How Many Years Were the Children of Israel In Bondage to Pharaoh?
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This chart is based partly on Galatians 3:16-17.
The YouTube video explains why the Children of Israel could not have been in Egypt for 430 years as the King James Version, all modern Bible versions, and the Jews themselves say.
This video has lots of charts which means it’s better for you to see the video than for me to post a transcription of the entire text. But just to inspire you to want to watch it, let me tell you it gives clear biblical reasons why the King James Version and other translations based on the Jewish Masoretic text of Exodus 12:40 cannot be correct.
As you see from the list below, not only the KJV, but even modern translations say the children of Israel 430 years. All these translations are based on the Masoretic text. Please bare with me for I will prove with Scripture how that cannot be so.
Translations of Exodus 12:40 based on the Masoretic Text
King James Bible
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
New International Version
Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years.
English Standard Version
The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years.
Berean Standard Bible
Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egypt was 430 years.
New American Standard Bible
Now the time that the sons of Israel had lived in Egypt was 430 years.
NASB 1995
Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
American Standard Version
Now the time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
English Revised Version
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, which they sojourned in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
International Standard Version
Now the time that the Israelis lived in Egypt was 430 years.
New American Bible
The time the Israelites had stayed in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
The English translation of Exodus 12:40 from the Septuagint
And the sojourning of the children of Israel, while they sojourned in the land of Egypt and the land of Chanaan, four hundred and thirty years.
Notice the extra words in the Septuagint? This makes sense because the Apostle Paul clearly says the Law given by Moses was 430 years from the time God made His Covenant with Abraham!
Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
In order words, the Law was given to Moses 430 years after God made the promises to Abraham after he entered the land of Canaan. Therefore, the 430 years of Exodus 12:40 must include the time Abraham was Canaan. And that means the length of time the children of Israel was in bondage to Pharaoh was much less than 430 years. The YouTube explains how it may have been only a little over 100 years.
I hope this inspires you to watch the video because it also explains how Shem could not have lived to the time of Abraham as the KJV and all English Bibles indicate. The Jewish rabbis today says that Melchizedek who Abraham met is Shem, and therefore what Hebrews chapter 5 says about Jesus Christ being a priest after the order of Melchizedek is false. But according to the Septuagint, Shem died 500 years before Abraham!
I’m still sticking to the KJV as the best English translation of the Bible. For Christians, the New Testament, the New Covenant holds more importance than the Old Testament, the Old Covenant. The New Testament of the KJV was translated from Textus Receptus which is the best available manuscript of the New Testament.
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