations in Hebrew manuscripts, all with the same end and to a similar effect, have been enumerated by Kennicott; but they are so obviously intentional corruptions of the text, that it is unnecessary to notice them.

we observe:-1. That the context in the twelfth chapter of Exodus, where the history of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt is concluded, and their departure thence related, can logically only admit of a statement concerning their stay in that country, irrespective of their previous sojourning in Canaan. 2. That the oldest and most authentic manuscripts of the Septuagint do not contain the addition of the words "and in the land of Canaan." 3. That it is not only arbitrary, but extremely objectionable, to suppose a corruption of the sacred Hebrew text in two passages on such an important point; and especially, 4. That if we even adopt that interpolation, the difficulties are only changed, but not removed or lessened. For the oppressive measures of the Egyptian king for checking the increase, and annihilating the energies, of the Israelites, must have commenced at least 100 years before the Exodus, because Moses was then 80 years old, and already a considerable time before his birth, the cruel policy of the king had been carried into effect. Now, is it in any way probable, that a family of 69 persons should, in not more than about 100 years, increase to a nation so formidable as to make the powerful king of a great monarchy tremble at the idea of their possible resistance? Not all the aggregate circumstances enumerated in our note on xii. 40 are sufficient to account for such an unparalleled numerical augmentation.

2. The unbiassed and calm critic, will, in this dilemma, not hesitate long in arriving at a determined conclusion; he must necessarily decide in favour of 430 years, as the period of the stay of the Israelites in Egypt, because this number is clearly and unmistakably stated in the sacred text. Thus, not only had the Israelites time to grow into a nation, but the tribes of Canaan, at the time of Jacob still weak, scattered and little numerous, could become powerful, well-organized and populous states. But how are the difficulties attending this statement to be removed? The easiest method to effect this, is to suppose, that in the genealogies of the tribe of Levi, as of all other tribes, not all his progeny is individually enumerated, but those only of his descendants who became conspicuous or important in the succeeding events. From this point of view, several intermediate generations between Kohath and Amram

1 See Rosenm., Schol. I. ii. p. 222.

have been omitted; for a dry enumeration of their mere names, even if they had not fallen into oblivion, could have no interest for the historian or the general reader. We take, therefore, Exod. ii. 1, in accordance with the Septuagint version:-" And there was one of the tribe of Levi, who took one from the daughters of Levi to wife" (Ην δέ τις ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς Λευὶ, ὃς ἔλαβεν ἐκ τῶν θυγατέρων Λευί), or with the Vulgate: (Egressus est post haec vir de domo Levi et accepit uxorem stirpis suae); and the account in vi. 20, that Jochebed was the aunt of Amram (177) is hereby in no way affected, because both the daughter of Levi, and any one of her descendants, might have borne the name of Jochebed; whilst the promise in Gen. xv. 16, "that the fourth generation (7) shall return to Canaan," is to be understood, that the fourth descendants of those who immigrated into Egypt, would return to Palestine. Now Kohath was born to Levi in Canaan already, and nothing prevents us from supposing that he had at his arrival in Egypt already attained the manly age, and that he was considered like his elder brother Gershon, as the head of a family; so that his son may be counted as the first generation of Jacob's descendants who came to Egypt; now, if we take two generations between Kohath and Amram, which are not enumerated, and add thereto that of Moses, we have the four generations mentioned in Gen. xv. 16. But still more obvious is the conjecture to take 17, in that passage in the signification of century, like the Arabic, from 77 (777) to go round, to encircle (a period, Tepíodos), and to translate: "in the fourth century they shall return to Canaan." Similarly explains Osburn: "In the course of the fourth entire renewal of the living representatives of Abraham upon the earth, they shall return. The extreme limit of the expectation of life reaching at this time 120 years (Gen. vi. 3), it follows that the fourth generation actually was represented by Caleb and Joshua, when the Israelites returned to their land of promise." This supposition receives an almost incontrovertible confirmation from the statement in Numb. iii. 28, where the family of Kohath is said to have consisted, already in the time of Moses, of 8,600 souls; so that, if we divide this number between the four sons of Kohath (Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and

1 Monumental History of Egypt, ii. p. 268.

Uzziel), the house of Amram, who had only two sons, would appear to have increased, in one generation, to 2,150 persons, which absurdity it is unnecessary to refute. And thus, it seems evident, that not all the heads of families, in the direct line from Levi to Moses, are mentioned in our text; for Kohath can (considering that passage in Numb.) by no means be the grandfather of Moses, to which fact we add, as another weighty evidence, that from Joseph to Joshua, the contemporary of Moses, ten generations are recorded, whilst from Levi to Moses only three are mentioned (vi. 16-27); and that the genealogy in the first Book of Chronicles (v. 29-36) enumerates fourteen generations from Aaron to Azariah, in the time of Ruth, to Solomon, during a period of 480 years, which gives about 35 years to each generation.1

3. We shall now give a brief account of the principal other computations of this period. The traditional Hebrew chronology of the epoch, from the emigration of Abraham from Chaldea, to the exit from Egypt, has already been stated and commented upon, and we have, in this instance, the strange phenomenon, that the most uncompromising orthodox advocates of the literal acceptation of the sacred text reject here the clear and unequivocal Biblical statement.

Zunz, in the chronological table annexed to his translation of the Bible, takes the interval from the immigration of Jacob into Egypt, to the Exodus, at 255 years (viz., from A. M. 2238 to 2493), whilst he puts down the period from the covenant between God and Abraham (see supra) to the Exodus, at 446 years (viz, from A. M. 2047 to 2493), and the time between Abraham's departure from Mesopotamia to the Exodus, at 470 years, none of which numbers are in accordance either with traditional chronology or with the computation explained above, and based upon the clear scriptural statements.

Jost2 acknowledges the number 430 as the period of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, but explains the difficulty in the genealogical table of Exod. vi. 14 et seq., by the

1 Compare also iv. 18-21. See Perizonius, Origg. Egypt. i. p. 362; Beer, Ancient Chronology and History, i. p.166, et seq.; Rosenm., Schol. I. ii. p. 226, 227; Vater, Pentat. ii. p. 41-44; Winer, Bibl. Dict. ii. p. 113; De Wette, Archæol. § 21; Lengerke, Kenaan, p. 367, et seq. 2 Allgemeine Geschichte des Israelitischen Volkes i. P. 100.

following hypothesis: "The ancient genealogies describe chiefly the descent of families, not of individuals, although they sometimes combine both. Now, the meaning of

that genealogy would be, the family of Levi, as such, lasted 137 years; after the father's death it divided itself into three families, those of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The first branched out into two families, the second into four (after 133 years), and the third into two. From Amram's family, which had, at the time of the Exodus, existed 137 years, sprang Moses and Aaron. . . . These periods summed up (137+133+137) give 407 years." But Jost himself calls this conjecture forced, and it would indeed bring a most perplexing confusion into all Biblical lists, as we should be obliged to guess, in every individual case, whether a name is meant to designate one person, or to represent a family; and thus a subject sufficiently arduous and obscure in itself, would be encumbered with an additional difficulty more embarrassing than all the other intricacies, and not the less dangerous from the circumstance that it would open a new and endless arena to the mania of framing aerial conjectures.

Ewald,1 who also considers 430 as the correct number, and even asserts that it is more and more confirmed at every new investigation, being one of the few safe foundations on which the whole chronology of Hebrew history is based, tries to remove the difficulty by the supposition (p. 514), that the years of the lives of Levi, Kohath and Amram, have been corrupted by tradition, and that they thence do not coincide with those 430 years. But this conjecture would only be efficient if we take their lives still higher than 137, 133 and 137 respectively; and Ewald, to whom these numbers already appear mythically exaggerated, would be the last to approve of that device.

Kitto,2 who scrupulously adderes to the chronological researches of Dr. Hales and his summary corrections of Josephus, sets down the interval between the call of Abraham, and the Exodus, at 446 years (viz. A. M. 3318 to 3764), thus adopting, as nearly as possible the problematical alteration of the Samaritan and Septuagint versions, which we have shown to be erroneous. Into what difficulties this conjecture leads the author we shall soon have a striking instance to notice.

1 Geschichte des Volkes Israel i. p. 505

2 Hist. of Palest. p. 16.