spin

I've already dealt with this: the mishmarot were for a six year period. This allowed for 13 cycles of the priestly clans before returning to the same at the beginning of the year. See 4Q320 for example.


spin

Sarai

Hi Vid,

DCH, Spin, and Sheshbazzar have beautifully covered this for you, and there's really nothing of substance I can add, except to recommend a book I happened onto--

Calendar and Chronology, Jewish and Christian (or via: amazon.co.uk) by Roger T. Beckwith, published by Brill.

It can be a little dense reading sometimes, but it does address the calendars in great detail. Hope this helps!

Sarai

John Kesler

Yes, Jews claim that the Israelites were in Egypt just 210 years, because the face-value reading of Exodus 12:40 is at odds with the Exodus-6 genealogy:

The most time in Egypt that the Exodus-6 genealogy allows is around 350 years (as the Christian at the link you provide agrees), and this is being as generous as possible by assuming that Kohath was only an infant when he entered Egypt (we know from Genesis 46:11 that he had already been born) and that both he and his son Amram, father of Moses, sired children in the last years of their lives. The circa-350-years figure comes from adding the ages of Kohath and Amram when they died to Moses’ age at the exodus (Exodus 7:7 says, “Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.”) We know that Moses was still only 80 when actually led the exodus, since he died at the age of 120 (Deuteronomy 34:7), and the Israelites wandered for 40 years under Moses’ leadership (Ex. 16:35, Nu. 14:26-34, Deut. 8:2).

One problem with the Jewish and Christian assertion that only 210 years were spent in Egypt is that it is at odds with the "prediction" in Genesis 15:

Jews and some Christians argue that the 400 years started with the birth of Isaac, but this is inconsistent with the text, which says that the affliction would take place, "in a land that is not theirs," which would not apply to Canaan since Yahweh had given this land to Abraham's descendants (Genesis 15:18). Notice, too, that the Israelites were to "come back here [Canaan]" (v:16), indicating that the oppression took place elsewhere. Finally, there is no way that Israelites (descendants of Jacob/Israel) could have sojourned in Egypt (per Exodus 12:40) prior to Jacob/Israel's having offspring. There couldn't be "children of Israel" until Jacob/Israel actually had children. It is no more accurate to refer to those before Jacob and their descendants as "children of Israel" than it is to refer to them as "Edomites" or "children of Edom" because Jacob's twin brother Esau was the progenitor of the Edomites (Genesis 36:1 ff).

There is no way that Christians or Jews can resolve the Egyptian-sojourn error because whatever resolution is atempted to harmonize two of the three passages (Exodus 6:16-20; Genesis 15:13-16; Exodus 12:40) becomes inconsistent with the third.

The tradition about Jochebed to which you refer, which says that Jochebed was conceived on the way to Egypt, is seen in the following examples, which, by the way, show that Jews realized full well that no generations were skipped in the Exodus-6 genealogy, contrary to one of the "solutions" offered by some Christian apologists:

Sheshbazzar

The simple question is, when does the year(s), and a count of years begin?
Where is the first hour, of the first day, of the first Month, of the first year?
And on what day of the week?
And what difference could it make?

An oft made mistake when considering the Bible, is confusing the ideas and actions of the religion of Judaism, with the beliefs and acts of the earlier Hebrews.
What became, is NOT what was.

semiopen

The flood in Noah lasted exactly a solar year. This was known to the sages who did a song and dance about it, but probably there was a solar instead of lunar year when this was written.

That being said, the festival of the new moon, I think is old, but most likely they didn't use the lunar cycle to count years until after the Baylonian exile.