NO WOE ZONE

Exact Dating of the Exodus

The Exodus

By the Numbers

Kenneth Frank Doig

The Exodus didn’t happen. That is the general consensus of archaeologists and Egyptologists. Yes, the Tanakh suggests back to “Rameses” or “480 years,” but there is no evidence in Egypt. The Exodus didn’t happen.

Well, the Exodus happened! The Bible said so. There must be a time and place in Egypt that fits archaeology, Egyptian history, and the words of Moses. And if 2 + 2 = 4, then adding up all those times for kings, servitudes, judges, and Sinai = Exodus. We need to match numbers to events in Egypt. Egyptologists, please pay attention.

Start with the hypothesis Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s household and knew how to read and write his experiences. Hieroglyphs offered hundreds of logographic symbols, but less than thirty characters were extracted in the first alphabet, Proto-Sinaitic. This was used by Semitic-speaking Canaanites, notably inscribed at mines in the Sinai.[1] Recently identified was the name, Moshe.[2] Proto-Sinaitic was used from about the 19^th to 16^th centuries BCE, then reappeared in Lachish, Isreal as Proto-Canaanite and Proto-Hebrew,[3] this modified into the current Hebrew. The Semitic-speaking Canaanites included the Israelites and the Hyksos. Both were gone from Egypt with their alphabet by the end of the 16^th century.

The Israelites had been four centuries in Goshen, the land of Rameses in the eastern Nile Delta.[4] The Canaanite Hyksos occupied the Delta as the 15^th Dynasty with their capital at Avaris, abandoned about 1525 BCE.[5] After that there is no significant archaeological evidence of the Israelites or Hyksos along the Nile and into the Delta. Excavations provide the terminus ante quem of the Exodus to about 1525 BCE. The current Sabbatical Year cycle backdates to exactly Passover of 1525 BCE.[6]

At that time, Pharaoh Ahmose of Thebes was at war with Pharaoh Khamudi of Avaris, and drove the Hyksos back to Sharuhen in Gaza.[7] The contemporary Rhind Mathematical Papyrus noted that Ahmose had captured Tjaru, which cut off travel between Avaris and Canaan. Moses was told to avoid that route.[8] The Israelites left by the open passage into the Sinai desert, not a threat to Ahmose with their children and flocks.

At that time, Thera in the Mediterranean was erupting, as noted in the Ahmose Tempest Stele.[9] This is confirmed about 1525 BCE in the carbon14 dating of Thera ashes in Egypt.[10] This caused darkness as the ninth plague,[11] and between Khamudi’s charioteers and the Israelites.[12] The eruption was seen by the Israelites as a cloud by day and fire by night.[13] The Israelites then camped opposite Baal Zephon near the Mediterranean.[14] The eruption would be significant in a strong all-night east wind[15] blowing the upper Nile to the west and a setdown[16] in the sea of reeds.[17] A tsunami[18] would suck the Pelusiac Nile dry back to the seaport of Avaris for the Israelites, and then crash back on Pharaoh’s charioteers. The Exodus was a significant factor in Ahmose reuniting Egypt as the New Kingdom.

An example of reuniting history and scripture as a new path is the son of Jacob would live in Mizraim (Egypt) for 430 years?[19] Joseph was sold into Egypt and soon imprisoned for 2 years.[20] Then he interpreted the dream of Pharaoh Senusret I of the 12^th Dynasty, forecasting 7 years of plenty until a famine. The famine began in Pharoah’s 25^th year[21] in 1946 BCE.[22] Joseph had entered Egypt 9 years earlier in 1955, and 430 years later his bones[23] left Egypt in the Exodus in 1525 BCE. The scripture and archaeological dates meld.

Some will object to 1525 BCE and offer 1446 BC because the Exodus happened 480 years before the foundation of Solomon’s Temple.[24] At that later date there is no evidence in Egypt of God’s timing with natural or unnatural events. The unexpected inclusion of Exodus timing with laying stones for the new temple had special meaning for Solomon.

What did Solomon think the 480 years implied? He had been making burnt offerings in pagan high places. He had a dream and God made him the wisest man ever with fame and fortune. When he awoke, he returned to Jerusalem and made sacrifices before the Ark of the Covenant.[25] When he began the Temple, he quickly prepared the inner sanctuary and set the Ark there.[26] The Ark of the Covenant contained the 10 Commandments and had been in God’s Tabernacle for 480 years. Then there were the years when it left Shiloh and wandered until his 4^th year. Solomon knew the 480 referred to His Covenant Ark, and God wanted the new Temple for proper sacrifices.

Was the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle for 480 years? Does 2 + 2 = 4?

Solomon understood the 480 years was the time in the Tabernacle. Then the Ark wandered from Shiloh without proper sacrifices until resettled in the new Temple.

Some of the years may shift slightly with the new year in the 1^st month moving to the 7^th month for later Pharisees. Was the year inclusive or non-inclusive? The Sabbatical Years better fit historical Sabbaths moving a year forward. There may be some small adjustments between calendar conversions. Just add up the individual times in scripture and you are always back into the 16^th Century for the Exodus.

Moses challenged Pharaoh Khamudi and the ashes fell. The wind blew and the Israelites withdrew. The charioteers were washed in arrears. The New Kingdom emerged while the Israelites diverged. 2 + 2 = 1525 BCE.