How long were the Israelites in Egypt?

There are many question that revolve around the Israelites time in Egypt. One of these deals with how long they were there. The Bible gives conflicting numbers and people argue over a "430-year Long Sojourn" and a "215-year Short Sojourn". In this episode, Dr Carter attempts to add to the discussion by introducing the genealogical data given to us in the Bible. The data beautifully and easily span a 215-year window, but cannot span a 430-year.

Notes and links:

Main article: Carter R, Sanders S, How long were the Israelites in Egypt? Using their own family tree to resolve a debate, Creation.com, 14 September 2021.

You can download the original graphics in .jpg format from that link.


Masoretic vs Septuagint debate:

Cosner L, Carter R, Textual traditions and biblical chronology, Journal of Creation, 29(2):99–105, 2015.
Cosner L, Carter R, Is the Septuagint a superior text for the Genesis genealogies? Creation.com, 25 September 2018.
Cosner L, Carter R, The Masoretic text of Genesis 5 and 11 is still the most reliable, Creation.com, 4 June 2019
Cosner L, Carter R, Iron sharpening iron: the MT-LXX debate as a case study of Christian disagreement, Creation.com, 3 August 2019.
Cosner L, Carter R, Bad arguments for the Masoretic Text, Creation.com, 11 February 2020


Sarfati J, Biblical chronogenealogies, Creation.com.
Bates G, Egyptian chronology and the Bible—framing the issues, Creation.com, 2 September 2014.
The "4,004 BC" date of Archbishop James Ussher, See Sarfati J, Archbishop’s achievement: James Ussher’s great work Annals of the World is now available in English, Creation 26(1):24–27, 2003.

Thumbnail: Color Crescent via Unsplash.com