History is not my strength. Yet, studying the Bible requires sieving through messy history. Of course, you can settle for a rough outline and timeline. But time and again, you will feel confused and impatient.
When Paul arrived at Antioch in Pisidia, he spoke to the Jews in the synagogue on Sabbath. He outlined how God chose their fathers, settled them in Egypt to grow great before they left (Acts 13:17). God bore the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years (Acts 13:18), destroyed seven nations and gave their land to the Israelites as an inheritance. The whole process lasted 450 years (Acts 13:19). In Paul's speech, God was the Subject and Israel was the Object. Though men are players in history, they should not be arrogant. There is a God above them all.
Now, which seven nations were driven out by God? This question is easy. Deuteronomy 7 gives the answer.
When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than yourselves (Deuteronomy 7:1).
What about the number 450. How did Paul calculate? Let's proceed slowly. The first clue comes from Genesis.
Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know of a surety that your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years." (Genesis 15:13)
The Israelites would settle in Egypt for 400 years. St. Stephen followed Genesis in his speech before the Sanhedrin.
And God spoke to this effect, that his posterity would be aliens in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and ill-treat them four hundred years(Acts 7:6).
However, 400 may be an approximation, a round number. Other sources give a slightly different answer. For example
The time that the people of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt (Exodus 12:40-41).
Again, this minor difference is enough to remind us that the authorship of the Pentateuch, the so called "5 Books of Moses", is a rather complicated matter. Had Moses been the author of these 5 books, he would have ironed out this difference. Therefore, authorship means the authority behind the writing of these 5 books rather than the person(s) who wrote these books.
Paul also mentioned a related 430 years in his letter.
Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many; but, referring to one, "And to your offspring," which is Christ.
This is what I mean: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void (Galatians 3:16-17).
Obviously, Paul did not mean 430 years after making the promise to Abraham, God gave the Law in Mount Sinai. If we take the Israelites' slavery in Egypt to be 400 years, then the Israelites received the Law at Mount Sinai 30 years after leaving Egypt. That is contrary to the Exodus narrative. If we accept that the Israelites reached Mount Sinai to receive the Law in less than a year after leaving Egypt, getting impatient and made the golden calf, thus receiving the punishment of wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, then the 430 years must refer to their stay in Egypt. Therefore, Paul was following the Exodus tradition.
However, 430 years in Egypt plus 40 years in the wilderness plus several years or decades of conquest of Canaan, then they added up to more than 480 years, instead of 450. Why didn't the Paul in Acts agree with the Paul in Galatians? Why didn't Paul follow the Genesis tradition like Stephen had? For the time being, I know of no satisfactory answer. I can only say that history is really messy!
When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than yourselves (Deuteronomy 7:1).
What about the number 450. How did Paul calculate? Let's proceed slowly. The first clue comes from Genesis.
Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know of a surety that your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years." (Genesis 15:13)
The Israelites would settle in Egypt for 400 years. St. Stephen followed Genesis in his speech before the Sanhedrin.
And God spoke to this effect, that his posterity would be aliens in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and ill-treat them four hundred years(Acts 7:6).
However, 400 may be an approximation, a round number. Other sources give a slightly different answer. For example
The time that the people of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt (Exodus 12:40-41).
Again, this minor difference is enough to remind us that the authorship of the Pentateuch, the so called "5 Books of Moses", is a rather complicated matter. Had Moses been the author of these 5 books, he would have ironed out this difference. Therefore, authorship means the authority behind the writing of these 5 books rather than the person(s) who wrote these books.
Paul also mentioned a related 430 years in his letter.
Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many; but, referring to one, "And to your offspring," which is Christ.
This is what I mean: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void (Galatians 3:16-17).
Obviously, Paul did not mean 430 years after making the promise to Abraham, God gave the Law in Mount Sinai. If we take the Israelites' slavery in Egypt to be 400 years, then the Israelites received the Law at Mount Sinai 30 years after leaving Egypt. That is contrary to the Exodus narrative. If we accept that the Israelites reached Mount Sinai to receive the Law in less than a year after leaving Egypt, getting impatient and made the golden calf, thus receiving the punishment of wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, then the 430 years must refer to their stay in Egypt. Therefore, Paul was following the Exodus tradition.
However, 430 years in Egypt plus 40 years in the wilderness plus several years or decades of conquest of Canaan, then they added up to more than 480 years, instead of 450. Why didn't the Paul in Acts agree with the Paul in Galatians? Why didn't Paul follow the Genesis tradition like Stephen had? For the time being, I know of no satisfactory answer. I can only say that history is really messy!
Dear Lord, let me learn from St. Paul to put God as the Subject of my life. Amen.
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