Bible Trivia Answer (week 1)

How Many Years Was Israel Enslaved by Egypt?

Below is the detailed answer to Friday’s Bible trivia question.

It is important to understand and read questions to know exactly what is being asked. The question was: How many years was Israel enslaved by Egypt. The answer is 144 years. Most people have taken scripture such as Genesis 15:13 to mean that Israel’s entire sojourn was under the rule Egypt, but that simply is not the case.

God said to Abram, “Know for certain that ^(P)your^[q]descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, ^[r]where^(Q)they will be enslaved and oppressed ^(R)four hundred years. (Gen. 15:13, NASB)

This scripture reflects God’s promise and the ultimate prophesy that Abram, who would be renamed Abraham by God, would be the progenitor of an elect people that would serve as a client nation to God. They would be sojourners in a strange land that was not their own for a period of 400 years. The scriptural text reveals that Abraham’s seed (Israel) would become a rich nation and defeat the Amorites. The promise was fulfilled with the exodus from Egypt and the settlement of Canaan under the leadership of Moses and then Joshua (Ex. 7:1-14, 31; Num. 21:21-25; Josh. 12)

The actual time that Abraham’s seed spent in Egypt was only 215 years. There were a number of other countries that made up the land of sojourn (Gen. 12:1-30; 13:1-18; 15:13-14; 20:1-18; 21:22-34; 23:4; 26:3-35; 28:10; 29:1; 31:13-55; 35:6; 37:1; 46:1-7; 47:27; 50:22-26; Ex. 1-12; Heb. 11:8-10). The actual 400 years of Genesis 15:13 and Acts 7:6 date back to the time when Isaac was weaned and confirmed as the seed, and Ishmael and Haggar were cast away from the home (Gen. 21:12; Gal. 4:30). At the time, Isaac was 5 years old.

To make things even more confusing are other scriptures that speak of the sojourn as 430 years (Ex. 12:40; Gal. 3:14-17), and the reckoning of this figure dates back farther to take in the 5 years of Isaac’s life before he was weaned and the 25 years prior to his birth to the date of the actual promise.

Below is a brief informal outline that breaks down the entire 430 years:

1.      From the 75^th year of Abraham’s life to the Birth of Isaac                              25 years

2.      From Isaac’s birth to that of Jacob (Gen. 25:26)                                            60 years

3.      From Jacob’s Birth to his death (Gen. 47:28)                                               147 years

4.      From Jacob’s death to the death of Joseph

(Gen. 37:2; 41:46; 47:28; 50:22)                                                                   54 years

5.      From Joseph’s death to the exodus from Egypt (Ex. 12:40; Gal. 3:14-17)    144 years

Total           430 years           

One of the reasons that The Odyssey Project is conducting these Bible trivia questions is to challenge believers to go deeper in the Word. It is my hope that you will continue to participate in these trivia quests.