Biblical Archeology - May 2008
http://www.biblearchaeology.org/pos...-New-Look-at-the-Archaeological-Evidence.aspx
See: "Patterns of Evidence" for the accurate date of the Exodus at 1450 BC.
Although it is erroneously stated in Exodus 12: 40; that the Israelites had lived in Egypt for 430 years, in Galatians 3: 17; Paul makes it quite clear that they were in the land of Egypt for only 225 years.
Gal 3: 17; "God made a covenant with Abraham and promised to keep it. The Law (Given by Moses) that was given 430 years later, cannot break that covenant and cancel God"s promise."
And so, the reason why there are no records of the Exodus in the time period in which our historians have searched and which the bible student who believe the erroneous statement that the Israelites were in Egypt for 430 years and must therefore have departed somewhere in the time period of the 1300 B.C, is because the Exodus and the expulsion of the old Hyksos Kings in the 15TH century B.C, are one and the same event.
From the Encarta encyclopedia, "Hyksos (Egyptian for "foreign rulers"), Semitic invaders who conquered Egypt in the early part of the 17th century BC and founded the 15th Dynasty.
In the early part of the 17TH century B.C, Semetic invaders (Called Hyksos) swept into Egypt, most likely from Palestine and Syria. They would control Egypt for roughly two centuries." --- (225 years if we are to believe the Bible.) The establishment of a Hyksos dynasty in northern Egypt marked the beginning of the Second Intermediate period, a time of turmoil and disunity that lasted for more than 225 years.
According to the compilers of Young"s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, they date the exodus at somewhere around the year of 1500 BC about the period when the island of Santorini or Thira blew it"s top, when seismic waves flooded Egyptian croplands, causing a famine and other catastrophic events.
Abraham was 85 when God first made his covenant with him, Isaac was born 15 years after the covenant, when Abraham was 100. Isaac was 60 when his son Jacob was born and Jacob was 130 when he was reunited with his son Joseph in the land of Egypt. 15+60+130=205. So we see that there was a period of 205 years between the covenant and the entry of the family of Israel into Egypt, where they dwelt for 225 years before departing 430 years after God"s covenant was made with Abraham.
From "The World Book Dictionary," (Hyksos) "A succession of six foreign rulers of Egypt"from about 1730 B.C. to about 1570 B.C; Shepherd Kings." --- And from the Encyclopedia Britannica, "Hyksos", invaders who were also called the Shepherd Kings, who in the time of "King Tutimaios" entered Egypt and took possession of it without striking a blow and it is said here that Josephus the historian, identifies them with the Israelites and that their reign ended in 1567B.C.
Joseph the first of the shepherd kings, was given all authority in Egypt, no one could lift a hand or a foot without Joseph"s permission; see genesis 41: 44.
During the 7 years of plenty he taxed the population a percentage of their wheat crops, during the great 7 year drought that followed, he sold that wheat back to them. When they ran out of money, he took their live-stock as payment, when their live-stock was all gone, they were forced to sign over their land as payment for wheat.
Joseph made slaves of the Egyptian population, without striking a blow.
It was 40 years after they left Egypt that they destroyed Jericho, the first of their conquest in the Land of Canaan, which was the legal inheritance of the descendants of Shem, that was allocated to him by Noah.
Kathleen Kenyon, a most respected archaeologist dug at Jericho over the seasons between 1952 to 1958, her results were confirmed in 1995 by radiocarbon tests which dated the destruction of Jericho to 1562 BC (Plus/minus 38 years) with a certainty of 95%.
If, according to Josephus the historian, the exodus of the Shepherd Kings did occur in 1567 BC, and Jericho, according to Kathleen Kenyon was destroyed in 1562 (minus 38 years) this would mean that Jericho, according to Kathleen Kenyon's latest possible date, fell in the year of 1524 BC, close enough to the 40 years after Josephus's date for the Exodus in 1567 that the bible states that Jericho was destroyed by the conquering Israelites in 1527, 40 years after 1567 B.C.
The 1995 radiocarbon tests which dated the destruction to 1562, plus/minus 38 years with a certainty of 95%, still stands as the correct date for the destruction of Jericho.