Feb. 4] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCH.-EOLOGY. [1890.Biblicalyearfor the Exodus, 1563,if the 430 yearsare reckoned
from1993,fallscertainlywithinthe reign of the XVIIIth Dynasty,
and so does the year 1558, in which, according to Orosius, the
ExodusunderMosestookplace.* Thedifferenceof only five years
between 1558 and 1563 mayhavebeencausedby the still prevailing
suppositionthatthe pursuing Pharaohwas drowned in the Red Sea,
what the Biblical records do not assert. The Spanish presbyter
Orosius,whospentmanyyearsin Africa, and was the intimate friend
of the learned Jerome,can haveknown thatthe death of Ameno-
phisI, whom he must haveregardedas the Pharaoh of the Exodus,
tookplacein B.C. 1558, as it will becomequitecertainfurtheron.
Forif it can nowbe proved thatAhmes ascended the throne in
1598,AmenophisI reigned from1571-1558. Orosiuscouldlikewise
know,thatin the last or thirteenth regnalyearthis Pharaoh finally
expelledthe strangers, accordingto Manetho.t
In order to be able to fix the year whenthe Hyksos dominion
cameto an end, it is necessary to assign a calendrian yearto the
expulsionof the 'Asiatic barbarians'fromAvarisin 'the yearfive'
of Ahmes. Thiswas hitherto impossible, because not a single
politicaleventin early Egyptianhistorycouldbe connected with
a calendrian year. It is acknowledged as a fact thatthe twentieth
regnal year of Shishak —Sheshenk, in which, as implied by the
Silsilisinscription, his northern campaign tookplace,thereforealso
the capture of Jerusalem, wasidenticalwiththe fifth regnal year
of Rehoboam, sinceaccording to the Bible Shishak's captureof
Jerusalemtookplace in that year. But for the time of Rehoboam's
reign no positive calendriandatescouldbe given. On the assump
tion that the Biblical year for the Flood is B.C. 2360, we now
proceedto prove that the year B.C. 928 wasthe fifth regnal year
of Rehoboam andthe twentieth of Shishak.
Instead of the 480 years assignedin the first Book of Kings
to the period fromthe Exodus underMosesto Solomon's founda-
- Orosius, contraGentes,ii, 10. ' In the year 805 before the foundation of the
city.. when Egyptianssufferedfromscurvyandleprosy,theyexpelled,on the
adviceof an oracle, Mosesandthosewhowerediseasedbeyondthe borders of
Egypt. Appointedas leader of the exiled, he secretly carriedawaywithhim the
holythingi. Thenthe Egyptians triedto recover (them)by force of arms, but
wereforcedby stormsto return.'
t Josephus contraApionem,I, 26-35.
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