Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

1 m?-17 GENESIS
from the entrance of Abraham into Canaan to the descent
of Jacob into Egypt.” “From the entrance of Abraham
into Canaan to the birth of Isaac was twenty-five years
(Gen. 12:4, 17:1, 21); from the birth of Isaac to that of
Jacob was sixty years (Gen. 25:26). Jacob was 130 years
old when he went into Egypt (Gen. 47:9), Thus 2Y
plus 60 plus 130 equals 215 years’ (ibid.) In refutation
of this view, it should be noted that accqrding to the
Hebrew text the Children of Israel were to be afflicted
four hundred years. But there is no evidence that the seed
of Abraham suffered affliction of any unusual kilnd at
the hands of the Canaanites: indeed Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob seem to have been treated with considerable courtesy
by their Canaanite neighbors (chs. 20, 26; esp. ch. 34, the
account of the perfidy of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi,
toward the Hivite princes). In fact none of the state-
ments with reference to the nation oppressing the Israel-
ites (vv. 13, 14) can apply to the Canaanites. Moreover,
the longer period “is most consonant alike with the esti-
mate formed of the entire number of the grown males at
the time of the Exodus (600,000, Exo. 12:37), and with
the details given of particular families in the Book of
Numbers, as especially those of the families of the Levites,
in ch. 3:21-39” (ibid.). It seems obvious that the account
which is given in the Hebrew text is the authentic one: this
is supported by the fact that there are signs that the Sep-
tuagint and Samaritan texts are interpolated, and by the
addiional fact that it is only the length of the sojourn in
Egypt that is in the writer’s mind at this point of his
narrative (ibid.) .
Leupold (EG, 484) : “The whole experience of being
sojourner, being enslaved, and being oppressed shall involve
‘four hundred years.’ To make the whole sojourn one
continuous oppression is completely at variance with the
facts. In fact, computing according to the life of Moses,
we should be nearest the truth if we allot the last century
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